Last night's movie watch was the iconic early-1980s rebel film Rumble Fish, based upon American authoress S.E. Hinton's eponymous 1975 novel that I read so very long ago as a teenager.
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who also co-wrote its screenplay (with Hinton), and released by Universal Pictures in 1983, Rumble Fish centres around an aloof but charismatic motorbike-riding character in his early 20s who is referred to only as The Motorcycle Boy (hereafter TMB in this review for brevity), and is played to perfection as a veritable flawed, earthbound demi-deity (at least in the worshipping eyes of those around him) by the then young and equally charismatic Mickey Rourke.
TMB was once the greatest gang leader in his district of Tulsa, Oklahoma, until he eventually decided that gangs and rumbles were boring, for losers, and single-handedly broke up all the gangs and ended all the rumbles before abruptly disappearing who knows where on his motorbike. Left behind is his slightly younger, idolising brother Rusty James (Matt Dillon), who seeks to emulate TMB and gain the respect among the district's teenage delinquents that he still holds, even in his absence. However, Rusty James (everyone always calls him by his full name for some unexplained reason) has neither his brother's brain nor his mystique to do so.
And then, out of the blue, TMB returns. He has been to California to seek out their mother, who abandoned the family when they were only small children, the shock of which sent their father (Dennis Hopper) spiraling downward into abject alcoholism. TMB arrives back in town just in time to rescue his brother (hereafter RJ for brevity) after he has been stabbed in a fight during the resurgence of gangs and rumbles that has begun during TMB's AWOL.
From then on, we watch how RJ's grip on the leadership of his buddies progressively slips, finally ousted by supposed friend Smokey (a young Nicolas Cage, nephew of Francis Ford Coppola), who also steals his girlfriend Patty (Diane Lane). And after being mugged in an alley, RJ even loses his grip on himself, literally, when he seemingly undergoes a brief out-of-body experience, floating eerily but unseen through the air as he looks down upon his erstwhile compatriots grieving at his apparent death – or was it all just a fevered dream, experienced by him before regaining consciousness after the mugging?
Meanwhile, TMB is just as enigmatic as ever, his succinct comments betraying an erudite, highly intelligent mind that totally surpasses RJ's in every way. But is he really merely enigmatic, or, as others and even his own father suspect, might he actually be insane?
RJ hero-worships TMB too much to permit such doubts to linger in his own far less astute, knowledgeable mind, until the fateful day when he finds TMB in a pet shop, seemingly entranced by a series of small aquaria each containing a single male Siamese fighting fish, some of which are bright red, others blue. TMB tells RJ that they are rumble fish, so aggressive that they will even attack their own reflection in a mirror, which he demonstrates. TMB says that they should be free, in a river, not imprisoned in glass tanks.
That night, while taking RJ for a motorbike ride, TMB turns up at the pet shop, now closed for the evening, and decides to break in to free the fish. Even RJ realises the folly of such a plan, and pleads with him not to do so, but TMB's mind is made up. However, neither of them spies the shadow of a longstanding enemy close by, watching them, armed with a gun and an abiding, obsessive hatred of TMB. Two irrationally-minded entities are about to violently interact head-on, just like a couple of rival rumble fishes, but who – if either one of them – will emerge triumphant?
Rumble Fish is an engrossing, highly memorable movie, very atmospheric visually due to its plethora of smoke and shadows, but rendered even more so by being shot almost entirely in black-and-white, which thereby directly presents to the audience TMB's distinctive vision of the world, as it is revealed early on in the film that he is colour-blind (he is also partially deaf). There is only one major monochromatic exception – the Siamese fighting fish are always filmed in full colour (as is a police car's flashing red siren seen briefly near the end). Also of note, literally, is the music score, composed and performed by none other than Stewart Copeland, who at that time was also the drummer in the highly successful British rock group The Police.
Dillon puts in a dynamic, muscular performance as rebellious, wannabe gang leader RJ, and is the movie's top-billed star. However, Rumble Fish indisputably belongs to Mickey Rourke – second-billed he may be, but he expertly portrays TMB as a super-cool yet inscrutable, innately dangerous, and quite possibly deranged loner, ostensibly laid-back but in reality perpetually poised and ready to spring into unpredictable yet most probably ultra-violent action should the need arise or his fuse be lit.
If you'd like to pay a visit to the dark, ominous, uncertain world of TMB and RJ, be sure to click here to watch an official Rumble Fish trailer on YouTube.
To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
Brilliant film. The death of Motorcycle Boy and the aftermath is absolute classic.
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