CS Weekly Archive > From the Trenches > 9/23/05

Recovering the Novel in Francis
Ford Coppola's Classic:
The Outsiders: The Complete
Novel's Kim Aubrey

By jason davis

Francis Ford Coppola's master restorer talks about what he found when putting together the version of The Outsiders that the director always wanted to release (with a few new touches as well).

Originally conceived as a faithful adaptation of S.E. Hinton's seminal tale of adolescence, the original theatrical incarnation of The Outsiders diverged somewhat from director Francis Ford Coppola's vision. Now, through the medium of DVD, the director has re-visited the film with producer Kim Aubry to create a picture that truly brings the novel to the screen. Aubry, Coppola's principal collaborator on Apocalypse Now Redux and other American Zoetrope DVDs, took time out to discuss the re-creation of The Outsiders: The Complete Novel.

"We were essentially trying to make the film more faithful to the original novel," explains Aubry. "Basically, so much of that had fallen away -- the production was photographed just like the book. In fact, unlike 99.9% of technical productions, the film was actually shot in continuity, more or less." Citing the inexpensive cast, small crew, and the Tulsa, Oklahoma location, Aubry sets the stage for an idyllic shoot where the director "was able to rehearse his cast for three weeks before they even started shooting. They were rehearsing on the actual shooting locations. All the sets were built. So they were able to film The Outsiders more or less in book continuity from beginning to end." The pressures of post-production proved to be a different story. Aubry continues, "At the end of the day, for reasons of length, and other reasons, many of the original scenes from the book were stripped away to tighten up the film and make it shorter."

With an eye toward creating a more faithful adaptation of the book, Coppola and Aubry restored footage in order to "refocus the story and the sympathies of the audience with the real focus of the book, the Curtis family, and the idea of the alternative family." This meant a new opening and closing to bookend the film with scenes of the Curtis family. "Obviously, the parents had been killed, and these guys, the three brothers, are hanging on for dear life, held together by the older brother, played by Patrick Swayze. The focus of the film, like the book, is on the Curtises." Along with the major addition of the new beginning and end, a number of smaller sequences restored to the film serve to highlight life in the Curtis family. "Their house becomes a much more important location in this longer version of the film. It's really the center of this extended family, not just the brothers. It's kind of a hang-out for Two-Bit Matthews, Steve Randall -- there are people in and out all the time, but they're very loyal to one another and they back each other up."

Another innovation bringing the film closer to Coppola's intention is a change in underscore designed to musically re-write the film. Aubry explains that, "The old score, which was traditionally conceived, was really accurate to what Francis had asked his dad to do." Composer Carmine Coppola's instruction had been to evoke the Max Steiner grandeur of Gone With the Wind in an effort to convey the epic qualities both films shared. "The problem with it was that it told the audience what to feel by telegraphing the emotion through the old tricks of cinema, which had to do with the score being wall-to-wall, and being symphonic and overwrought, and it was very cue-y in that respect."

Over the years, Coppola had considered another approach, as Aubry explains. "The new concept, especially when we first started doing it, was 'Let's find music that the characters would probably have been listening to.'" Referring back to the novel, Aubry notes that, "[Author] Susie Hinton says that the Greasers listen to Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley, and the Socs listen to the Beatles. So let's put Elvis in there." Recalling the director's use of Presley's music during principal photography and taking a cue from the original theatrical cuts use of Van Morrison's "Gloria," Aubry and company set about re-imagining the film's soundscape. "The idea, story-wise, was that the songs would be what they would probably have been listening to, but not literally a source music…not like American Graffiti where you're always hearing a radio playing, but kind of what might have been in their heads, and it does interesting things."

"The old film's use of "Gloria" was a great guide to us. That was in the old cut and we didn't touch it. That was very informative if you study what it does, because the characters are not listening to it in that moment, but it tells you a lot. At the same time, it doesn't try to play your heartstrings or tell you what you should be feeling in the moment. It rather allows you to discover whether this rumble is really happening or not or whether it's as violent as it appears or not. I think it is very successful in kind of letting you 'feel' the rumble, and feel its violence, without watching it as a documentary."

In terms of the technology and resultant market that has allowed reconsiderations like The Outsiders: The Complete Novel to exist, Aubry is quick to note profit as the spur for innovation. "It's weird to mystify this in the confines of a technical format called DVD, which will be replaced in three to five years by XYZ or something. It is singularly different than VHS or Betamax in a way, and I think that has to do with money. That's really what it comes down to. To give a filmmaker the opportunity to be involved in a reconsideration of his film, it means someone has to put money behind it. The only reason there's going to be money behind it is if there's money to be made. The only way there is money to be made is because there's this format called DVD, which allows people to have very high quality reproductions of picture and sound in their home. DVD, because there was so much money behind it, did allow us to open the door to reconsidering what the filmmaker wanted to say in the first place.

I stay away from the words 'director's cut' because, in the case of Francis Coppola, he always had director's cut and final cut, so these are not director's cuts. He's not saying, 'Those mean bastards didn't let me make the film I wanted,' like Orson Welles might have said about Touch of Evil. Rather, he's saying 15 years, 20 years hence, things are different. The film's out there already in its original release form and will continue to be. What if I was able to address some things that came to my mind? What if I was to do what I really wanted, which was to make the film more faithful to Susie Hinton's book? What if I were able to re-imagine the soundtrack now that my dad has passed on and he won't be offended? What if I were to try a soundtrack that feels more real to me? In that sense, DVD is the enabler, but I think it's the enabler with dollars."

At the age of 21, Jason Davis was hit in the face with a car. He has since devoted his life to writing. His words have appeared on TBS, MSN.com, and CS Weekly, where he serves as DVD Coordinator. He lives in Burbank.

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