Rumble Fish is a film that took me by surprise. Late one night I was flipping through the channels and caught a glimpse of a scene from the film that made me immediately go online and but the film.
What caught my eye was the ultra stylized way that the film was done, the scene that got me hooked involved a highly choreographed Rumble which ended with a motorcycle crashing into a man before doing multiple flips.
Similar to The Outsiders, Ruble Fish is based of a book by S.E. Hinton, and was directed by Francis Ford Coppola who did this film immediately after The Outsiders, taking some of the cast with him. That is, however, where the similarities stop as Rumble Fish is a much darker and stylized film that The Outsiders.
The film follows Rusty James (Matt Dillon), a small-town thug whose stuck in a life of repetition. He idealizes his older brother, a bazaar character only known as The Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke) who he wants desperately to come back. However, when Motorcycle returns he has changed and wants his brother to leave town and the thug lifestyle and make something of himself.
The fact that the film is in black and white lends itself to helping the audience see the world through the eyes of the colorblind Motorcycle boy. There are some scenes with color highlights, which are the best use of color I think I've ever seen.
The art direction of the film was carefully done so that a clock is seen in every scene, and damn near every shot, and the visuals of the film are aided by a sleepy and haunting jazz track.
Rumble Fish is a film that appears slick on the surface but deep down has some real depth and heart.
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