That Was Then... This Is Now

Only thing wrong with this movie-- the decision to "update" the story to make it contemporary. Some novels lend themselves to that kind of reinterpretation easily, but S.E. Hinton's early works aren't among them. The book, set in the late 60s, was essentially a follow-up to "The Outsiders," picking up a few months after its TV Series left off. The character of Ponyboy was taken out of this film for obvious reasons (why would he still be 16 in 1985?), but other Outsiders (most notably Tim Shepard) remained intact without aging a day-- effectively destroying any continuity it might have had with the film it was undoubtedly cashing in on. As result of this questionable rewrite, the novel's focus on the greaser/soc conflict dying off is completely absent, as are other time period-specific subplots. Perhaps the filmmakers wanted this to stand on its own from Coppola's then-recent "Outsiders" adaptation, but this likely hurt "That Was Then...This Is Now" in more ways than it helped it.

My grade 10 ESL students read the book and then watched this film version. They were not impressed at all and everyone agreed that it is not a good portrayal of the book. Some essential scenes are missing such as Mike Chamber's story which helps the reader really understand the motivation behind Bryon's change of heart. It would really have not been that difficult to just follow what was written in the book. Someone needs to be blamed for this poor excuse of a film!

The desperate male students in the class were hoping that the Angela character would have been as hot as she is described in the book!

Read the book instead.

In English class, we read S.E. Hinton's saga of teenage angst. The students were enthralled with the story. While the setting was from years past, the ethical questions raised and the teenage situations were quite apropos. The story generated a great deal of quality discussion in class...education at it's finest.

The movie, however, was a bit of a disappointment for us. Taken by itself, it was a fine example of 80's brat-packish fluff. It was formulamatic, but entertaining. One could hardly say that the movie was based on the book, though. Bryon's personal growth journey and coming of age, so well illustrated in the novel, was sacrificed to car chases and Hollywood's penchant for tidy endings, in the movie.

While I would recommend both, I would caution that they are two separate stories, sharing the same character names. Perhaps there is the lesson: You cannot watch the movie to get out of reading the book! .

That Was Then... This Is Now is one of the best early performances of Emilo Estvez as a writer and actor. Estevz brings Mark to life they way S.E.Hinton intened by being brutal and cut throat in his performace. All of the actors in the film give equally good performacnes in particular Morgan Freemen and Craig Sheffer. A underlooked gem.

This is a very poor adaption of one of S.E. Hinton's best novels. The characterizations are quite off the mark, and there is little to no development of situations and characters. Periodically the viewer is thrown into really weak attempts at "deep", philosophical dialogue from out of nowhere - straight out of the book but oddly out of place in this disjointed film.

The acting is not much better. Only Frank Howard (as M&M) and Morgan Freeman (as Charlie) really make their roles believable. Emilio Estevez, perhaps due to the script itself, never makes Mark the character he needs to be to actually propel the story in the right direction.

All I can make of this film is an attempt at grabbing the same attention as "The Outsiders", another (and much better) film adaption of a S.E. Hinton novel. Both books/films have a few characters in common, some similar themes, and Emilio Estevez. "That was then..." just doesn't work out.