Even though it was directed by one of the greatest of all-time in Francis Ford Coppola, and found reasonable success at the box office after recouping its $10 million budget at the box office three times over and then some, a very strong point can be made that the longest-lasting legacy of The Outsiders is what became of the young cast, most of whom were young and unproven at the time.
In fact, when you comb through the extended ensemble to see the names who featured onscreen at one stage or another, the coming-of-age crime story might just have the single strongest collection of future household names that you’re ever likely to see in one place, and that’s not an exaggeration.
Among those to score early gigs in the tale of the Greasers and Socials engaging in gang warfare on the streets of 1960s Oklahoma are C. Thomas Howell, a pre-Karate Kid Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, and Emilio Estevez, while The Outsiders was also the first credit for imminent A Nightmare on Elm Street icon Heather Langenkamp, as well as marking one of Diane Lane’s first big screen appearances.
On top of that, there are uncredited gigs from Melanie Griffith and Nicolas Cage, as well as a fresh-faced youngster named Tom Cruise in a major part. Huh, whatever happened to that guy? It’s wild rewatching the film now knowing what everyone went on to accomplish, with streaming subscribers reveling in catching up with the cream of the crop when they were barely out of film school.
As per FlixPatrol, The Outsiders has been one of the 10 most-watched titles among iTunes customers in the United Kingdom all weekend, although we expect people are checking it out for much more than re-enacting the Leonardo DiCaprio meme when someone famous shows up.