That Was Then… This Is Now

If that was then and this is now, now certainly bears one uncanny resemblance to then: the joyrides, the high school dance, the midnight parking-lot punch-ups which send cowardly punks running as that venomous taunt of taunts hangs in the still night air - 'Get a haircut!'. Get a haircut? The fact is that SE Hinton's novel, published in 1971 and set in the late '60s, has been updated, complete with contemporary rock score, for the '80s. The story is classic - a pair of childhood friends go their separate ways as adolescence gives way to manhood - the treatment pure Hollywood. Mark (Estevez) and Bryon (Sheffer) are the dynamic duo of suburban St Paul, Minnesota, laying down the law in whatever batmobile they can get their hands on. There's a girl who comes between them, and a death that brings an understanding of their own mortalities. Estevez is the rebel without a cause, newcomer Sheffer is cast as the romantic lead, and both are heading at breakneck pace towards an inescapable loss of innocence.