Over the Edge Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Over the Edge Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson March 11, 2024

Jonathan Kaplan's seventh feature Over the Edge had the misfortune of being released around the same time as other youth-oriented films like Boulevard Nights, Defiance, Walk Proud, The Wanderers, and The Warriors. Over the Edge was specifically compared to these because it was viewed as a gang movie, which was a wholly incorrect label. Lloyd Leipzig, Orion's vice president for ad­vertising and publicity at the time, confided to longtime Los Angeles Times film critic Kevin Thomas in a December 1979 interview that it was this misconception which discouraged exhibitors from screening Over the Edge and also kept audiences from seeing it in the small number of cities that showed it. Another concern for theater owners was they fretted Over the Edge would incite riots and vandalism inside their theaters. Another problem that hampered the film's initial release was that Orion's marketing department made the young teenage actors out to have piercing eyes in the one-sheet posters à la the Midwich children portrayed in Village of the Damned (1960). This simulated resemblance was not lost on critics. For instance, in one of the earliest reviews of the film to appear, Terry Lawson of The Journal Herald (Dayton, OH) wrote that Over the Edge "closely resembles Village of the Damned, an early-60s fright flick set in some Gothic burg. In that film, as in this one, the kids take over the town through terror and violence, but the elders are reluctant to harm the aggressors, because they are, after all, their children." After Over the Edge disappeared from theaters, it was resuscitated on pay-per-view TV. Ottawa Citizen columnist Richard Labonté wrote in his May 1982 review of Over the Edge that a year earlier, the film aired on PPV in New York and Los Angeles "where it was such a hit in the ratings that its theatrical life was re­vived." Kaplan's picture was a beneficiary of the film revival pro­gram at Joe Papp's Public Theater in New York. It not only received a wider release, but was more appreciated by the critics this time around.

All of the kids in Over the Edge, whether they come from upper middle-class homes or lower-income areas, are non-conformists. Their rebellious streaks are a direct result of them not having a sense of "place" in the town of New Granada. Real-estate developers from Texas are brought in to build an industrial business center to go with the sprawling condominiums. There are also well-to-do families residing in homogeneous suburban neighborhoods where the houses are relatively close together. Still, the geographical and topographical makeup of New Granada seems pretty spread out. The teens are disappointed that a planned twin cinema and bowling alley will not be built after all. One of their few refuges is the Quonset hut recreation center operated by kindly Julia (Julia Pomeroy), who all the kids like and respect. But they have few other places to go after school. (Over the Edge arrived at least a few years before films featured teens in shopping malls.)

Kids from families with varying socioeconomic backgrounds have their own share of problems. Lead protagonist Carl Willat (Michael Kramer) has loving parents but they can't connect with him or understand his needs. Carl's father Fred Willat (Andy Romano) runs a Cadillac dealership and remains dumbfounded why his son doesn't embrace New Granada more. Fred spends more time with city planners and developers after work than he does with Carl. Richie White (Matt Dillon), Carl's good pal, gets along with his mother (Laura Brew-Sluder) better than Carl does with his father. But Mrs. White doesn't see that her son needs more to do. Claude (Tom Fergus) is the stoner around New Granada Junior High School who the guys and girls like to smoke dope with and drink booze. Ed Doberman (Harry Northup) is the town's no-nonsense sheriff who's willing to bend, if not break, the law to ensure that the kids receive the punishment he feels they deserve.

The kids are not all right.

If Over the Edge has a weakness (and the film has few flaws), it's that Charles Haas and Tim Hunter's script doesn't develop a few of the primary and secondary teen characters like they do Carl. Granted, he is the main character and the screenplay does a terrific job of showing how a most decent kid gets influenced and misdirected by his peers. While Richie is in the film quite a bit, I would have loved to see more of him, especially building up his relationship to Mrs. Richie, who's really only in one scene and peripherally glimpsed in a few others. Mark, who's played memorably by Vincent Spano, is the school bully and the conflict between Carl and him is a fascinating one. But I don't feel that it's handled with the complexity that it should have been.

In re-watching Over the Edge multiple times since owning the DVD in the mid-2000s, the narrative has excellent continuity and flow thanks in large measure to how editor Robert Barrère seamlessly put the scenes together. I've been able to pick up on smaller characters and story events that the film returns and refers to later on. That it moves so well is also a testament to Kaplan, who refined the script by pruning the film from four acts to three. He coaxes wonderful performances from a group of mostly first-time actors, who give the film auras of naturalism and realism.

Over the Edge Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shout Select's recent release of Over the Edge is given a MPEG-4 AVC encode on this BD-50. The picture appears in its original theatrical exhibition ratio of 1.85:1. Shout claims that the 2K scan made from the interpositive is a "new" one. Compared to the WB DVD and Arrow transfer, which I've compared here, it boasts some appreciable differences. While grain remains present throughout, there has been some de-noising performed. For example, you can see how clearer (and a notch bluer) the sky looks in Screenshot #s 27 and 30 compared to the prior transfers. The image has also been brightened at times. One of the best examples is when the camera follows Carl and Richie in a convenience store (see frame grab #s 22-24, especially the last one). Primary and secondary colors (e.g., red, blue, and green) are more saturated on Shout's presentation than on Arrow's. Shout has encoded the feature at a mean video bitrate of 32000 kbps. My video score is 4.25/5.00.

Screenshot #s 1-15, 18, 21, 24, 27, & 30 = Shout Select 2024 BD-50 (1.85:1)
Screenshot #s 16, 19, 22, 25, & 28 = Warner Bros. 2005 DVD (1.78:1)
Screenshot #s 17, 20, 23, 26, & 29 = Arrow Video UK 2021 BD-50 (1.78:1)

The 95-minute film receives twelve scene selections from Shout.

Over the Edge Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono (1699 kbps, 24-bit) and also included an isolated music and effects track. The monaural mix is clean with no audible hiss, pops, crackles, or dropouts. The guitar twangs and bass heard in the film's opening immediately stand out. Delivery is clear. Compared to Arrow's single mono track, I feel Shout's 2.0 mono doesn't have the same punchy and aggressive sound to it. I listened to both mixes at similar volume levels. Still, Shout's mono mix is well-rendered here.

Optional English SDH are available for the feature.

Over the Edge Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Shout has retained some of Arrow's extras and produced a few recent interviews of its own with the director and a co-writer.

• Audio Commentary With Director Jonathan Kaplan, Producer George Litto, and Writers Tim Hunter & Charlie Haas - this feature-length track was first recorded for the Warner Bros. DVD in 2005. Because the filmmakers went on to work with some of the same cast members in later features, they developed an intimate familiarity with them and share a number of anecdotes from their collaborations. This is a lively and jovial chat. A gap occurs 35 minutes in that lasts for several minutes. There's also a few more gaps throughout the track. In English, not subtitled.

• Audio Commentary With Star Michael Kramer and Journalist Mike Sacks - recorded in 2018, this full-length commentary has been ported over from Arrow's release. Sacks is an über fan and expert of everything Over the Edge so he was very well qualified to commentate on it here. Among the numerous topics he covers, along with Michael Kramer who joins him on the recording, are auditions, the ultra-rare novelization by Charlie Haas and Tim Hunter based on their screenplay (which I'd love to obtain a copy of), backstories of the film's characters, off-screen activities while taking a break from filming, and the songs in the film. This is a highly substantive track and an arguably better listen than the archival DVD commentary. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Watch Out for Children – Making OVER THE EDGE – An Interview With Director Jonathan Kaplan (16:03, 1080p) - this Zoom interview with Kaplan, conducted last year by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures, finds the director reminiscing briefly about two Seventies films (Truck Turner and White Line Fever) and an unproduced Sex Pistols film that preceded Over the Edge. He then goes into the actors chosen for his 1979 indie, filming at the junior high school, the polishing he made of Hunter and Haas's script, and working for Orion. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Coming Of Age – Writing OVER THE EDGE – An Interview With Screenwriter Charlie Haas (17:08, 1080p) - Haas details his days at the University of Santa Cruz where he got to know Tim Hunter, the newspaper article Hunter and he used as a basis for their screenplay, and lots of reflections about making the film. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW My Father Told Me – Scoring OVER THE EDGE – An Interview With Jonathan Kaplan About His Father, Composer Sol Kaplan (14:10, 1080p) - Kaplan delivers a very fine remembrance and appreciation of his father, Sol. He gives a mini-bio of him that dates to his music composition and conducting education at the Curtis Institute of Music where he was a classmate of Leonard Bernstein. Jonathan also discusses his dad's apprenticeship under Alfred Newman and working for Darryl F. Zanuck at Fox. He examines his father's score for Over the Edge and even analyzes particular cues as they're heard in the film. In English, not subtitled.

• Wide Streets + Narrow Minds (1:12:46, 1080p) - a retrospective 2021 documentary produced by Arrow Video and directed by Elijah Drenner. It covers Over the Edge's inception, production, and legacy. The doc contains interviews from a couple years ago with various cast and crew members, including co-writer Tim Hunter, director Jonathan Kaplan, co-writer Charlie Haas, talent scouts Jane Bernstein and Linda Feferman, as well as production designer Jim Newport. We also hear from stars Matt Dillon (Richie), Michael Kramer (Carl), Tom Fergus (Claude), Vincent Spano (Mark), Pamela Ludwig-Dreyfus (Cory), Julia Pomeroy (Julia), Harry Northup (Doberman), Kimberly C. Ehmke (Abby), Jeff Fleury (Outlaw), and Diane Reeve (Marcy). Also interviewed are the two journalists who wrote the "Mousepacks" article for the San Francisco Examiner, Bruce Koon and Jim Finefrock. Each of the seven parts of this doc must be played individually because, unlike Arrow, Shout has not included a "Play All" option. All interviewees speak in English, not subtitled.

• Destruction: Fun or Dumb? (12:47, 1080p) - the full educational short excerpted within Over the Edge, remastered in HD. The footage appears to have been shot in Philadelphia. In English, not subtitled.

• Trailers (5:58, upconverted to 1080p) - these include Orion's official trailer for Over the Edge, which is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby Digital 1.0 (160 kbps). It has been fully restored and sports only a few age-related artifacts. Also included is a longer (German) trailer for Over the Edge (known in Germany as Anger in the Belly), which is presented in 1.33:1. The actors are dubbed in German and unlike the Arrow presentation, this one doesn't have English subtitles. Finally, there's a UK VHS promo that's in good condition considering it's from an old tape.

• TV Spots (1:05, upscaled to 1080i) - two unrestored TV spots that aired in the US. These are packaged like mini-teaser trailers.

Over the Edge Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Over the Edge has been accurately appraised as a superb troubled youth/social problem picture. It is also a transitional film in the sense that several Eighties movies would feature realtors and property developers as villains (e.g., The Goonies and *batteries not included). Shout has attempted to make some cosmetic improvements to the transfer on Arrow's release with mixed results. I prefer Arrow's presentation. Shout has recorded two recent interviews with Kaplan and Haas that both repeat and add some fresh information about the film. (The piece about Jonathan's father is sincere and revealing.) Shout has brought over some of Arrow's bonus materials but it's missing several others. A VERY SOLID RECOMMENDATION.