Francis Ford Coppola is responsible for half a century of onscreen leading men. The greatest Hollywood actors of the later 20th century, from Al Pacino to Robert De Niro to Robert Duvall? They also got their big break in one of the first two "Godfather" films. That's not to say these actors wouldn't have been stars without Coppola's movies (none of them are exactly one-hit wonders), but the New Hollywood truly put several artists in the right place at the right time to produce classic films.

In 1983, Coppola did it again with "The Outsiders," adapting S.E. Hinton's 1967 coming-of-age novel about several low-class teenage "Greasers" in 1960s Oklahoma. The main ensemble was played by several then up-and-comers, now-stars: Ralph Macchio as the sensitive Johnny Cade, Matt Dillon as wannabe tough guy Dallas "Dally" Winston, and Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze as brothers Sodapop and Darrel "Darry" Curtis. Diane Lane also appears as Cherry,...