Over the Edge

 Year of Release:  1979

Director:  Jonathan Kaplan

Screenplay:  Charles S. Haas and Tim Hunter

Starring:  Michael Kramer, Matt Dillon, Pamela Ludwig, Vincent Spano, Harry Northup, Tom Fergus

Running Time:  95 minutes

Genre:  Coming-of-age, crime, drama

In the isolated planned community of New Granada, Colorado, the adults live quiet peaceful lives in their nice houses, while their teenage kids have nothing to do except hang around at the local recreation centre (which closes at 6PM) and get into trouble.  As the instances of vandalism and other crimes committed by the kids increases, they become harassed by hated local cop Sgt. Doberman (Northup).  When the recreation centre is closed, the tensions between adults and kids escalates into violence.

This film was based on a 1973 news article from the San Francisco Examiner about gangs of kids called "Mousepacks" who had been causing chaos in a middle-class planned community in California.  The film does a good job at depicting the bland, dull and entirely white community of New Granada, where the affluent residents are more concerned about property resale values than the fact that there is nothing to do there.  The kids have a recreation centre which is little more than a large barn, and which closes at 6PM.  A planned cinema and bowling alley is revealed to have been scrapped for a business park.  The kids hang around, argue, get into fights, drink, take drugs and do pretty much what kids everywhere do.  They really are just ordinary kids, not particularly good or bad, just bored.  The adults however treat them as a problem to be locked away or yelled at, instead of talking to them.  The characters in the film are all pretty solidly middle-class and are fairly comfortable.  The kids live in large, nice houses, with plenty of cool stuff, but they are pretty much cast adrift.  This may make it sound like a worthy, message film, but, while it is a message film, it is fun, exciting and entertaining, although it does drag occasionally towards the middle.  The kids, which include a 14 year old Matt Dillon in his film debut, look and talk like real teenagers.  It also boasts a cool seventies soundtrack including Van Halen, Cheap Trick, The Cars and The Ramones.  It all comes to a satisfyingly apocalyptic conclusion.  The film wasn't a big success on it's first release, and someone had the baffling idea to market it as a horror film with a poster that made it look like Village of the Damned:  The High School Years, however it has become something of a cult film.  Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain named it as his favourite film, and it influenced the music video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit", as well as influencing the Richard Linklater film Dazed and Confused (1993).  It has inevitably dated, there are no people of colour and the kids frequently use homophobic slurs, but it still feels relevant and packs a real punch.  

The Kids Aren't All Right:  Matt Dillon and Michael Kramer go Over the Edge