Rumble Fish

an exercise in inevitability. all of these characters are who they are and there’s no escaping that. rusty james is the only character who changes, and only changes by accepting that he’s not who he wishes he was. motorcycle boy on the other hand accepts his fate; returning to Jerusalem as it were to face his fate - his certain death, dying so the fish can live free in the river that runs to the sea and so his younger brother can ride to the ocean coppola plays with archetypes - the exiled prince, the poet warrior, the bard in the tavern, and unfeeling cruel justice. life is fundamentally unfair here, but it is what it is.  This Tulsa is smoky; hazy; dreamlike. clouds fly overhead at all times - unrelenting, reflecting Rusty James’s arrested development. “when do you think i’m gonna grow up?” “never”. Time speeds over him while little changes. Time is a key symbol here: like the confrontation between Rusty James, Motorcycle Boy, and the cop in front of a handless clock. nothing changes in tulsa, nothing grows, it’s a purgatory rusty james’s abandonment issues are plainly manifest from the get-go; and coppola develops and explains that while at the same time separating rusty james from each person in his life one by one until he’s utterly alone dennis hopper’s drunk father is another archetype - of what Rusty James could turn into without something to break the spell and break the chain. his sons treat him more like a pet to be teased than a father figure. he doesn’t even morn at motorcycle boy’s death. he just drinks. “i think i’m gonna be like him when i grow up”“you better pray to god you don’t” motorcycle boy dies to wake rusty james up from his dream of youth - to rescue him from this limbo - to rescue and resurrect him (literally, in one scene) - and make him into a what his true nature always was