River's Edge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| River's Edge | |
|---|---|
 River's Edge DVD cover |
|
| Directed by | Tim Hunter |
| Produced by | Sarah Pillsbury Midge Sanford |
| Written by | Neal Jimenez |
| Starring | Crispin Glover Keanu Reeves Ione Skye |
| Music by | Jürgen Knieper |
| Cinematography | Frederick Elmes |
| Editing by | Howard E. Smith Sonya Sones |
| Distributed by | Ascot Video MGM Home Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | September 10, 1986 (Toronto Film Festival) |
| Running time | 99 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,700,000 (estimated) |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
River's Edge is a 1986 crime/drama movie starring Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye, Daniel Roebuck, and Dennis Hopper.
While the screenplay is fiction, it draws from the 1981 murder of fourteen year-old Marcy Conrad, who was raped and strangled to death by Anthony Jaques Broussard in Milpitas, California. Broussard later showed the body to at least thirteen different people; nobody bothered to report the crime. [1] [2]
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
River's Edge is a cinematic portrayal of hopelessly delinquent youths, their unconscionable actions and the dysfunctional relationships, mind-numbing drugs and caustic environment that made them so. The teens' misplaced loyalties, disturbing indifference and deviant behaviour are set to a nihilistic heavy metal soundtrack.
A group of high school friends discover that they are in the presence of a killer. One of them, Samson, has murdered his girlfriend Jamie. He brags to his friends about killing her, and when they discover he is telling the truth their reactions vary. Layne, the self-proclaimed leader of the group, is intent on keeping the murder a secret and protecting Samson, while the rest of the group (Matt, Clarissa, Maggie and Tony) want to go to the police. Matt's tough little twelve-year-old brother knows about the body and also knows which one of the five friends has been disloyal to Samson by telling the cops. The friends who were shown the body originally did not inform the police because they were threatened after being shown the body.
[edit] Cast
- Crispin Glover ... Layne
- Keanu Reeves ... Matt
- Ione Skye ... Clarissa
- Daniel Roebuck ... Samson 'John' Tollet
- Dennis Hopper ... Feck
- Roxana Zal ... Maggie
- Joshua John Miller ... Tim
- Josh Richman ... Tony
- Phil Brock ... Mike
- Tom Bower ... Det. Bennett
- Constance Forslund ... Madeleine
- Leo Rossi ... Jim
- Jim Metzler ... Mr. Burkewaite
[edit] Trivia
- According to the Internet Movie Database, most outdoor scenes were shot in and around Tim Hunter's hometown of Sacramento. Hunter has stated that many of the film's characters were based on friends with whom he grew up there.
- Then-independent California record label Metal Blade Records provided the metallic soundtrack, featuring artists from their roster like Slayer, Hallow's Eve and Fates Warning. Many reviews note the choice of music's effectiveness in conveying the brutal and detached existence of the characters.
