This week, a brand new 4K UHD was released for The Outsiders, the first time it has been released on the format, and presumably to coincide with the release comes a brief, five-minute recent interview with the film’s director Francis Ford Coppola, posted onto STUDIOCANAL’s YouTube channel.
The new restoration is titled The Outsiders: The Complete Novel, and has been created to give fans more of the action that took place in S.E. Hinton’s celebrated book. Coppola’s latest, definitive version includes new music, as well as several scenes cut from the theatrical version which were reconstructed from original camera negatives.
The film takes place in ’60s Oklahoma, centering on two rival teen gangs: The ‘Greasers’, a class term that refers to the young men on the East Side, the poor side of town, and the ‘Socs’, short for Socials, who are the “West-side rich kids”. Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell), a tender-hearted and kind teenager’s life is changed forever one night when a scuffle with his friend Johnny (Ralph Macchio) inadvertently leads to the death of a rival gang member, and the boys are forced to go into hiding to avoid arrest. Soon Ponyboy and Johnny, along with Dallas (Matt Dillon) and their other Greaser buddies, must contend with the consequences of their violent lives. While some Greasers try to achieve redemption, others meet tragic ends.
Check out the interview below. The Outsiders: The Complete Novel is out now.
