# Rumble Fish

Rumble Fish is a 1983 film about the relationship between a revered former gang leader wishing to live a more peaceful life, and his younger brother, a teenaged hoodlum who aspires to become as feared as his brother.
    Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Written by Francis Ford Coppola and S.E. Hinton, based on Hinton's novel.

## Motorcycle Boy

* If you're going to lead people, you have to have somewhere to go.
* California's like a beautiful, wild... beautiful, wild girl on heroin... who's high as a kite, thinkin' she's on top of the world, not knowing she's dying even if you show her the marks.
* Blind terror in a fight can easily pass for courage.

## Smokey

* You know, if there were gangs around like in the old days, I'd be running things, not you. You'd be second lieutenant. You might have gotten by for a while on the Motorcycle Boy's rep, but you have to be smart to run things. You ain't got your brother's brains. It's nothing personal, Rusty James. But nobody would follow you into a fight because you'd get people killed - and nobody wants to be killed.

## 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.!!!!!

## Dialogue

    Steve: I don't know why someone hasn't taken a rifle and blown your head off.
    The Motorcycle Boy: Even the most primitive of societies have an innate respect of the insane.
    Patterson: You think you'll understand him?
    Rusty: Yeah, but what I don't understand is why you hate him so much?
    Patterson: I hate him because you kids think he's an idol but he isn't. He is anything else but he is no hero!
    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: Could you talk normal?
    Father: However sometimes... it can drive you crazy, acute perception.
    Rusty: 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.
    Rusty: How can you tell if someone is crazy?
    Benny: Can't always... Depends on how many think he's crazy.

## Taglines

* Rusty James can't live up to his brother's reputation. His brother can't live it down.
* The Motorcycle Boy's Never Coming Back
* No leader can survive becoming a legend.

## Cast

* Matt Dillon as Rusty James
* Mickey Rourke as the Motorcycle Boy
* Diane Lane as Patty
* Dennis Hopper as Father
* Diana Scarwid as Cassandra
* Vincent Spano as Steve
* Nicolas Cage as Smokey
* Chris Penn as B.J. Jackson
* Laurence Fishburne as Midget
* William Smith as Patterson the Cop
* Glenn Withrow as Biff Wilcox
* Tom Waits as Benny
* Sofia Coppola as Donna
* S.E. Hinton as Hooker on strip

## External links

* Rumble Fish quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Rumble Fish at Rotten Tomatoes