The Coppola clan seem to really love “Rumble Fish.” If you remember, Sofia Coppola put the 1983 film on her Sight and Sound top 10, and her father, the man who made it, seems to love it just as much.
During a recent Instagram AMA session, Francis Ford Coppola was pressed about whether he still believes, as he had stated many years ago, that “The Conversation” was his best film. Coppola’s answer was fairly surprising, his personal favorite has changed:
My best film? That’s like asking someone with 7 kids, who’s the best? I love them all but if I scratched deeper, I might say Rumble Fish.
That is quite surprising given that Coppola has directed four of the greatest films of the 20th century: “The Godfather,” “The Godfather Part Two”, “The Conversation”, and “Apocalypse Now.” I don’t know about you, but “Rumble Fish” wouldn’t be the first thing that springs to mind when assessing Coppola’s filmography, far from it.
“Rumble Fish”, based on the novel by S.E. Hinton, tells the story of Rusty James (played by Matt Dillon), a troubled and tough young man struggling with the shadow of his older brother amid the harsh realities of a bleak urban landscape. Some of us read the book and were shown the film in high school, alongside Hinton’s “The Outsiders.”
“Rumble Fish”, which Coppola describes as as “an art film for teenagers,” was shot in this beautiful black-and-white, inspired by German Expressionism. It’s one of the most visually stunning films of his career. It also wasn’t that well received upon release, with many citing it as an experimental departure from the director’s more well-known works, and a failed one at that.
Today, “Rumble Fish” is this cult-ish artifact, and has been regarded by many critics as an overlooked film in Coppola’s extensive filmography. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that it’s been fully reappraised and has gained a second wind since its release, but it’s definitely more beloved than it was in the ‘80s. However, Coppola’s best film? Far from it.
Legendary film historian David Thomson has written that Rumble Fish is "maybe the most satisfying film Coppola made after “Apocalypse Now". It’s surely one of his more underrated works, alongside “Peggy Sue Got Married,” “Tucker: The Man and His Dreams,” “The Rainmaker,” and “The Godfather Part III” (yes, I love the trilogy capper).
“Rumble Fish” is part of the frustrating post-‘Apocalype Now’ phase of Coppola’s career. He’s had a few keepers here and there, but none that have come close to his ‘70s work. Some believe the arduous shoot of “Apocalypse Now” broke and changed the man, and with that, his movies as well. Soon after the shoot of his 1979 masterpiece, Coppola took ideas he’d been brainstorming for a new film and started writing the script for “Megalopolis,” which he finally shot in 2023 and is being released this year.
Remember when, back in August, we learned “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth” would be playing in only around 350 U.S. theaters, "maybe fewer"? Well, it's fewer. A lot fewer.