Did you ever see a movie when you were a kid or teen that made an impression on you, but you somehow missed the title of it, so you basically never knew what it was and, over time, practically forgot about it? Then, one glorious day, you happened upon it on TV, DVD/Blu-Ray, or, nowadays, on YouTube or online somewhere, and was blown away to realize you found that the elusive movie you loved as a kid but never could remember the name of!
A few months back I was going through another punk rock phase- I tend to go through phases of certain things time and again, whether it's music, movies, or books or what have you- and I was looking online to find any punk-rock-themed movies I might have somehow missed over the years. Most of them I had seen a billion times, but I did find a few I had never heard of, much less seen. One of them was Over the Edge, which, technically, isn't really a punk-rock movie, but it can certainly be said to have a sort of punk-rock ethos.
For one thing, aside from a lone Ramones track ("Teenage Lobotomy," appropriately enough), the music is strictly commercial rock, which most punks would probably label "corporate" rock, given that it was the sort of thing that was filling stadiums at the time- precisely the sort of thing punk was rebelling against, in other words. Think bands like Cheap Trick, Van Halen, The Cars, Boston and Rush, all of which are heard or referenced in this movie. Basically, what could also be called "suburban" rock.
That last term is key, as the film takes place in the suburbs, where, at the time this film was made, there was an "epidemic" of vandalism and the like, often committed by bored teenagers with nothing else to do. I was absolutely like a lot of the kids in this film- I was a bit of a latchkey kid that was basically in and out of the house (and later the apartment) as I pleased, at least to a certain degree, certainly to the extent the film's main protagonist, Carl (Michael Kramer) was, if not even more so, as I was raised by a single mom.
Basically, I was somewhere in between Carl and Richie (Matt Dillon, making his film debut), minus Richie's more self-destructive tendencies, but not without Carl's tendency to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. As such, it's no wonder this film struck a chord as a kid. It wasn't at all far removed for my own experiences. I also skateboarded, biked, hung out at a local recreation center and yes, partied my ass off at a much younger age than I had any business doing. Basically, fast-forward the action a few years to take place circa "Gen X," aka during the whole "Alternative Nation" thing, and you have my life as a teen. The more things change, the more they stay the same, as it were.
Of course, one can't help but find the whole notion of vandalizing teens to be positively quaint by today's standards, in which it seems like we can barely go a week without a school shooting. Granted, there was Columbine, which did indeed rock my world at the time, but, at that point, at least, it was still something so unthinkable that it was hard to believe it had even happened in the first place.
Who'd have guessed back then that school shootings would become the next big teen "epidemic"? Or that adults, much like the ones shown in this film, would do next to nothing to stop it, and, if anything, actually make things worse by refusing to do what they could do to stop it- which is to say, reform gun laws and make it tougher for guns to get into the hands of mentally disturbed individuals.
Guns do figure into this film as well, but not necessarily in the way you might think. There's no school shooting, per se, but you do see teens firing BB guns at a cop car from an overpass over the freeway- something that has indeed happened, and not just with a BB gun and a cop car, but with an actual gun and random travelers on the highway.
Another teen steals a gun from someone and shows it off to her friends, which they then proceed to use to terrorize someone with that wronged them, in another eye-opening scene. But, once again, by today's standards, it's not nearly as shocking as it probably was back then. However, the film does take a turn for the darker towards the end, when things really do get deadly violent, so it does indeed sort of serve as a precursor to what was just around the corner IRL, as well as in the film itself.
Shot in 1979 in- wait for it- Denver, Colorado, not too far from where the then-future Columbine murders would take place, it's hard not to think of those events watching it now in retrospect. What was once super-cool to me as a kid is now admittedly kind of prescient and more than a little disturbing. I'm not a parent, but it is interesting how a lot of these teen movies shift in your perspective as you grow older. For instance, I now relate more to the principal in Ferris Bueller's Day Off than to Ferris, who now seems more like an entitled prick to me.
Here, it actually hit home for me when Carl's father (Andy Romano) stood up and voiced his opinion at the PTA meeting about how we need to spend more time actually talking to our kids, rather than talking at them. Of course, that's his guilty conscience talking, as he spends a good deal of the movie doing just what he complains about, which is to say, yelling at his kid, instead of trying to talk to him. While it's undeniably true he needs to practice what he preaches, the guy does have a point.
The only really sympathetic adult in the movie is Julia (Julia Pomeroy), who runs the local rec center in the film- a position the actress held in real life, at the time, in fact. She sadly never made another film, but went into writing instead. It's telling, though, that she's the one that sets into motion the final deadly events of the movie, in which one kid is nearly killed, and a cop actually is killed, albeit inadvertently- though, to be fair, he was pretty off the rails by that point. Did he deserve to die? Arguable- but it was pretty clear that he was unapologetic for his role in what happened, so there's that.
Over the Edge, at its heart, is basically what some might call a "hang-out" movie, which is to say, a movie in which we meet a group of people, typically young people, and "hang-out" with them for a while. Story is sort of incidental, and, for the most part, nothing much happens. This film does gain some forward momentum towards the end, as the action ramps up, leading to that tumultuous climax, but for the most part, it moves at a leisurely pace that was par for the course for 70's movies at the time. Think American Graffiti, Cooley High, all those "Cheerleader"-themed movies (i.e. The Swinging Cheerleaders, Revenge of the Cheerleaders, The Pom-Pom Girls, etc.) or even Brian De Palma's Carrie.
Indeed, the film was a primary influence for Richard Linklater's seminal teen classic, Dazed and Confused, which liberally steals from the film, quoting it (the line about Texas being all "steers and queers"), restaging shots (note the shot of Kramer on his bed with headphones, for instance) and I'm pretty sure using some of the actors in small roles as well. You can also spot some inspiration in terms of the outfits and general look of the cast, as well as some of the locations, particularly the rec center, which isn't too far removed from the arcade/pool hall in Linklater's film.
Obviously, Linklater's film mirrors the earlier scenes in the film, as opposed to the later, more violent ones- Edge is not without its comedic moments, i.e. that kid dropping acid in school, Matt Dillon's wisecracks aimed at the cops- but overall, it's more a coming-of-age drama than a comedy, for sure. Kurt Cobain also cites it as a major inspiration in his younger years- the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video was reportedly somewhat inspired by it and he said the film practically "defined his personality" at the time he saw it.
Despite all this, I rarely hear anyone talk about the film, and, as I mentioned, I myself had practically forgotten about it when I stumbled upon it in that article and sought it out, delighted to find it was that long lost movie I used to love back in the day.
Astonishingly, it has aged really well- some far-out clothing notwithstanding, these could easily be teens of today- and if you tweaked some of the slang, it could easily be remade. I think that's a testament to the grounded nature of a lot of 70's films, which aimed more for realism than fantasy. It wasn't until the 80's that post-MTV quick-cut editing and style-over-substance took over in earnest.
Another major factor that sets this one apart from the rest is the casting. The teens here are actually, lo and behold, real teenagers, many of them Colorado locals plucked from obscurity, including Dillon, and it shows in their naturalistic performances. Granted, a lot of them went right back into obscurity, but still, the casting director nailed this one. The film is not without its reasonably well-known names, at least for cult aficionados.
Matt Dillon, of course, went onto to superstardom, beginning with a run of S.E. Hinton adaptations that included The Outsiders ("Do it for Johnny!"), Rumble Fish and Tex. Other notable flicks include Little Darlings (a personal fave), My Bodyguard, The Flamingo Kid, The Big Town, Drugstore Cowboy, A Kiss Before Dying, Singles, Beautiful Girls, Wild Things, There's Something About Mary, Crash and more recently, Lars Von Trier's controversial The House That Jack Built.
Leading teen Michael Kramer (Carl) was in the cult favorite Return to Horror High, alongside "Brady" girl Maureen McCormick and a young George Clooney! He also worked with director Jonathan Kaplan again in the movie Project X, alongside Matthew Broderick, Helen Hunt and a monkey, lol. While his career never quite took off, he did appear in some well-liked cult flicks, including The Disappearance, Street Justice, To Die For II (aka Son of Darkness), Boulevard, All I Wanna Do (with a young Kirsten Dunst) and Dick (also with Dunst and a young Michelle Williams).
The attractive leading lady, Pamela Ludwig, who plays Cory, and looks a bit like Emma Watson in a curly-haired red wig, also went on to some well-regarded cult flicks, including Tex, alongside her co-star Dillon; the literal cult film Split Image, with Peter Fonda, James Woods and Karen Allen; the sci-fi teen-gang thriller City Limits (with James Earl Jones and a young Kim Cattrall), the Prince vehicle Under the Cherry Moon and Dead Man Walking, the sci-fi thriller with Jeffrey Combs, Wings Hauser and Brion James (as opposed to the drama with Sean Penn).
Other credits include Death of an Angel, Race for Glory, Midnight Ride (with Mark Hamill), the vampire flick Pale Blood and the underrated slasher Rush Week. She also worked with director Kaplan again on two flicks, the aforementioned Project X and Immediate Family. Perhaps she was destined for cult flicks, but Ludwig has an easy charm here that makes you wish she had a bigger career.
Faring slightly better than anyone else, save Dillon, is actor Vincent Spano, who plays the bully-turned-partner-in-crime Mark. Spano was up for the Richie part, but lost out to Dillon, but is such a stand-up guy that, not unlike his on-screen counterpart, he turned the other cheek and befriended Dillon and helped him learn his lines and taught him ways to naturalistically hit his marks and the like.
Like Dillon, he also went on to become a teen heartthrob, thanks to roles in movies like Senior Trip (with fellow heartthrob Scott Baio), the excellent, underrated Baby, It's You (with a young Rosanna Arquette), Rumble Fish (also with Dillon), the solid crime drama Alphabet City, the fun sci-fi comedy Creator (with the legendary Peter O'Toole), Roger Vadim's remake of his own And God Created Woman, John Sayles' City of Hope, the riveting IRL drama Alive (about the rugby team that crashed in the Andes and had to resort to cannibalism to survive), Indian Summer (with director Sam Raimi, in a rare acting turn), The Tie That Binds and A Brooklyn State of Mind, among many others. Like Dillon, he's worked steadily to this day.
From there, things get a bit shakier, with most of the teens being relative unknowns to this day, but some of the adults are worth a mention, including Harry Northrup, who plays out-of-control cop Doberman, who was a regular character actor in movies from the late 60's on, like Scorsese's Who's That Knocking at my Door?, Boxcar Bertha, Mean Streets, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Taxi Driver and New York New York; Jonathan Demme's Crazy Mama, Citizens Band, The Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia; and he also worked with Kaplan again on movies like Heart Like a Wheel, Project X, Unlawful Entry and Bad Girls. As you can see, if directors liked him, they used him over and over, so he was highly regarded in his time.
Carl's parents are played by, respectively, Andy Romano (Fred Willat) and Ellen Geer (Sandra Willat). Both are character actors that, like Northrup, worked steadily over the course of long careers. Romano started out as a TV regular, before cropping up in a host of "beach movies," such as Beach Party, Bikini Beach, Beach Blanket Bingo and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini. He continued to be a familiar face on TV throughout the 70's and 80's, appearing on everything from The Six Million Dollar Man to M*A*S*H to Charlie's Angels and The A-Team.
Romano also worked steadily in movies, including roles in the aforementioned Return to Horror High; the underrated William Friedkin horror-thriller Rampage; Major League, co-writer Tim Hunter's Paint It Black; another teen rebellion classic, Pump Up the Volume; Mobsters, Bugsy, Kaplan's Unlawful Entry, Under Siege, The Fugitive, Eraser and Ghosts of Mississippi.
Meanwhile, Ellen Geer likewise divided her time almost equally between TV and movies, making her motion picture debut in the classic Petulia, before following that up with the even more beloved cult classics The Reivers (with Steve McQueen) and Harold & Maude, the guilty pleasure horror flicks Bloody Birthday, Deadly Lessons (see my review here) and Satan's Princess, and the trauma-inducing Disney fave Something Wicked This Way Comes.
As with many on this list, her path crossed with director Kaplan again, in Heart Like A Wheel, and also with co-star Spano, in Creator. She also crops up in the likes of Patriot Games, When A Man Loves A Woman, Clear & Present Danger, Phenomenon, The Postman, Practical Magic, Criminal and House at the End of the Drive.
Director Jonathan Kaplan began his career working with the legendary cult filmmaker Roger Corman, directing soft-core silliness like Night Call Nurses and The Student Teachers before making it big on the Blaxploitation circuit with the cult classics The Slams (with Jim Brown) and Truck Turner (starring musician Isaac Hayes) and the Drive-In circuit with White Line Fever. After that, he took a hard right into teen drama with this film, which nonetheless has its roots in JD films- note the poster at the top of the article.
Another film inspired by true events was his Heart Like a Wheel, the tale of female drag racer Shirley Muldowney, which was the first film to garner Kaplan across-the-board critical favor and mainstream success. Around this same time, he was also an MTV regular, directing videos for the likes of John Cougar Mellencamp and Rod Stewart.
The cult favorite Project X followed, but it was the harrowing true-crime drama The Accused that cemented his success, garnering star Jodie Foster her first Oscar. (Ironically, Foster thought she was so bad in the role she almost left the business... and then she won the Oscar and the rest is history.)
While Kaplan never quite topped that success on the big-screen, he had some modest successes along the way, including Immediate Family, Unlawful Entry, Love Field, Bad Girls (a female-led Western with Drew Barrymore) and Brokedown Palace (with a young Claire Danes and Kate Beckinsale- sort of the female Midnight Express). He also paid tribute to his cult movie roots with Reform School Girl, part of Showtime's Rebel Highway series of cult movie remakes.
However, his biggest success came as the co-executive producer on the long-running medical drama ER, which he worked on for its entire run, also directing some 40 episodes along the way. He followed that up with the modestly successful TV crime drama Without a Trace, which ran for around four years, and for which he also directed 9 episodes, in addition to serving as the co-executive producer. He still directs now and again, including 8 episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Over the Edge marks the writing debut of Tim Hunter, who co-scripted, along with Charlie S. Haas (Tex, Gremlins 2), who was inspired to write the film after he read about a real-life incident in the San Francisco Examiner, in which a group of teens went on a crime spree in California because they were "bored." Hunter would go onto to co-write and direct Tex, before directing one of the seminal teen films of the 80's- and one of my all-time favorite cult classics, River's Edge.
As with a lot of people on this list, he divided his career from there on out between the big screen and small one, including gigs working on the original Twin Peaks; Eerie, Indiana; Fallen Angels; Mad Men, Breaking Bad, American Horror Story, Hannibal, Pretty Little Liars, Scream: The TV Series and Riverdale. Note how a lot of these deal with dark themes, often involving teens and towns with dark secrets- no matter how hard you try to distance yourself...
Movies include Paint It Black, Lies of The Twins, The Saint of Fort Washington (with Matt Dillon), The Colony, The People Next Door, The Maker, Anatomy of a Hate Crime about the death of Matthew Shepard), The Failures, Control (not the one about Joy Division, the one with Ray Liotta) and Kings of South Beach. His latest is the Nicolas Cage-starring thriller Looking Glass. As with his small screen work, dark themes abound in most of his films.
Over the Edge remains a potent blend of comedy, coming-of-age drama and teen rebellion that holds up remarkably well to this day. The soundtrack is great, also including a memorable scene set to Jimi Hendrix's classic "Come On (Part One)" and the somewhat on-the-nose "Ooh Child," sung by Valerie Carter here. It's a bit heavy on the Cheap Trick- reportedly they were a big favorite of star Ludwig- but it's still pretty solid, if no Dazed & Confused.
I think it would be a full-on punk classic if it had a bit more in the way of punk music, but as it stands, it's certainly punk in spirit, if not in outward appearances. In a way, it's almost like Rock and Roll High School, if it were played straight, more or less, some stoner humor notwithstanding. And The Ramones do make an appearance- musically, that is- so, yeah, if you like that film, or thought it would have been better if it weren't so silly, then you'll probably dig this one.
But the most impressive thing for me was that, even after all this time had passed, and I'd all but forgotten it, I still found it really riveting and engrossing. It'd be nice if it could get a Blu-Ray with all the bells and whistles, but until such a time comes, if it ever does, there's a DVD with a commentary available, and it's ready to stream on Amazon and YouTube.
If you like movies about teens that are gritty and real, this one's definitely for you. Be aware that there are some things in it that might be triggering for some people- the "F" word is used liberally, and I don't mean "fuck," as well as "retard" and I already mentioned that guns play a part- but overall, it's not too bad compared to some movies of the period, and, unlike some of the more fanciful teen movies of the 80's, this one has some real bite.
By all means, check it out- and recommend it to your friends, if you like it. This one could use some more love. It deserves to be better known than it is. 😎
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