The Outsiders: Listen for Jimmy!

I guess it’s getting pretty serious between MBS and I, because we went ahead and did another episode of the Family Pictures Podcast. In this episode we discuss Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of S.E. Hinton‘s classic YA novel The Outsiders (1983). If you’re roughly my age and grew up in the US chances are you read this novel in school, or found a copy cause you heard it was banned for violence, drinking, smoking, and dysfunctional families. It was definitely a relatable novel for 14 year old me whose parents were going through a divorce. What’s more, I lived in a bit of a free-for-all household similar to the one Ponyboy Curtis experiences in the book/film—the only difference (albeit a very big one) is my parents weren’t killed tragically in a horrific train crash (jeez, that shot!).

Closest reproduction of the train crash I could find from the Time-Travel Tulsa Facebook page, The Outsiders is a veritable cottage industry for that city 🙂

I talk about this a bit in the podcast, but one of the things I deeply related to was how brutal older boys could be to the younger kids. In fact, I tell a story from my childhood of playing war in my backyard, which consisted of a group of us being locked in a re-purposed chain link dog kennel by my older brother and his friend. They assumed the roles of Viet Cong guards who would whip the POWs with cut off branches from sticker bushes. Yeah, the idea of playing where I grew up was very high stakes, and quite informed by the politics of the moment.

Shot from Deer Hunter in submerged Viet Cong Prison, not that far from free play in Baldwin, Long Island

So when Dally bullies those young kids in the empty lot or Jonny gets brutally beaten by the Socs or rumbles with blades and chains are nonchalantly discussed in the film I can’t help but think, despite everything, we had it easier than those kids in Tulsa, Oklahoma back in 1965.

Image of S. E. Hinton's cameo in The Outsiders

S. E. Hinton’s cameo as a nurse to Dally in The Outsiders

Yet while I focus on the violence in The Outsiders, MBS notes how it’s overshadowed by a deeper sense of intimacy amongst these young misfits from the North Side that choose their own family. It’s a rich film that provides so many lines of discussions its hard to keep up with all of them, every time MBS said one thing I wanted to follow a whole new train of thought, the podcast equivalent to “Squirrel!” But it’s pretty impressive that this book/movie can continue to deliver as well as it did back in the early 80s. This book was effectively my introduction to the world of literary terms, themes, and general analysis. In fact, returning to this kind of discussion around a theme is what I love about doing this podcast with MBS, I enjoy exercising some of those muscles with a smart, cool, funny partner. I’m not sure our intimacy will ever get to the level of Sodapop and Ponyboy, but it’s pretty freaking cool to talk movies with a friend. Next up is another family gem from 1983, this time Michael Keaton’s break-out role as Mr. Mom. “I wasn’t in aisle 9, Irv!”

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4 Responses to The Outsiders: Listen for Jimmy!

  1. Reverend says:

    Testing out if multi-region comment syncing is working

  2. Maren says:

    Will this comment sync as well?!

    In any case, I am excited to have a second episode of the show to listen to/watch. Long live the podcast 🙂

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