Over the Edge

With all of today's problems plaguing teens and their parents, this movie may seem a bit tame, but at the time of its release, it had a pretty powerful message (assuming anyone paid attention). I remember watching this with some kids who were about the same age as those portrayed in the movie... These kids all thought this was the best movie ever made, and some commented that they wanted to do pretty much everything they saw in the movie. I remember thinking (not unlike "Billy Jack"), "why would you want to live in a community like this, where all the adults either hate you or fear you? To this day, I am drawn to and repulsed by this movie. That being said, I can't wait to get copy of this on DVD!!! It really was a good film, and I think it captured some of uglier realities of life in some of the "planned communities" of the time.

"Over the Edge" is a powerful, unforgettable 1979 film about a planned suburban community, New Granada, where all the adults are worried only about bringing much-needed money and business to the struggling, barren dump of a town. What the adults don't seem to realize is that more than half of the population is made up of pre-teens and teenagers who drink, smoke weed, do hard drugs, play with guns, and destroy property because these parents and adults have given them nothing to do; nothing constructive whatsoever. These are NOT bad kids. I felt for them. They are victims of their environment and complete lack of parental attention. When the kids finally become restless and hopeless, havoc ensues, but most of it is created by the town Police Chief Doberman, who has no business whatsoever dealing with youth. The only place the kids have to go is the recreation center, managed by a truly sympathetic and understanding young woman. Of course, the town officials fire her. In 1979, this film was rated PG. It's a STRONG "PG". If this film were made today (and I doubt it would be) I imagine it would receive at least a PG-13 or maybe even an R. Children as young as thirteen/fourteen are seen dropping acid, smoking hash, guzzling liquor, shooting guns, getting into fights, etc. AND IT IS ALL THE FAULT OF THE ADULTS, WHO ARE TOTALLY BLIND! Matt Dillon's film debut, and an unknown actor, young Tom Fergus, gives the most natural performance from a kid I have ever seen as Claude, the kid most heavily involved in drugs. SEEK THIS OUT! IT IS UNFORGETTABLE! If anyone reading this has any info on Tom Fergus, I'd love to see what he's up to now. Also features an awesome soundtrack by The Cars, Van Halen, Cheap Trick, Little Feat, and Jimi Hendrix. This has become a cult classic in many youth circles, and is an early film by acclaimed director Jonothan Kaplan. Pops up on HBO and Cinemax occasionally, is available on tape, and is said to be coming to DVD soon. A masterwork.

Further than the imagery of white, middle-class American kids and teenagers getting high, speaking in an acquired voice and lingo to convey a both tastefully silly and unsettling angst, there's a visualization of America in Jonathan Kaplan's appealing, outlandish generation gap exploitation film that's anything but silly, and by now has basically become the norm. The details of the plot aren't all that essential. We're expected to grasp a sentiment of adolescent frustration and suspicion.

The locale is New Granada, one of those depressingly vanilla suburban districts that emerged all over this country in an upsurge of real-estate guesswork and substandard urban planning in the '60s and early '70s. New Granada is a development of dull condos, rigorously serviceable apartment blocks for those who cannot meet the expense of the condos, streets that bend futilely into badlands still to be urbanized, and an ultra-modern high school that seems like it's been built yesterday to accommodate tomorrow's automatons. It's the assertion of the filmmakers that the planners of New Granada made a grave gaffe in not bearing in mind that a quarter of its population would be 15 years old or younger, with nowhere to go except an old Quonset hut used as a rec center, nothing to consider and, most terrible, nothing to do.

The hub of the film is Carl, an ultimately good 15-year-old boy whose dad, a Cadillac dealer, frets more about selling than about where the kids are, before or after 10pm. Provoked by the case of his more experienced pal Richie, played by Matt Dillon, who auditioned for the role while skipping school, Carl starts to embrace the scornful, tough-guy characteristics of the rest of New Granada's youth, most of whom are on drugs of one kind or another. Carl keeps away from drugs but not danger. New Granada's fanatical policeman, Doberman, discriminatorily blames Carl and Richie for a practical joke perpetrated by two other troublemakers. Like a New Granada street, Carl's life doesn't seem to be progressing.

Doberman's jumpy shooting of one of Carl's friends induces the film's furious climax: The New Granada youth charge the high school, where their parents are holding an urgent assembly to argue property values and teenage crime, lock their parents into the school auditorium, and go on a huge sabotage binge. There's something unluckily amusing in the image of a smug child, who looks to be no more than 12, talking about scoring some hash for his friends, and about the quandary of another, just as young student who stumbles into an art class, having taken some LSD to begin the day, just to be faced with a projection of a Bosch painting.

The movie can't help idealizing its generally stupid teenagers, their incoherent yearnings and doubts, their disheartenment and, ultimately, their fuming revolt. Not including Carl and Richie, the youngsters aren't characters but a refrain of postures. Unlike other such films, however, this independent suburban wasteland drama dramatizes the tedium and futility of their world with exceptional sincerity. New Granada is a virtually unspoiled visual symbol of the incorporated obsolescence that's expected to perpetuate the American economy, but which makes crap faster than the crap can be used. If New Granada's kids are apathetic robots, they're only a spot more offensive and less self-righteous than their ignorant parents.

I suppose, the performances by the grown-ups in the film, particularly by Andy Romano and Ellen Geer, as Carl's parents, and by Harry Northup, as the harrying Doberman, are more effective than those of the younger actors, but both Kramer and Dillon are equal as Carl and Richie. Pamela Ludwig, who plays Carl's girlfriend, is super-hot. A great deal of Over the Edge is gawkily acted and motivated, but it's executed with such vibrancy and disquiet that, as you watch it, you're often caught halfway between an embarrassed laugh and a struggle for breath.

John Evens Jr. High School in Greeley Colorado had a casting call prior to the filming for extras. If I remember right we got 25 dollars for each days work and we got fed.

Greeley was pretty much the perfect place for this movie. There was a huge teen violence problem there. even at age 12 I carried a pistol and roamed the city at will with other kids fearing attack from gangs of older teens. Drugs were everywhere.

The movie captured all that stupidity plus the Apathy and ignorance of the adults. I loved the scenes where we rioted in the Circus tent styled John Evens Jr. High School......made it hard to attend class the following year.

History has proved that the film makers knew what kind of society America would become...Cookie cutter homes,strip malls and teen murderers......Art predicts life.

Over The Edge is a 1979 coming of age crime drama about a town full of board rebellious teenagers looking for a good time any way they can find it. But when one of their own is killed by the town's police Sergeant they decide to take action.

I had never heard of this movie before until recently, but was very glad I did because it's a pretty good film. The story was intriguing and had authentic characters with a great cast behind them that really helped deliver the story home. Jonathan Kaplan's direction was good and captured quite nicely the frustration and angst that small town living can bring to a young teen with nothing to do.

Although maybe not for everybody I really enjoyed this movie and if you haven't seen it before, I would recommend giving it a watch.