Francis Ford Coppola is known for big changes throughout his career, but one of the biggest was filming adaptations of SE Hinton’s “The Outsiders” and “Rumble Fish” one after the other and releasing them in 1983 just months apart. . The filmmaking styles of the two films couldn’t be more different, with the lush Technicolor palette of “The Outsiders” giving way to the grim, moody black-and-white of “Rumble Fish,” a movie so stylish looking that it became a prototype for the indies in the coming years.
This is thanks to cinematographer Stephen H. Burum, winner of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the EnergaCamerimage international film festival in Poland. Burum was on hand after a retrospective screening of “Rumble Fish,” one of many of his films shown at the festival. (Others range from “St. Elmo’s Fire” to “The Untouchables” to “Hoffa”—he received an Oscar nomination for the latter.) The 82-year-old lens, best known for his collaborations with what he calls “the three Italians” (Brian De Palma, Francis Coppola, Danny DeVito), was on hand to discuss the legacy of “Rumble Fish” and why. It was a big gamble in 1983.
“We had only two weeks to prepare the image,” says Burum. “We finished filming ‘The Outsiders’ and Francis asked me, ‘What do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘Francis, I’d like to do it in black and white’ because it’s probably my only chance in my career to take a black and white photograph. Because in those days, black and white was not happening anymore. And he said, ‘Me too.’
“Rumble Fish” was filmed in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 60 days (where “Outsiders” was also filmed), except this time on real locations with no fancy soundstages and achieved mostly on night shots, with a powerful cast of expert breeders, including Mickey Rourke. , Nicolas Cage, Dennis Hopper, Tom Waits, Chris Penn, Vincent Spano, Laurence Fishburne, Diana Scarwid and two notable holdovers from “The Outsiders”, Matt Dillon and Diane Lane. (There’s even a young Sofia Coppola, billed over the end credits simply as “Domino.”)
Working with the young cast of future stars was a terrific experience, even if the film’s magnetic lead had some difficulty hitting the mark early on. “When we did ‘Outsiders,’ we had a cast that wasn’t that experienced except for Ralph Macchio, who had done a lot of television and was like a presenter. And one of the problems: they did not know how to hit the target. Matt Dillon was particularly bad at hitting the target, when he did. I said, ‘Matt, do what Spencer Tracy always used to do when you walk in, he looks at your mark and keeps looking at your mark where you stand, then looks up. And this will give you a bit of a mystery, like you’re thinking about something. Look at any photo of Spencer Tracy. I mean, you always have that because he couldn’t hit the mark. By the time we got to ‘Rumble Fish,’ everyone was in pretty good shape.”
Anyone who has particularly excelled in this field in their long career? “I did two movies with Jack Nicholson (“Hoffa” and “Man Trouble”). He was awesome. He can do anything. Even when the actors were out of position, he would steer them into the right position.”
And while black-and-white movies are roaring back today (“Mank,” “Passing,” “Belfast”), the story was different in the early 1980s. in black and white,” says Burum, who noted that the projected print was the one he oversaw and developed with The Criterion Collection for his recent restoration (available now). “The best black and white laboratory was in Paris. But we didn’t have enough money to fly back and forth daily. So second best was an outfit in New York. And they did a good job developing the negative, the big problem was getting good prints. East [Camerimage version] It’s what it should look like.”
