On the blurb for OVER THE EDGE, a note states ‘Inspired by real-life incidents’. This is often code for, lifting from the news some sensationalised events and smoothing them into a film. The more telling point though about this teen angst, rebellion drama is who from the great and the good liked it. Richard Linklater films can be seen all over it, Kurt Cobain cited this as his favourite film. His grunge ideals can be seen in extremis on screen.  We join the kids of New Granada. A soulless, plastic enclave of civilization that is a ‘planned community’.  Within this ideal are a few cracks. Namely Kids. Bored, strung out or drunk, they have nothing to do. Carl (Michael Kramer) and Richie ( Matt Dillon ), have rebelled against the system and are doing anything to get by. The locals see hard fists as a fast solution but when one overzealous local police officer (Harry Northup) sets in motion a face-off between the frustrated kids and their clueless parents, the future will be riddled with the consequences…

To say that OVER THE EDGE is going to talk to a new generation, would be both silly and slightly aimless. The heart of the film is entrenched in the post Vietnam politics of America. That war left a social schism that was felt all the way up to the millennium. The idea of social control and safe communities, melted into a series of hellish locales. Think CLOCKWORK ORANGE by way of COMING HOME but with kids.

In one of the best extras on the disc, New commentary by star Michael Kramer and journalist Mike Sacks, the conversation reflects on the era (and just past it) obsession with runaway teens, violent childhoods and rage against the machine. When exposed to knowing minds, it can reveal much about the fear of youth. Projection Booth podcast episode on the film roams around in the same vein. Albeit it also seems to relish the world after the millenium, which views much of the cynical teen fun making and drug taking as self destructive and not self expression as the film does. Destruction: Fun or Dumb? is a fun short film that parodies and prodes at the self educational videos of the youth of many of us.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray transfer
• Original uncompressed mono audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Archive commentary by director Jonathan Kaplan, producer George Litto and writers Tim Hunter & Charlie Haas
• New commentary by star Michael Kramer and journalist Mike Sacks
• Isolated music and effects track
• Wide Streets + Narrow Minds, an exclusive retrospective documentary featuring newly recorded interviews with cast and crew, including Jonathan Kaplan, Tim Hunter, Charlie Haas, talent scouts Jane Bernstein and Linda Feferman, production designer Jim Newport, stars Michael Kramer, Harry Northup, Vincent Spano, Pamela Ludwig, Julia Pomeroy, Kim Kliner, Diane Reilly, Eric Lalich and others
• Full post-film Q&A from a 2010 screening at the Walter Reade Theater in New York, featuring Litto, Hunter, Haas, Bernstein, Northup, Kramer, Ludwig, Pomeroy and Tom Fergus
• Excerpts from the Projection Booth podcast episode on the film, including discussion by Mike White, Leon Chase and Heather Drain, plus interviews with Haas, Hunter, Spano, Northup and Andy Romano
• Welcome to New Granada, the full “rock operetta” by DRATS!!! inspired by the film
• Text materials, including original production notes and the 2009 VICE oral history by Mike Sacks
• Destruction: Fun or Dumb?, the full educational short excerpted within the film, in high definition
• US theatrical trailer and TV spots
• UK VHS promo
• German theatrical trailer
• Extensive image galleries, including the original Mousepacks screenplay
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sister Hyde

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring new writing by Kim Morgan and Henry Blyth, and the original San Francisco Examiner article that inspired the film