Over the Edge is an American coming-of-age crime drama film directed by Jonathan Kaplan and released in May 1979. The film, based on actual events, had a limited theatrical release but has since achieved cult film status. It was Matt Dillon's film debut.
Video Over the Edge (film)
Plot
The film follows a group of teenagers living in a fictional planned community called New Granada. It begins with Carl Willet (Michael Kramer) and his friends, Richie White (Matt Dillon), Claude Zachary (Tom Fergus), and Johnny (Tiger Thompson) hanging out at "the Rec" (Recreation Center), which is the only place in the community where young people can spend time. They are supervised by Rec counselor Julia (Julia Pomeroy).
From an overpass, Mark Perry (Vincent Spano) and his friend shoot a BB gun in the windshield of a passing patrol car and flee on their bikes. They pass Carl and Richie and tell them to hide. Sgt. Ed Doberman (Harry Northup) arrives shortly, pulls them from their hiding place and finds a pocket knife on Richie. He takes them in, taunts them, and calls their parents to pick them up.
Carl's father Fred (Andy Romano) is a local businessman. Before getting Doberman's call, he is talking to Homeowners Association president Jerry Cole (Richard Jamison) about getting wealthy landowner Mr. Sloan (Lane Smith) to buy land across the street from the Rec and build an industrial park instead of the planned twin cinema and roller rink, to the loss of the local kids. Doberman questions the defiant Richie and Carl about the BB gun. Richie is then taken out of the room while Doberman lectures Carl and warns him that he could end up at "the Hill", a juvenile detention facility.
The next day at school, Claude announces that he took drugs to prepare for an upcoming test and has a bad reaction. Afterward, the students are assembled in the school's cafetorium to be placed on curfew following the BB gun shooting and to watch a video on vandalism. While there, Carl smiles with Cory (Pamela Ludwig), the girl Carl likes. That evening, Carl asks his father about the land across from the Rec, and his father tells him about the proposed industrial park. An apoplectic Carl storms out to join friends at the Rec playground.
The kids have brought drugs to the Rec's playground, where Claude buys a gram of hash from Tip (Eric Lalich). Word about a party at a nearby house spreads and causes the group to migrate there. Carl sees Mark making out with Cory on a couch. Mark threatens Carl not to mention his name to the cops. Carl then tells Cory that she could do a lot better than Mark and leaves, unknowingly followed by Mark and his friend who, after Doberman arrives in his patrol car to bust the party, beat up Carl as he is walking home alone. Carl stumbles home but is unable to sneak past his parents, who interrupt their meeting with Jerry Cole to grill the boy. After Carl goes upstairs, Jerry suggests to Fred that the Rec should be closed the next day so that the kids won't be making trouble when Mr. Sloan and his people come to visit.
The next day at the Rec, Doberman arrives and Julia talks to him about keeping the Rec open, but over Julia's objections, he comes inside, finds drugs on Claude and takes him into custody. They emerge from the Rec among rowdy teens to find Richie standing defiantly on the roof of the patrol car. After a brief foot chase, Richie gets away.
Richie and Carl come upon Cory and her friend Abby, who have just emerged from a house with a stolen pistol. They all go to a half-finished town home that Carl and Richie call their condo. They plan a "picnic with a gun" for the next day. On the way home, Carl sees Mr. Sloan's car at his house and plants firecrackers under the hood. The firecrackers go off as the men are leaving, and Mr. Sloan is scared away from buying land in New Granada.
At the picnic the next day, the kids take turns shooting the pistol until the ammo is gone. Later, Claude tells Carl that it was Tip who sold him the hash, and Cory recalls that Tip had recently gotten busted. They decide to pay Tip a visit and interrogate him. Tip admits he told the police whom he sold the hash to. To scare Tip, Richie pretends to fire the pistol at him while Johnny lights a firecracker, causing Tip and his mother, who's in the vicinity, to think the gun was really fired. In their getaway, the group throws Tip into the adjacent pond and escape with food and wine. When the group parts, Cory gives Carl a kiss, showing him that she likes him. When Carl gets home, his mother Sandra (Ellen Geer) tells him that he is forbidden to see his friends and that the Rec will be closed. Carl gets in a fight with his father.
In school the next day, Carl overhears Tip's mother revealing the names of the boys who assaulted her son. Carl grabs Richie and they run to Richie's house, where Richie grabs the pistol and the keys to his mom's Bronco. As they leave town, Doberman chases them. They flip the Bronco and flee the scene in opposite directions. Doberman chases Richie and fires a warning shot. Richie points his unloaded pistol at him and Doberman fires and kills Richie. Carl flees.
In the early evening, Carl calls Claude and Johnny's house from a payphone. Johnny answers and communicates to Carl that Richie is indeed dead. Carl runs away to 'his' condo. Cory meets him there and they spend the night together. After Cory leaves in the morning, Carl goes home to grab money, and along the way he sees Mark riding his dirt bike. He takes Mark's BB gun and shoots him in the shoulder, which causes him to crash his bike. Mark sits down with Carl, and in their ensuing conversation, Carl learns Mark "practically" lives in the swamp, has been suspended, and he's tried to flee town many times but has always been stopped. The two decide their fight was stupid. Carl goes home, sneaks in and sees his mother on the phone discussing a community meeting about the kids at the school for that night. Carl then heads to the Rec where all of his friends are.
At the rec center, Carl reunites with Cory and Claude. Mark arrives and Carl defensively puts his arm around Cory, but Mark isn't upset by it. The kids voice their frustration and then decide to go to the school to confront the parents at the meeting.
The meeting seems to start on a positive note, with the adults acknowledging there is a problem with the youth in town, but it quickly derails when Doberman fights with Julia and Fred gets in an argument with Jerry. While the meeting is in progress, the kids chain the doors closed, begin lighting fireworks and trashing the school. Doberman realizes the situation, but by then all of the adults are trapped in the cafetorium. One girl taunts her mother over the school's loudspeaker, and Cory's friend Abby insults Doberman. The kids then begin destroying cars in the parking lot. They break open a patrol car and pull out guns, eventually blowing up several cars and starting fires. Julia, locked inside the school, isolates herself from the panicked parents and sees Johnny. She asks him for him to bring over a phone and he complies.
The kids approach Carl and excitedly tell him about what they've done and how much fun they're having. While doing so, Carl thinks he sees Richie on his bike and runs off to pursue him. Cory, having lost Carl, looks for him, but sees Mark biking up with his shotgun and ducks under a car, which blows up after Mark shoots it. Cory escapes mostly unharmed, but she lets Claude take her home. Carl is soon done with the rioting himself.
Police arrive and the kids run. Doberman speeds off against Jerry's judgement to find Carl. Jerry is very upset that his Cadillac, which he highly prized, has been destroyed in the rebellion. Doberman is able to arrest Carl and they drive off towards the police station. Mark is waiting down the road by the rec center and shoots the police car, causing it to crash and catch fire. Carl escapes leaving the unconscious Doberman inside. The car and the rec center explode in a massive fireball.
The next morning, Carl, along with Mark and Abby, board a bus with other teens involved in the riots for their ride to the Hill. As the bus goes beneath an overpass, Carl smiles as he sees Claude, Johnny, and Cory waving down to them.
Maps Over the Edge (film)
Cast
- Michael Eric Kramer as Carl Willat
- Matt Dillon as Richie White
- Pamela Ludwig as Cory
- Harry Northup as Sgt. Doberman
- Vincent Spano as Mark Perry
- Tom Fergus as Claude Zachary
- Andy Romano as Fred Willat
- Ellen Geer as Sandra Willat
- Richard Jamison as Cole
- Julia Pomeroy as Julia
Background
Over the Edge depicts American suburban life in the 1970s and includes themes of teenage rebellion and drug and alcohol use by junior high school students. The rock music soundtrack features Cheap Trick, the Cars, and the Ramones.
The film was inspired by events described in a 1973 San Francisco Examiner article entitled "Mousepacks: Kids on a Crime Spree" by Bruce Koon and James A. Finefrock. The article reported on young kids vandalizing property in Foster City, California. The middle class planned community had an unusually high level of juvenile crime.
Screenwriters Charles S. Haas and Tim Hunter began work shortly after the article's publication, including field research in the town itself where they interviewed some of the kids. Hunter said that the script accurately reflected the article with the exception of a more violent ending.
Orion Pictures helped finance the film; producer George Litto borrowed an additional $1 million. Director Jonathan Kaplan, who was just 30 when hired, took a documentary approach to filming, using unknown actors. Among them was Matt Dillon, then age 14, who the filmmakers discovered in a middle school in Westchester County, New York. This was Dillon's feature film debut. Shooting took place over 20 days in 1978 in Greeley and Aurora, two cities in Colorado.
Due to the negative publicity surrounding a wave of recent youth gang films such as The Warriors and Boulevard Nights, Over the Edge had a limited theatrical release in 1979. But the film has since gained cult film status. In late 1981, it was shown at "Film at Joseph Papp's Public Theater". as part of a program called "Word of Mouth", devoted to films that had been overlooked because of poor marketing or distribution. This screening led to it being listed on critical top-10 lists and was favorably reviewed by Vincent Canby at the New York Times. The film then re-emerged in the 1980s with showings on cable channels, including HBO. Kurt Cobain said the film "pretty much defined my whole personality". Director Richard Linklater said the film influenced his film Dazed and Confused. Over the Edge was an inspiration for the music videos for the songs "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana and "Evil Eye" by Fu Manchu.
Soundtrack album
Side one
- "Surrender" - Cheap Trick
- "My Best Friend's Girl" - The Cars
- "You Really Got Me" - Van Halen
- "Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace" - Cheap Trick
- "Come On (Part 1)" - Jimi Hendrix
Side two
- "Just What I Needed" - The Cars
- "Hello There" - Cheap Trick
- "Teenage Lobotomy" - Ramones
- "Downed" - Cheap Trick
- "All That You Dream" - Little Feat
- "Ooh Child" - Valerie Carter
Reception
Critical reception
Over the Edge received critical acclaim from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a score of 89% based on 9 reviews, as well as an audience score of 85%, both of which deem favourable. Vincent Canby of the New York Times gave the movie a positive review, stating, "It's to Mr. Kaplan's credit that he makes New Granada look just as boring and alienated to us as it does to the unfortunate children who live there."
Cultural impact
Loreen was inspired to use the premise of this film for the video clip for her 2015 single, "I'm in it with You".
Legacy
Over the Edge has since become a cult classic, in part for the acting debut of Matt Dillon, who would become a successful actor in the following years, starting in teen movies such as Tex (1982), and The Outsiders (1983).
References
External links
- Over the Edge on IMDb
- Over the Edge at AllMovie
- Over the Edge at Rotten Tomatoes
- An interview with co-writer Tim Hunter
Source of article : Wikipedia
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