Its cult movie time here at FRONTROWREVIEWS and Radiance film have us all excited over WALKING THE EDGE, a so so, thriller that sees Robert Forster (Medium Cool) and Nancy Kwan (Flower Drum Song) on a revenge trial. This is the late 70s style revenge trail to note and so bodies and blood is going to be spilled across every surface. 
Now for many of the lighter headed kind, this is the sort of film that they rage against. Violent, yes. Exploitative, most certainly but also frank and bold. Joe Spinell (Maniac) stars as leader of a gang of violent criminals. He has knocked over a lot to get here and this includes Christine Holloway (Kwan) husband and son. Jason Walk (Forster) has a job to clean up the mess but starts one of his own. His lifes a shitshow of women cheating on him, bookies pressing him and cabbie driving scum from pillar to post. Now Jason Walk’s cab has Holloway in the back, with the two planning something that will redeem him and find her some sort of peace, long lost after the death of all that she loved and now lost. They set about town, prowling the seedier, grimier locales of Los Angeles to hunt down the bad and the baddier.
Norbert Meisel chats on the older commentary about the films making and it is obvious that TAXI DRIVER was close to his heart. But this film is miles away from that. It gleans that early on by introducing the bad (in Spinell who turns in a cracked masterwork) and the good. 
The good is Forster, who turns in a more pleasing character in Walk, than you would expect. A man we love because hes a nice guy that they world dumps on. Its a great performance, made better by Kwan not just being beautiful but also under playing her rage. Chris O’Neill very good video essay explores this in more intellegence than I could and so I wont. Randy Jurgensen, the man from many a film place in NY (my fave still being his work on CRUISING), also mentions a thing about Kwan but is more keen on discussing, in what looks like his living room, how both Forster and Spinelli were nice guys and that he got into film after FRENCH CONNECTION seemingly to meet, nice guys. But actors and people are a tough group and he mentions this light and shade in the life of a cop. His is the most compelling thing on the disc by the way. Though that new commentary is packed to the gills with energy, it kinda lets us down on what it is going for. The thing is that WALKING THE EDGE has been given a restoration in 4K from its original camera negative, which has actually awakened it for the many. But the problem is that under all that lovely new deth of colour, warmth of tone and the light in the shade, the film just isnt that good….
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- New 4K restoration from its 35mm original camera negative
- “Scoring the Edge,” a new video interview with composer Jay Chattaway
- “Det Jurgensen Remembers Forster and Spinell,” a new video interview with “French Connection Cop” Randy Jurgensen
- “Breaking Point,” a new video essay by filmmaker Chris O’Neill
- Theatrical trailer
- Image gallery
- Booklet with new essay by filmmaker and writer Jim Hemphill
- Newly recorded audio commentary by film historian Chris Poggiali and film producer Matt Verboys
- Archival audio commentary by director Norbert Meisel and stars Robert Forster and Nancy Kwan
Slipcover and booklet limited to 1000 copies
