Tex McCormick (Matt Dillon) is a young delinquent living in the farming town of Bixby, Oklahoma with his older brother Mason. Mason is a basketball player who is looking for a scholarship in Indiana. They are struggling to pay the bills with their absentee father on the rodeo circuit. Mason is forced to sell Tex's horse. Tex is angry. His best friend is Johnny Collins (Emilio Estevez) and he likes Johnny's sister Jamie (Meg Tilly). Their father Cole Collins (Ben Johnson) tries to keep Tex from his kids. Tex and Mason picks up a hitchhiker but he turns out to be a violent fugitive. Mason deliberately crashes the truck and the fugitive is killed in a shootout. The brothers become media heroes and their father returns. A family revelation sends Tex over the edge.
Matt Dillon is playing Tex as an idiotic bratty teen. I don't remember much from the book since I read it some 30 years ago. There has to be a more appealing way to portray the character. Also the story is an overloaded melodrama. It may work in a book but it's problematic when a violent shootout is nothing more than a pit stop. It's a bit too overwrought.
Matt Dillon is playing Tex as an idiotic bratty teen. I don't remember much from the book since I read it some 30 years ago. There has to be a more appealing way to portray the character. Also the story is an overloaded melodrama. It may work in a book but it's problematic when a violent shootout is nothing more than a pit stop. It's a bit too overwrought.