Themes: School Violence, Authority Figures, High School Life
Main Cast: Matt Dillon, Michael Kramer, Pamela Ludwig, Vincent Spano, Tom Fergus
Release Year: 1979
Country: US
Run Time: 91 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
The protagonists of Over the Edge are the teen-aged offspring of the residents of a planned suburban community. This bland little town has been designed with conformity in mind, and with no thought of making the kids' lives worth living. Even worse, there is very little opportunity for any of the teens to grow "out" of the community and live elsewhere. Consequently, the kids rebel by drinking themselves sick, dealing in drugs, and indulging in deadly violence. Inasmuch as the local cops are predisposed to beat the teens into submission, the kids retaliate by directing their frustrations at the Law; the results are tragic, to be sure, but in no way predictable. Over the Edge struck as sensitive a nerve with young 1970s moviegoers as Rebel Without a Cause did with their 1950s forebears. Matt Dillon made his screen debut in Over the Edge, distinguishing himself in an ensemble cast that also includes Vincent Spano, Andy Romano and Ellen Geer. The screenplay was written by Charles Haas and Tim Hunter; the soundtrack songs feature the Ramones. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The kids are not all right, in the view of writers Charlie Haas and Tim Hunter and director Jonathan Kaplan, in this searingly honest film, and what makes their portrait of late '70s teen angst so powerful is its generic quality. The setting is a new suburb, bulldozed of vegetation, shorn of any personality. The school is new and as sterile as all the baseball and football parks that were erected during this period. The adults are irritable or indifferent and mostly absent. Most of the teenagers here are neither members of the National Honor Society nor any gangs, but they are all bored and angry. Michael Kramer is Carl, the linchpin character, the basically good boy who can't help but find trouble; he knows that something's happening, but he doesn't know what it is. Over the Edge can be seen as the Apocalypse Now of teen films, a journey into the heart of American darkness with an explosive ending, that, unlike the one in Rock 'n Roll High School (all three films were released the same year), is no joke. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
Harry Northrup - Ed Doberman; Andy Romano - Fred Willat; Ellen Geer - Sandra Willat; Richard Jamison - Jerry Cole; Julia Pomeroy - Julia; Tiger Thompson - Johnny; Jeff Fleury - Young Thug; Kim Kliner - Abby; Eric Lalich - Tip; Lane Smith - Roy Sloane
Credit
Vic Ramos - Casting, Jonathan Kaplan - Director, Nate Long - Second Unit Director, Robert Barrere - Editor, Sol Kaplan - Composer (Music Score), Jim Newport - Production Designer, Andrew Davis - Cinematographer, George Litto - Producer, Walter Mycroft - Producer, Anthony C. Montenaro - Set Designer, Richard Johnson - Special Effects, William B. Kaplan - Sound/Sound Designer, Charles Haas - Screenwriter, Tim Hunter - Screenwriter
Over the Edge is a film directed by Jonathan Kaplan released in 1979. Due to the negative publicity surrounding a wave of recent youth gang films, Over the Edge had a limited theatrical release. It stars Matt Dillon in his feature film debut.
According to the director's and writer's commentary on the DVD, Over the Edge was inspired by actual events that took place in Foster City, California in the early 1970s. Those events were chronicled in a 1974 article titled "Mouse Packs: Kids on a Crime Spree" from the San Francisco Examiner. The writer of the article, Charles S. Haas, went on to co-write the screenplay.
The film follows a group of teenagers living in a fictional planned community called New Granada, which is isolated beyond other existing suburbs, in the nearly-treeless plains east of Denver, Colorado. Their needs were not considered by those who designed the community, and so there is nothing for them to do but go to school and hang out at the local recreation center, which closes at six o‘clock. The kids turn to substance abuse, sex, and petty crime as a way to kill their boredom, but their outcry falls on deaf ears, as the adults are too concerned with pursuing wealth and stomping out the seemingly-senseless rowdy behavior to actually understand the reasons why the adolescents are misbehaving. After one of the kids is shot and killed by a police officer, played by Harry Northup, the youths violently rebel against their parents and the authorities, an uprising that results in fiery mayhem in and around the junior high school.
