Clueless And The Outsiders: Film Analysis

Adolescent is the process of developing from a child to an adult. This very process is depicted throughout both films Clueless and The Outsiders. Adolescent is revealed through: friends, family, school and self-image. The films that have been chosen that portray adolescence and adolescent experience are, Clueless created by Amy Heckerling and released on September 21, 1995. The other film is The Outsiders created by Francis Ford Coppola released on March 25, 1983.These two films depict teenagers on how they go about living their lives, and also how these two films differ from how they portray adolescence in a variety of ways. The two films portray adolescence in a variety of ways, they display teenagers evolving and demonstrating change through-out the films. In addition, different cultures and social groups are being illustrated all over the two films, the variety of the
cultures and social groups affect the teenager’s self-image to change over time.
Clueless is a movie based on a shallow, rich and socially successful Cher Horowitz. Cher is very successful in what she does best, she helps a new oblivious student named Tai to become a different person and to help her develop social skills and to overcome her fears. Cher’s father is a very successful business man and the bread winner of the family. The relationship between Cher and her father is very tight after the death of the mother. Cher’s social life is unique and shares it only with friends who have the same lifestyle, one of her closest friends is Dionne Davenport, until a new student named Tai arrives who doesn’t have the same reputation as Cher joins Cher’s group. Cher transforms Tai into a differently new person to fit in with the group and become like them. As stated adolescent plays a big role in developing by self-image and friends and Tai transformed into a new person. Cher later develops a relationship between Josh her step-brother and evolves to becoming more serious, just like Dionne.
The Outsiders is a perfect example of adolescence between different groups and friends. As the title suggests, “The Outsiders” is a theme in itself. Looking at life as an outsider and feeling as though one is being treated as an outside is a matter of perspective or a point of view. Friends, values and self-image is what is most valuable the Johny and his fellow friends. These teenagers may think they are adults, but in reality they are being controlled by either: parents, teachers or other authority figures. All though this maybe true, the teenage boys are influenced by their peers and values they have upon their society. In “The Outsiders” Society places values on their members to be tough and adults. The theme family runs through the film, also some members of the family which includes: Johny, Ponnyboy, Darry, Soda and the greasers struggle to stay together due to some mishap/events that occurred with Johny and Pony boy were they killed another member of the society. Ponnyboy and Johny intend to keep acting like an adult and smoke to be seen as tough, but Ponnyboy changes to a different person as he gets a haircut and changes his hair colour.
There are many factors influencing change in the film Clueless, and the way the character develops to become a mature adult. In some cases Clueless displays school as a major role of development to the character. It evolves the character’s view on society and divergent experiences with other people in school and outside of school. In addition bullying is also a major part of character development as it is an obstacle that needs to be conquered in order to grow up and is also a crucial step to entering adulthood, and that is shown throughout Clueless. In addition friends are also a major role for developing in Clueless. Friends displays a number of important roles in the society, they give the character a sense of belonging, for example when Tai join the school Cher welcomed her into the group. In addition Tai experiences different values, roles, identities and ideas from her new friends. Also friends can provide experience in creating new relationships such as: boyfriend or girlfriend. This is depicted through Dionne. Also another example is when Cher falls in love with her step-brother Josh, Cher depicts this when she says “I am totally butt crazy in love with Josh.”.
Adolescence that is being explored through the film The Outsiders is: self-image, family and friends.
Self-image is depicted at the very beginning, where Ponnyboy talks about how he wants to change his hair style to how the greaser’s hair looks like, he denotes this by saying “but I am a greaser and most of my neighbourhood rarely bothers to get a haircut”. In addition, friends also influence the development of the characters, this also links to Ponnyboy wanting to get a haircut to fit in and to look like the other greasers. Also adolescent issues are being displayed with the family between Ponnyboy and Dary his brother. This issue faces violation of curfew and argument between the family members, and example of this is when Ponnyboy falls asleep at the park and did not get back home on time to his big brother, and Dary says “Where in the heck have you been? Do you know what time it is?”. This demonstrates that Ponnyboy is still a small boy who needs to be taken care of. Although Ponnyboy smokes cigarettes to try and fit in and to be looked at in a different way, not as a teenager but an
adult.
Significantly, Clueless and The Outsiders display adolescence and adolescent experiences in various ways and divergent experiences. The characters display similar needs such as: clothes, be hero or be the most known out of school. As stated adolescence is achieved through: family, friends and self-image. Also Relationships with friends demonstrate transformation from a teenager to an adult, which is seen as an adolescent experience. Ultimately, the two films Clueless and The Outsiders demonstrated a great interpretation of adolescence and adolescent experience through various ways.