That Was Then, This Is Now *** (1985, Emilio Estevez, Craig Sheffer, Kim Delaney) – Classic Movie Review 13,890  

The 1985 coming-of-age film That Was Then, This Is Now is based on the 1971 young adult novel by S E Hinton, and stars Emilio Estevez, Craig Sheffer, and Kim Delaney.

Director Christopher Cain’s 1985 coming-of-age film That Was Then, This Is Now is based on the 1971 young adult novel by S E Hinton, and stars Emilio Estevez, Craig Sheffer, and Kim Delaney.

Star Emilio Estevez also wrote the screenplay for another adaptation from an S E Hinton novel (after Tex, Rumble Fish and The Outsiders) about a girl (Kim Delaney)’s intrusion threatening a young punk (Estevez)’s dependence on his older male friend (Craig Sheffer).

Emilio Estevez plays troubled teen Mark Jennings has always looked up to his older friend Bryon Douglas (Craig Sheffer), seeing him as an older brother. So Mark feels left out when Bryon starts dating Cathy Carlson (Kim Delaney), and Mark starts dealing drugs.

That Was Then, This Is Now is it’s not in the league of Coppola’s two Hinton films Rumble Fish and The Outsiders, maybe, but it is a sympathetic, emotionally heated and appealingly acted yarn, getting under the skin of teen anxieties.

Cast: Emilio Estevez, Craig Sheffer, Kim Delaney, Jill Schoelen, Barbara Babcock, Frank Howard, Morgan Freeman, Larry B Scott, Frank McCarthy [Francis Xavier McCarthy], Diane Dorsey, Ramon Sheen [Ramon Estevez].

Emilio Estevez was also in Tex and The Outsiders; Ramon Sheen is Estevez’s real-life brother.

The film was shot in the summer of 1984 in St Paul, Minnesota.

Emilio Estevez read That Was Then, This Is Now while filming Tex In 1982. He drafted several screenplays and did a rewrite while making The Breakfast Club.

Estevez recalled: ‘We made it very contemporary (the novel is set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the 1960s) and hired a brilliant cinematographer (Spanish cinematographer Juan Ruiz Anchía). The cast is primarily unknowns so it has a real feel – you’re not watching movie stars. The emotional content is so rich, so full, it’s absolutely draining.’

The film opened on 8 November 1985. It was a success at the box office: on a budget of $3.5 million, it grossed $8.6 million.

That Was Then, This Is Now is directed by Christopher Cain, runs 101 minutes, is made by Media Ventures and Belkin, is released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Emilio Estevez, based on the novel by S E Hinton, is shot by Juan Ruiz Anchía [Juan Ruiz-Anchia], is produced by Gary R Lindberg and John M Ondor, snd is scored by Keith Olsen.

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,890

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