**repost from june 15, 2018**
Alright folks....VHS of the week has been a little slow on the go because: life. But I thought I would give a shout out to this extremely underrated flick...one that I think easily makes the Top 5 list of Francis Ford Coppola’s movies (and that dude made some serious flix, you know what I’m sayin’?). Rumble Fish was shot at the same time as The Outsiders....and I can talk Outsiders all day...so let's? I think our entire 8th grade class had to read The Outsiders and it was bigger than boners. It pretty much defined the entire year: that, Wayne’s World, and the Kris Kross album (uh huh....uh huh). One weekend a bunch of dudes slept over my house and we made up a chart where we considered whether each and every one of our fellow classmates was either a Soc or a Greaser. There was even an elaborate yet ultimately ill-fated attempt to stage an actual rumble. Here’s the transcript of a phone call I had with a friend of mine (we’ll call him Slash) at the time....reprinted verbatim:
Me: Hello?
Slash: It’s Slash...we need to know how many dudes you can take at the rumble?
Me: Huh??
Slash: Axl is taking 4 dudes....Izzy is taking 6....I’m taking 10 dudes.
Me: I don’t know, man...I don’t think I can take any dudes. Maybe one?
Slash: No way man...you gotta take at least two dudes to be in the rumble!
Me: How are we even getting this rumble?
Slash: Popcorn’s mom is giving us a ride
Me: To a rumble?? Ok...put me down for two dudes.
And we did it for JOHNNY, man!
Anyway....yeah...so Rumble Fish is a far superior film....presented in gorgeous black and white....which you would never know from this VHS box featuring all color photos that makes it look like some bullshit rom com. “Biff Wilcox is looking for you, Rusty James. He says he’s gonna kill you.”....”Well I ain’t hiding!” What an opener! You got a young, not-yet-mangled Mickey Rourke...a young Matty Dillon...the lovely Diane Lane... a still very much drunk and high on cocaine Dennis Hopper....not to mention Mr. Tom Waits! And perhaps one of the great film scores of all time by Stewart Copeland...which is the only thing of any artistic merit to come from a member of the band The Police. Yeah...I said it. If you haven’t seen this movie...you need to. Stay gold, y’all.