The clever way Patrick Swayze made sure he stood out while making The Outsiders

If you look at a group shot of the cast of Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of S.E. Hinton's novel The Outsiders, you may experience a wave of shock that so many '80s hunks could ever get cast in the same movie!

There is, of course, C. Thomas Howell as Ponyboy (he who must "stay gold"), Matt Dillon as Dally (the one who entreats us to "do it for Johnny, man"), Ralph Macchio as Johnny (for whom we must "do it" for), Rob Lowe as Sodapop, Emilio Estevez as Two-Bit, and the one and only Tom Cruise with the most rule-breaking, outsider name of all ... Steve.

A little older than the rest of the cast was Patrick Swayze as Darry, the older brother to Ponyboy and Sodapop, and the closest thing to a father figure that these doomed (but dreamy) Tulsa hoods could count on.

The movie came out in 1983, a few years before Swayze would achieve household name status with hits like Dirty Dancing, Road House, and Ghost. And with all the acting talent in this much-anticipated film, he certainly wanted to stand out — literally.

Take a closer look at the group publicity photo above. Now check out Swayze's feet. Yeah, that's right, he's actually standing on a bunch of bricks.

This was not happenstance. As Lowe put it during an interview on The Rich Eisen Show not long ago, "We're standing in an alley, and if you look at it really closely, Swayze's standing on a platform of bricks that he's built for himself so he can be taller."

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This group shot is, understandably, one that fans will use for autographs, so Lowe is always eager to point this out.

"People will be like, 'Hey, can you sign this?' And if it's that photo, I always circle the bricks," he said.

It's not just Lowe who noticed. S.E. Hinton, the book's author (she wrote it when she was only 16!), commented on X that Swayze took every opportunity to be seen while making The Outsiders.

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And it doesn't just end with the bricks.

In this second promo image, you'll see that Swayze, who was 5 feet 10 inches tall, according to IMDb, is not just up on a plank of wood, but leaning on the front of his feet. Plus he's got his arm up for extra dominance.

Well, height insecurities aside, The Outsiders remains a great movie. It was a theatrical hit upon its release, became a phenomenon on home video and cable, turned a shack in Tulsa into a tourist destination, and inspired a Tony-winning musical.

In 2005, Coppola released a new, longer cut of the film (called The Outsiders: The Complete Novel) that is even better than the original. (Unlike his chum George Lucas, when Coppola tinkers with an old movie, it always gets better. See also: The Cotton Club Encore.)

Immediately after shooting the film, Coppola, Hinton, Dillon and Diane Lane (also in The Outsiders) stayed in Tulsa to make Rumble Fish, which if you've never seen it, might be summed up as "what if David Lynch directed The Outsiders?" It was a box office bomb, but we're still waiting for the Broadway adaptation of this one.