Giovani guerrieri

I first saw the movie when it opened in the spring of 1980, on a double bill with "Little Darlings". I ended up seeing it twice. I was the age of the kids in the film at the time, and my bull***t detector didn't go off once during the course of watching this film. The kids were real, the words natural and unaffected, and the whole thing about the boredom that is so prevailing when you're a teenager was right on the money. I remember as I watched the movie thinking that the clothes the kids were wearing looked worn just enough, like they had come out of the actors' own closets. Matt Dillon's first movie - I read that he auditioned for the part as something to do while he skipped school for a day. He reminded me utterly of my then high school boyfriend, right down to the voice, clothes and cocky attitude. The music was exactly what me and all my friends were listening to - Cheap Trick (the earlier, not-played-on-the-radio songs) and the Cars. Ok, so perhaps it was a little unrealistic at parts, and the soundtrack could have done without the Valerie Carter song, but wow, what a great little movie. Rent a copy, go home, slap it in your vcr, and get out your bong and a couple of beers. You won't be dissapointed, not even a little bit.

The kids are not all right in New Granada!

This film very accurately portrays what life was really like for many teenagers who lived in the suburbs during the 1970s.

Growing up, my own life was very much like those of the teens in this movie: I was a teenager in the mid-70s and I lived in exactly the same sort of constantly under-development, suburban wasteland where whole mobs of kids were pretty much left to their own devices by parents who were too busy chasing the American Dream to notice what we were really up to; a place where there was easy access to lots and lots of cheap drugs and alcohol, and where boredom reigned supreme (remember, these were the days before the Internet, VCRs, or even home video games).

If you were ever rebellious and grew up during the same time period and in the same sort of suburban community, then I guarantee that virtually every character in this movie will remind you of someone you knew back then (maybe even yourself!).

This was a teen movie that wasn't a 'teen' movie.

The best thing about this was how it showed that the parents imagined need to raise their kids in a sanitized environment can lead to mind-numbing boredom. Then to petty crime. Then to worse. But at the same time, the kids weren't made out to be these confused little angels either. You sympathized with them while knowing they needed to take responsibility.

Matt Dillion's debut is also his best film.

Most of the young actors were inexperienced. Some of them haven't been seen since. But they all still did a HELL of a job. Why isn't Michael Kramer better known? He was brilliant.

The one complaint I can come up with was some of the parents emotional overacting. Great film though.

John Evens Jr. High School in Greeley Colorado had a casting call prior to the filming for extras. If I remember right we got 25 dollars for each days work and we got fed.

Greeley was pretty much the perfect place for this movie. There was a huge teen violence problem there. even at age 12 I carried a pistol and roamed the city at will with other kids fearing attack from gangs of older teens. Drugs were everywhere.

The movie captured all that stupidity plus the Apathy and ignorance of the adults. I loved the scenes where we rioted in the Circus tent styled John Evens Jr. High School......made it hard to attend class the following year.

History has proved that the film makers knew what kind of society America would become...Cookie cutter homes,strip malls and teen murderers......Art predicts life.

I saw Over the Edge on a pay channel recently.

I was struck by how much it reminded me of my Jr High days in Central Texas in the late 70's. Some of the things that were strikingly similar my own experiences:

• the way the kids looked, dressed, and acted

• the landscape

• high school

• houses

• partially completed building sites

• basement parties

• the rec center (we had one in our town)

All very authentic. The only thing that broke the spell of realism was the somewhat stereotypical way the adults were portrayed, but I guess it was a necessary plot device.

One scene particularly brought back a memory that I hadn't thought about in some time. The kids are in the house under construction playing with the loaded gun. It accidentally goes off, and Carl pretends to have been hit.

In our town, one of the kids in the neighborhood accidentally shot in the head and killed another neighborhood kid with his father's pistol.