The Outsiders Movie Analysis Essay

For my film analysis, I chose to analyze the movie “The Outsiders” directed by Francis Ford Coppola and based on the novel “The Outsiders” by S. E. Hinton. In this movie, a gang of outcasts from the north side of town called the Greasers are always fighting against a rival group called the Socials, who are the rich jocks from the south side of town. The story follows two young Greasers, Johnny and Ponyboy, who aren’t like the others. These two see that fighting is pointless, but it’s just the way they live their life. The two boys get into a fight with some Socials and end up killing one. They have to go into hiding, and while in hiding, end up saving the lives of some young kids in a fire. The youngest boy, Johnny, gets messed up pretty …show more content…
He isn’t viewed as a big leader, but he still portrays some leadership qualities. He is the youngest of all the Greasers, so he looks up to all of them. Johnny is the closest to his age, only two years older. Anytime Johnny is upset (usually about his parents always fighting) Ponyboy is there to cheer him up. In this way, Ponyboy displays leadership by trying to help Johnny. When the church catches on fire with children inside, it is Ponyboy who is the first person to run in and help them, even before the ‘upright citizen’ man that was supervising the children. Another way Ponyboy is a leader is in the way he sees things. He is not afraid to look at the world completely different that his friends do. He sees that they can fight all they want, but nothing isn’t going to change. Ponyboy talks to a Social about this, which is something none of the other Greasers would ever do. He shows this to Johnny too, and because of that, Johnny gets to see the world in a new light before he …show more content…
Johnny is the second youngest Greaser, just two years older than Ponyboy. When the ‘toughest’ Greaser, Dally, starts to bug some Social girls and treat them rudely, Johnny jumps in and tells Dally to back off. In this way, Johnny shows great leadership by standing up for someone that wouldn’t have been stood up for otherwise, and especially for standing up against another Greaser. At one point, Ponyboy is being jumped by a group of Socials. Johnny jumps in and kills one of them so they didn’t kill Ponyboy. In a way, this is showing leadership by standing up for someone else, even when you know it will come back to bite you. When Ponyboy and Johnny are on the run, Johnny takes the initiative to decide they need to cut their hair. Slicked back hair is extremely important to a Greaser, so cutting their hair was going to make them less tough, but Johnny knows that it is something they have to