That Was Then... This Is Now

"That Was Then...This Is Now" followed the book relatively closely up until the last scenes. I thought the acting could have been better, and I think it would have been a better movie if they had left it in the time period the book was in. Despite this, I thought it was pretty good, and I liked it until the last few scenes. The book was so powerful and real in the last chapters- and the movie took all of this out. I thought it would have been a good ending- for a whole different movie, for "That Was Then...", it was wrong, and in my opinion ruined the movie.

That Was Then, This Is Now is the story of two working class youths who look like they are on a street to nowhere in their lives.

After his parents killed themselves, Emilio Estevez is taken in by his best friend Craig Sheffer and his mom Barbara Babcock. The two of them get in all kinds of trouble. But Sheffer is starting to think that may be if I grow up their just might be a future for him.

Estevez is carrying a lot around, many of us do and we react to it in different ways. Estevez is on the road to career criminality. He gets involved in deeper and deeper and threatens to bring Sheffer in with him if Sheffer does not heed the better angels of his nature.

The key scene is when we learn as Estevez confides to Scheffer just what it is he's carrying inside. Some of the best acting in both their careers.

Hollywood has done very well with S.E. Hinton novels. That Was Then This Is Now is right up there with Tex, Rumblefish. and The Outsiders. This one managed to get done without Matt Dillon.

I recommend it highly.

I was born in 1970. While many movies such as Pretty In Pink, etc. were bigger hits, these movies along with a couple of others were incredibly important in what it means to be a friend, what it meant to grow up, and what it meant to grow up in the 80's. It wasn't a "great" movie, but it was a great movie for me and is a great movie about growing up, deciding what is important, forming morals. Will be on my buy list when I get a little money.

I always loved S.E. Hinton's novels as a kid: The Outsiders, Rumble Fish (which in my opinion, is the greatest film adaptation in the series despite everyone's fascination with The Outsiders), Tex, and That Was Then This is Now.

'That Was Then, This is Now' was the last film adaptation (although the TV series for 'The Outsiders' follows five years later after the release of this movie). I would've attribute the mediocrity of the movie, or at least the inability to really put forth all that the novel did, was because it was not directed by Francis Ford Coppola (who directs 'The Outsiders,' and does a fabulous job with 'Rumble Fish'), except 'Tex,' which was a pretty good movie, was likewise not directed by Coppola.

I think it is in part the chemistry among the characters. The whole mood looks like something out of a music video, with Craig Scheffer coming off more like a guy who broke off a long relationship with a girlfriend rather than dealing with a rambunctious brother (in addition to other things). Plus, as another viewer already mentioned, they shifted the focus on characters so that superstar Emilio Esteves becomes the center of attention. Most of S.E. Hinton's novel always portrayed a struggle from the brother who is looking out at things that, by his perception, have become (or always were) seriously out of control. (See 'Tex' and 'Rumble Fish'). And yes, they unfortunately acquiesced to the Hollywood happy ending, and in the sappiest way, despite all of the problems that the characters endure.

Unlike previous adaptations of Hinton's novels, even those not directed by Coppola, they really fail to portray the struggles that the characters realize in the book. And, lack of developing the story on this point really makes you only half appreciate the characters and their conflicts (and in this case, not even their resolution).

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.