Rumble Fish

In thinking of film's that are able to exemplify many film elements that are put together in an interesting and organized manner the movie Rumble Fish comes to mind. The director Francis Ford Coppola demonstrates how metaphors are able to help decipher a deeper meaning of the film. Rumble Fish is a film that is about growing up and seeing new things that have never been seen before. The two main characters who are brothers Rusty James and the Motorcycle Boy, experience internal conflicts. Rusty James the younger of the two looks up to his brother and wants to be like him. However the elder has grown out of his previous demeanor of always fighting and he doesn't want his brother to follow in his steps. Throughout the film he ask Rusty James why he is following him. The Motorcycle Boy knows that his brother is somewhat trapped in the city and someone needs to get him out or set him free. He looks to the fish in the pet store to explain this and it is how he relates to his brothers problems. This is the scene that will be examined of when Rusty James is in the pet store with his brother and they are looking at the fish. It has been explained how much everyone in town looks up to the Motorcycle Boy, and on numerous occasions Rusty James said he was going to look like him when he was older. Even though the Motorcycle Boy never shows much affection, he wants something better for his brother, and even though he never tells his brother to leave until the end when he knows he is going to die, he tries to let him know through the fish. So until this point in the movie the viewer never really knows how the Motorcycle Boy feels about his brother. The pet store is a metaphor for the lives of these two brothers. The Motorcycle Boy feels the fish are angry because they are trapped in the fish tank, he says if they were in the river they would not fight. To him Rusty James is the fish and if he got out of their town he would realize that there is something more