Just got round to watching Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 film Rumble Fish, I'd been meaning to catch it for years. Despite hearing from a trusted source that it was a great film, I was still pleasantly surprised at how good it actually was, considering how underrated it is.
I was particularly won over by the the performance of Mickey Rourke, of whom I've never been a huge fan. He plays a character known only as The Motorcycle Boy, a sombre and nonchalant character who delivers his lines in a slow, almost lackadaisical way which I found myself eagerly hanging on to every syllable for the meditative and considered thoughts he expresses. He really is as cool as a refrigerated cucumber.
The Motorcycle Boy: Even the most primitive of societies have an innate respect for the insane.
For me, The Motorcycle Boy comes across as a character in the same vein as James Dean's Jim Stark from Rebel Without a Cause. Alienated and discontent with the suburban life that everybody else seems happy enough to plod along with. Struggling to find meaning and attempting to live authentically, regardless of how counter-productive or 'insane' that may appear to be.
It's definitely a 'coming of age' movie, with the theme of growing up and time passing featuring prominently. Tom Waits' character, Benny, brilliantly puts youth into perspective when thinking of life in terms of how many summers remain...
Benny: Time is a funny thing. Time is a very peculiar item. You see when you're young, you're a kid, you got time, you got nothing but time. Throw away a couple of years, a couple of years there... it doesn't matter. You know. The older you get you say, "Jesus, how much I got? I got thirty-five summers left." Think about it. Thirty-five summers.
Tom Waits for no man...
There's also a great scene between Dennis Hopper and Matt Dillon, playing The Motorcycle Boy's Father and Brother, respectively...
Father: Every now and then, a person comes along, has a different view of the world than does the usual person. It doesn't make them crazy. I mean... an acute perception, man... that doesn't, that doesn't make you crazy.
Rusty James: Could you talk normal?
Father: However sometimes... it can drive you crazy, acute perception.
Rusty James: I wish you'd talk normal 'cause I don't understand half the garbage you're saying. You know? You know what I mean?
Father: No, your mother... is not crazy. And neither, contrary to popular belief, is your brother crazy. He's merely miscast in a play. He was born in the wrong era, on the wrong side of the river... with the ability to be able to do anything that he wants to do and findin' nothin' that he wants to do. I mean nothing.
The burden of Freedom.
The soundtrack was a real surprise too, composed by Stewart Copeland of Police fame. I've been hammering the main theme tune Don't Box Me In since I heard it. Tune...
