"The Outsiders" Tribute Page
Let's see, first off, I needed stuff to fill up my "site". Secondly, look at these guys! That's enough, really. Here they all were right before they made it big. It's cool to see them all in the "before".
I need not name them, but I will. Backrow: Patrick Swayze ("Dirty Dancing" fame, ooh! how 'bout "Ghost"?), Matt Dillon (...Matt Dillon. My fave was "Beautiful Girls"), Rob Lowe (Sorry, I didn't watch "West Wing", but did you catch "Salem's Lot" on TNT recently? It was good! Hey, "Class"! :D ) Front row: Emilio Estevez ("Young Guns", plus he married Paula Abdul), Ralph Macchio (who could forget the "Karate Kid"?), C. Thomas Howell (seen him in a lot of SciFi movies, always a kick. "Soul Man"?), and last but not least... DUN DUN DUN! TOM CRUISE! ("Tom Cruise" will suffice.)
I was so much in love with Sodapop. I read the book first, it was the "Teenage Torah" of it's time. I passed it around my class and eventually all the girls read it. Funny, I never got my copy back, Carrie Clancy! >:
Like I said, I fell in love with Sodapop, and therefore my entire class was to call me Sodapop (or Soda) for the rest of my junior high life. I even signed my homework that way. I can't believe my teachers let me get away with that! I was such a rebel.
All the other girls got their pick of who was left, and tried to get everyone to call them by their new names, but pretty much I was the only one successful in this venture. I even had a t-shirt made up. Having t-shirts custom printed was kind of big back then. I was cool. :p
We had a big tree in the corner of the playground in the school yard, and every day at lunch we'd climb up on our specified branches and read from the book. (That's kind of cool when you think about it.)
We secretly made our own "Greasers" flag in class and snuck out one day to run it up the flagpole. We almost got in a lot of trouble, because I can remember Mr. Comb's face getting really red. I think we had to write sentences.
In retrospect, the movie was kind of a disappointment, even back then. They cut out some very crucial to the storyline parts, which allowed you to better get to know the characters. I can appreciate the fact that Coppola did manage to capture the genre pretty well. However, it's painfully obvious that he tried way too hard with this film. I found it melodramatic and overdone. (I'm being nice, 'cuz I don't want to say "cheesy".) You know, (Stevie Wonder song aside) a better soundtrack really could have done a lot for this movie.
"The Outsiders" was a very important part of my life. It awakened the rebel spirit in me, the dreamer.. which in turn, has defined me ever since.
Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold...
~Natalie "Sodapop" Carter