Event

CFS Presents OVER THE EDGE in 35mm! Tim Hunter in Person

Screenwriter Tim Hunter in Person!
OVER THE EDGE
Directed by Jonathan Kaplan * 1979
Inspired by a local newspaper article about a rash of juvenile crimes in the suburbs, writers Charles Haas and Tim Hunter created a script about the implosion of a middle-class planned community in Colorado and rounded up a crew of very young and eerily talented nonactors, including the burning ember that was a 14-year-old Matt Dillon. Jonathan Kaplan (of "White Line Fever" and "Truck Turner" fame) signed on to direct, and what resulted was one of the most beautiful and respectful films about teenage rebellion ever made. Amidst the soul-sucking prefabs and potential real estate developments of New Granada, CO, is a seething, angry mass of kids: ignored by their parents, sick with boredom, deeply loyal to each other, distrustful of authority, and not a whole lot to do except cause a whole lot of trouble. Roger Ebert aptly called it, depressing and harrowing and often very real the other side of the coin of 'Breaking Away.' Woefully mismanaged by a studio that made weak attempts to market it as a horror film before dropping it from theaters altogether, the true-to-form "Over the Edge" refused to be ignored, eventually entering heavy rotation on cable, becoming a well-deserved cult classic, and influencing celebrity slackers from Kurt Cobain (who claimed, That movie pretty much defined my whole personality) to Richard Linklater, who cited it as an inspiration for his stoner odyssey "Dazed and Confused." Its the sort of film that can still reach you from the small screen, but will wreck you in the theater. And the Cheap Trick-heavy soundtrack will be much, much louder. (RL)
95 min * Orion Pictures * 35mm from the Academy Film Archive, permission Warner Bros.

Preceded by: Back Alley Oproar (Friz Freleng, 1948) 7 min 16 mm

This short was personally selected by Tim Hunter, co-writer of "Over the Edge"