Forgotten Teens of the Movie Screen Pt 3.
‘Over the Edge’. (1979. Dir: Jonathan Kaplan)
“That movie pretty much defined my whole personality. It was really cool. Total anarchy.”
- Kurt Cobain praising ‘Over the Edge’.
It’s easy to see why the late Nirvana legend fell for Jonathan Caplan’s film; a loose re-imagining of a real-life incident in 70’s California where the bored and neglected teen inhabitants of a bleak suburban backwater violently struck out against the town’s authority figures. From its poignantly authentic depiction of teen life to its explosive adult-baiting climax, ‘Over the Edge’ is possibly cinemas purest portrayal of teen angst.
By pure I mean raw and honest. No punches are pulled. The realistically youthful cast talk and look like teenagers (albeit very 70’s teenagers)- they are in equal parts energetic, funny, sensitive and volatile. They experiment with drugs, get drunk, swear like troopers, party, have sex and finally, get angry with their parents and the police. Really angry.
Add to this combustible recipe a thumpngly evocative hard rock soundtrack (Hendrix, Van Halen, Cheap Trick, The Ramones among others) and you can almost see the lighbulb sparking to life in Kurt’s head.
If you want a crudely sketched idea of ‘Over the Edge’- think Richard Linklater’s ‘Dazed and Confused’ with a bitter dose of 70’s grit and pessimism salting the happy/sad nostaligia (the above trailer makes it look like a straight- up violent thriller, which it really isn’t) . Linklater certainly appears to have used the look and feel of the film as a blueprint. He acknowledges its impact too:
“I’d like to think that Over the Edge influenced Dazed and Confused,especially along the lines of its honest depiction of the teens themselves—flawed, romantic, angry, bored. Over the Edge not only has the courage of its own convictions, but it provides the ultimate in teenage revenge fantasies—what so many of us would like to do at that age: firebombing the school and the P.T.A. inside. I’ve always said, half jokingly, that that’s the truest ending to any real teenage movie I’ve ever seen”
‘Dazed and Confused’ with explosions. What’s not to love?
This no holds barred, ‘true’ depiction of the teenager’s really rather naughty behaviour makes for a movie that still feels deliciously subversive- the moment where a twelve year old trips out on acid in class and later scenes of handgun brandishing youths torching parked cars remain startling (not least because, unusually for American cinema, the cast are as young as the kids they’re portraying). Kaplan’s refusal to colour such scenes with tutting judgement against the characters is enough to give your average Daily Mail columnist a seizure.
That the tabloids never got to register their disgust might be because the film slipped their attention. In 1979, the studio Orion pretty much buried the damn thing for fear that the explosive finale might incite copycat violence. In Britain, ‘Over the Edge’ lacks the pop- notoriety of comparable teen films like ‘If’ and ‘The Warriors’ because sadly, it barely got screened.
Kaplan’s movie however is no mindless shock-fest; this is a cautionary tale; a film that rages against adults who complacently put their own interests before those of their children. Here, the parents are mostly former city dwellers who have moved their families to the suburbs to enjoy a quieter, safer existence. The kids are bored and angry because the underfunded suburb is utterly un-stimulating - no cinema, no shopping malls, sports clubs or amusement arcades- just a youth club that inevitably becomes the nexus of their ill-behavior and parents too wrapped up in themselves to notice.
Their rebellion is vengeance against the adults for ignoring and mis-treating them. Neglect has turned these kids towards the criminal activity their parents were trying to escape from when they left the city. They wanted space and serenity, but their planned and recently built neighbourhood transpired to be stifling and hopeless. As Chicago Sun Times critic Roger Ebert noted at the time of the film’s release “‘Over the Edge’ is a funeral service held at the grave of the suburban dream”.
Elsewhere, ‘Over the Edge’ contains a wealth of standout elements. In his debut role, Matt Dillon updates the tragic James Dean rebel trope for a brasher, harsher, more real age by bringing an untutored rawness to the anti-hero role.
The film also deals with the awkward, first-time sexual experience of one of its male characters with a commendable mix of honesty and subtlety. A morning-after scene sees the boy and his slightly older girlfriend embracing before a gorgeous marmalade sunrise. It’s suffused with an understated lyrical tenderness and feels utterly real. Miles more affecting than your average Larry Clark-style leer-fest.
Above all though, it’s simply very well made. Authentically shot, memorably performed and directed with energy and guile. I could talk at further length about the film’s various qualities, but in the end I loved ‘Over the Edge’ because it was riotously entertaining. It kicked ass.
I needn’t say any more though because Vice magazine’s utterly brilliant 2009 article (by Mike Sacks) entitled ‘Over the Edge- An Oral History of the Greatest Teen Rebellion Movie of all Time’ pretty much tells you everything you would ever need to know. Read this awesome piece of journalism here: http://www.vice.com/read/over-the-edge-134-v16n9.
Finally, if you haven’t seen ‘Over the Edge’ and are seeking a coming of age drama featuring a heady mixture of dirty rock& roll, anarchic destruction, social commentary and the ecstatic agony of adolescence, I highly recommend you track down a copy. Especially if you happen to be a teenager.
