Posted on 03/22/2016 12:34:53 PM PDT by Borges
In the spring of 1979, a small-budget movie with a somewhat corny-sounding name was released in just a handful of theaters in New York and Los Angeles, only to be pulled a few days later due to concerns that audiences would riot. Based (loosely) on a true story about suburban youth gone wild in the suburbs of San Francisco in the early 70s, Over the Edge would never receive wide distribution. In fact, over the next 25 years, the film would be shown in only a few art houses and on cable TV, until its eventual DVD release in September 2005.
The film, as certain critics like to label it, is a “lost classic,” and yet—unlike the majority of lost or “cult” classics—Over the Edge is actually worth seeking out. Filled with scenes that are difficult to shake, with teen characters played by real-life teenagers, and with an authenticity so intense that it appears at times as if the film could very well be a documentary, Over the Edge remains as thrilling today as it must have appeared three decades ago. While somewhat raw and certainly not without imperfections, it’s easy to understand why Kurt Cobain claimed that the movie “pretty much defined my whole personality,” and why it so heavily influenced Richard Linklater in making his own ode to restless youth, Dazed and Confused.
Starring a 14-year-old Matt Dillon in his first screen role, as well as a cast of mostly young unknowns (discovered, for the most part, while they were ditching school), Over the Edge manages to highlight a problem that has only grown and become more problematic since the 70s: kids, stuck in the suburbs, far from any city center, with nothing much to do beyond the usual Teen Axis of Evil: drugging, drinking, and petty-criminal acts.
(Excerpt) Read more at vice.com ...
Ever see this?
Great flick, one of those I will always stop to watch if I catch it on tv. This is the movie that made Matt Dillon “King of the Juvenile Delinquents” for the next decade of film.
Haven’t seen this film in ages. It used to play on HBO frequently back in the 80s. It was as much “based on a true story” as “The Wild One” (i.e. Not much at all). Great soundtrack and real-time depiction of 70s youth culture.
I saw this back in the 70s and own the DVD. Good flick.
There’s a scene where Dillon refers to Jimi Hendrix as ‘old sh&*t’. This was slightly before the emergence of ‘Classic Rock’ radio that would make the 60s artists hip again.
The script was loosely based on “Mouse Packs” an article series which appeared in the 1974 San Francisco Chronicle.
They got the hair and the Schwinn Stingrays.
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