The Outsiders

A small town in Oklahoma, the 1960s. In a long-standing conflict, two teenage gangs face each other—the Greasers and the Socs. The first rule of the Greasers is: don’t go alone. The second rule is: don’t get caught. And always stand up for your friends, no matter what they do.

Fourteen-year-old Ponyboy Curtis is sure that rich kids—the Socs, the golden youth from the western side of town—will never understand the guys from poor neighborhoods on the east side. And then one terrifying night, one clash with the Socs, changes everything.

Susan Eloise Hinton began writing the novel “The Outsiders” in 1965. Written sincerely and from the heart, the book tells about the problems of real teenagers—members of teenage gangs, residents of poor neighborhoods, and children from broken families. The American Library Association included Hinton’s novel in the list of “100 banned books of the 20th century”: in some states it remains banned to this day; in many others it has long been part of the school curriculum. In 1983 the book was filmed by director Francis Ford Coppola.

The film became a successful start to big cinema for young Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise, C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez, and Ralph Macchio.