The movie is great, the story behind the movie is even more so

A teenage girl started writing a novel at age 15. It was published in 1967 when she turned 18. It has since been listed in the 100 most influential novels of all time. The librarian at her high school sent a petition consisting of 15 pages of signatures from students to Francis Ford Coppola who was riding high on his success with The Godfather. Convinced, he cast a bunch of unknown actors such as C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise, etc. This may be the most star-making movie in history.
This is not a shallow movie. The stories of teenage angst in tumultuous class division are amazingly well depicted. Any more descriptions of this movie would be spoiler material. Just watch it. You'll be glad you did. Having read the book, I can attest to the story line remaining intact on the screen. Coppola allowed Hinton (said teenage author) to co-write the screenplay.