End of Innocence

There is a faint similarity between friends protecting friends films, "Blue Ridge Fall" and "A Simple Plan". While the former eventually peters out to mediocrity, the latter is "cult movie" material. "Blue Ridge Fall" starts out strong with one of the friends killing his abusive father, and the other three helping him to cover up the crime. Character development is good,and the small town Carolina atmosphere acceptable. Where the story begins to unravel is in the inept police work. No fingerprints or DNA are even hinted at being looked for. Instead the film churns on focusing on relationships and loyalty. The ending is especially weak, with justice far from served. - MERK

Generally fairly good movie, although a few plot twists seemed contrived. The characters were well-rounded enough that I didn't mind that too much; I was interested in seeing what they would do and how they would develop as a result, so I was willing to overlook the implausibility factor here or there. I'd say it was worth it; the acting is solid and there's a lot of thoughtful interplay between the characters.

My only major objection was the ridiculous role of "Christianity" in the life of the abusive father character (Tom Arnold). Supposedly he's into the Bible and watches TV evangelists with his full attention, and uses what he thinks he's learned from this to justify mistreating his wife. Sorry, Hollywood; that's not insightful, it's just insulting. If you want to portray Christianity in a small town, why not show it across the lives of a representative proportion of the characters, letting the misunderstandings of the lone nutcase stand out against the rest? That would make for a more intelligent -- and believable -- script. (Of course, you might have to actually _understand_ Christianity for that to work. ;-)

Overall, I give it a 5. Won't change your life, but worth watching if you don't have anything better to do.

I had gone past this movie at Blockbuster, never giving it a second look. Then one night while I was channel surfing, I stumbled across it on one of the movie channels. It was half way over, but I watched it anyway. I liked what I did get to see, so I went back to the video store and rented it. It turned out to be a pretty good movie after all.

The plot is good and it features a talented young cast, particularly Eastman as the simple-minded abused "Aaron." Eastman is probably best remembered (if at all) as "Joey" from A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3 & 4. BLUE RIDGE FALL definitely showcases his talent as an actor. The film also features a distinguished supporting cast, including Amy Irving as Aaron's battered mother, Tom Arnold as his abusive father & Chris Isaak as the sheriff.

I found the most disturbing thing about this movie is not the fact that Aaron murders his father, but that the entire town, including Aaron's friends and the law, seemed to know about the violence in his home, yet did nothing about it. Although Aaron's mother seems to bear the brunt of her husband's physical abuse, Aaron suffers more mental and emotional abuse at the hands of his father (as well as getting hit), which is just as painful and destructive as any physical blow. His only escape is through his drawings and his friendships with Shane, Taz & especially Danny, the golden boy high school football star.

BLUE RIDGE FALL is definitely worth renting. It's a good movie about loyalty, friendship & the effects that family violence and abuse can have.

I missed the very beginning so maybe I missed something. I would appreciate any answers. I watched this mainly because the story was supposed to be fairly close to where I live. But I couldn't relate to much about this story, setting, or people. Is there any town in NC like this? When was this supposed to have taken place? Recently? Where do they drive 15 year old police cars and 25 year old trucks? Or was it supposed to be early 1980's? Did WCU have an African American football coach back then? I think it's important to know the era, because of the racial sub-theme.

This movie was outstanding from start to finish with excellent performances from the actor and the cinematography was excellent also. The script was well written as well plus it makes you think about how far would you go to protect a friend and the ending was a tragedy in what finally happened to the characters.