Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating character study
Review: This movie defies convention by using an almost non-existent plot to deliver a spectacular set of character studies. Action-lovers look elsewhere. This film looks straight in the eye of its characters with maximum compassion and honesty. Dillon's familiar yet fascinating confused teen is perfectly balanced by the deadpan insanity of his older brother (Mickey Rourke) and his boozed-out sooothsayer father (Dennis Hopper), both of whom suffer from having seen "too much". The movie skates along with an infectious soundtack laid down by the great percussionist Stewart Copland, and is filmed in gorgeous Black and White.
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Summary: Coppola's Best
Review: This movie is a brilliant movie, using sound, colour (& lack of it) to create a fantastic atmosphere in which the relation of two brothers explains the background of violence. The acting of Mickey Rourke is close to brilliant (especially his voice). 5 Stars for Coppola and for Mickey
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Summary: The delusional Rusty James and his nameless brother.
Review: This movie isn't like most movies. It's not like "The Outsiders", even though it also stars Matt Dillon, is based on a book by S.E. Hinton, and directed is by Francis Ford Coppola. This movie stands by itself. Rumble Fish is the story of Rusty James (everyone calls him by his entire name, all the time) and his brother, "the Motorcycle Boy", who is Rusty James's idol. But they are two entirely different people. Nevermind that, Rusty James tries, and he never gets it right. Rumble Fish is shot entirely in black and white, and the special effects, camera angles, and scenes are surrealistic. Buy it. You'll love it. Even if it IS a bit wierd.
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Summary: THE GREATEST FILM EVER MADE ABOUT THE ACUTE PERCEPTION
Review: This timeless Coppola MASTERPIECE is light years ahead of any film ever made about the madness of genius and the human condition. Philosophically speaking, this film has more insight into human frailties and conventions and than any movie ever produced in our time. I consider this to be Coppola's companion piece to APOCALYPSE NOW. And just as brilliant. While the prosaic cast of characters in this story stumble around in their mundane school yard of girlfriends and gang fights, The Motorcycle Boy, played by Mickey Rourke, is an illuminated human trapped in a black and white movie from which there's no escape. No one can tell what The Motorcycle Boy is thinking as he walks through samsara in his mortified skin. Ultimately alone. Most people sleepwalk through their ordinary reality and their trivial problems. For the ineffable few the world is on fire. Some commit suicide. Most critics called RUMBLE FISH pretentious and overblow. It is replete with symbolism which may or may not be de rigueur. I find it to be one of the great philosophical statements of our time. Mickey Rourke is phenomenal!!!(I have the lobby cards for this film hanging in my living room.)
Francis Ford Coppola is a GENIUS!!! WARNING. This film is not for those looking for a gang fight movie.
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Summary: Complex video which deepens understanding of the book
Review: This video was good but very deep. I think Matt Dillon was cast too old for the part but was good neverthe less.
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Summary: STRANGE MOVIE
Review: This was the response to the man at the movie store. I guess if you hadn't read the book you would think it was strange. Coppola uses a unique mixture of sound. You can tell how each character hears & interpets things. He also made the whole movie in black and white to symbolise the motorcycle boy's beeing color blind, and not being able to see any colors. I think the movie would be just fine with less swears, but I can see how that sets a mood. Coppola adds color to the RUMBLE FISH (other wise known as siemise fighting fish) These fish are shown throughout the movie in red, yellow, blue, purple, and other colors.This movie teaches you that just because everyone belives something it doesn't make it true. In this movie Everyone idolises The Motorcycle Boy. Even though Patterson(the cop) says they think he is something he isn't. Everyone wants to be like The Motorcycle Boy, even his brother, Rusty-James. In the end Patterson is write, no one really knew The Motorcycle Boy. He was alone. "In a bubble looking out at the world. Not belonging anywhere, and not haveing the desire to. The Motorcycle Boy was born with the ability to do anything, but not finding anything he wants to do. He would have made a good knight. He was born it the wrong era, and on the wrong side of the river." This ends up being what ends his life. Just like Rusty-James wanted he became just like him , only the Motorcycle boy no one knew came with it.
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Summary: Chemistry and Vision
Review: What makes a five star film? How about a cast starring Matt Dillon, Mikey Rourke, Dennis Hopper (and a cameo appearance by Tom Waits!), a soundtrack by Stewart Copeland (with a bit of Stan Rigeway!), a story by S.E. Hinton, and directed by Fracis Ford Coppola. This film is magic. It is modern impressionism shot in a timeless realm- a blackboard sky. Its more than rouge street kid getting into rumbles, its a story of fish that need to be set free, so they can swim to the ocean where there are no dividing lines. When this movie first came out in the early eighties, it got negative reviews and a cold public welcoming. As you can see here -an almost five star consensus- it was very ahead of its time. This movie probably hit the establishment like a bomb, which at the time was very conservative. All that aside, this is an extraordinary film- a true art piece of the silver screen- livid, bullish, and moving.
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Summary: Frustrating, but with moments of sheer poetry
Review: What works: The classic Copeland score, which is still occasionally played on avant-garde music radio stations; the gorgeous b&w cinematography, mostly of Oklahoma (the film's setting); Diane Lane, never more beautiful; Matt Dillon, sensitive but dumb; the sparse, chilling sound. Also, the ambiguous time period: Where are we? The Sixties (when the book was written)? The Seventies? The Eighties? Few movies actually succeed in making their setting timeless, but this one really does. What doesn't: The pacing. Regretfully, the editing could have been tighter, and the existential mutterings from Mickey Rourke's character tend to be less illuminating than the filmmakers hoped. But as an allegory of fleeting youth, the instincts of this film are correctly haunting and beautiful...keep an eye out for all of the symbols of the passage of time: Coppola's repeated use of clocks, and the time-lapse photography. RUMBLE FISH is truly that last, apocalyptic James Dean picture, set in a sad corner of a fading 20th century.
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Summary: Splendid film, maybe Coppola's best
Review: When megalomaniac Coppola tries his hand to experimental cinema, this is the result: a masterpiece. After the big failure of "One from the Heart", the director of "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now" who's already won everything (two Golden Palms and the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director, the only one so far), takes one after the other on the screen two very short novels ("The Outsiders" and "Rumble Fish") published by Susan Edward Hinton in the early sixties, when she wasn't even 18. With this "Rumble Fish", he produces a sort of "Rebel without a Cause" for the eighties as well as an ode to individual freedom, valid for animals (fishes, birds...) as well as for humans. An individual freedom who doesn't find limits in cages and aquariums and other places acting as prisons. This movie is to be hailed for Coppola's great direction, for the magnificent photo in black and white - with a few symbolic appearances of color - and for the first important appearance of a genius newcoming young actor: Mickey Rourke. Besides the black and white photo is for his color-blind character, who can't hardly see the colors. After some cameos in "Heaven's Gate", "Body Heat" and "Diner", he plays the Motorcycle Boy, an ex-gang leader who became a legendary figure, coming back in Tulsa, Oklahoma, after two months away, and tries to put his little brother, Rusty James (Matt Dillon, in his greatest role), now a gang leader in his turn, back on the right track. But, at the age of only 21, he's already a worn, tired young man, with his shape haunting the streets. With this role, Rourke starts a series of losing characters which will end up by sealing his reputation and making him undesirable to producers. Whatever, Rourke is already a cult actor. The way the Motorcycle Boy ends, shot by an angry cop with him having no weapon, may be compared with Billy the Kid's. Rusty James will finally take his place, rolling away on a motorcycle to the sea, symbol of individual freedom (see the birds flying around with no interference). This is the main, universal message of this film. Around Dillon and Rourke, a great supporting cast including musician Tom Waits (a regular in Coppola's world) as a rambling bartender, Dennis Hopper and his acute perception, Nicolas Cage (Coppola's nephew), beautiful Diane Lane, Larry Fishburne, Christopher Penn (Sean's little brother) and the too rare, dark-haired Vincent Spano, who in this film is hardly recognizable with his blond hair and glasses. S.E. Hinton herself makes a short appearance as a street girl. We'll notice that the great, haunting soundtrack was composed by Stewart Copeland, the drummer of the Police band. "Rumble Fish" is certainly the best film ever made about juvenile distress. We're far away from teenage film produced today, where the young characters are usually described as brainless, totally uninteresting people thinking about nothing else but having sex. Very underrated in Coppola's career and insufficiently reviewed, this is a great film, maybe Coppola's best one. The penultimate take, a long right travelling - from the Motorcycle Boy's dead body to the sign 'The Motorcycle Boy reigns' -, is astounding. Even if the cover doesn't respect the black and white photo of the film, this DVD edition is to be bought right away (at least for Mickey Rourke's voice) and kept for ever. One last remark about Lorelei's discussable review: first, yes, the dialog is maybe vulgar but it's not shocking because it's the one we use every day, in life as well as in films; second point, mister Hinton is a woman.
Rating: 
Summary: what a surprise!
Review: when the movie was first released, people were walking out of the theaters not to mention extremely bad reviews. i knew people would eventually see the genius of this movies. technically and artistaclly! like taxi driver and citizen kane, this was a piece of art, this movie was before its time. i'd imagine in 20 years this would be a true classic. well sort of, maybe like taxi driver....
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