Science Current Events | Science News | Brightsurf.com
 

View Larger Image

River's Edge


by David Streit, Derek Gibson, Gabrielle Liuzzi, John Daly, Midge Sanford, Sarah Pillsbury, Neal Jimenez
Directed by Tim Hunter
Starring Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye, Daniel Roebuck, Dennis Hopper
MGM (Video & DVD)

List Price: $14.98
15 New starting at: $3.98
19 Used starting at: $4.25
Sales Rank: 12789
Release Date: January 23, 2001
Rated:  
Running Time: 99 minutes
Theatrical Release: May 08, 1987
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)


FORMATS

  • Anamorphic
  • Closed-captioned
  • Color
  • DVD-Video
  • Widescreen
  • NTSC


EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Description
Based on the horrifying real-life murder of a young California girl, this "powerful portrait" (Newsweek) of deadly, disaffected teens stars Keanu Reeves (The Matrix), Crispin Glover (Charlie's Angels), Ione Skye Leitch (One Night Stand), Daniel Roebuck (Final Destination) and Dennis Hopper (Ed TV) in a tale that is "chilling to witness" (The New York Times). On the bank of a river lies the naked body of a brutally murdered young girl. Atthe nearby high school, Samson (Roebuck) brags to Matt (Reeves) and his friends about how he killedher. Drunk and stoned, the doubting teens trudge to the river and discover that he isn't lying. Andoddly, they decide to protect Samson behind a loyal wall of secrecy. Tormented with guilt, Matt questions their silence and suddenly finds himself in a troubling position: should he do what he thinksis right, or should he keep quiet and live with this demon for the rest of his life?

Amazon.com
This disturbing little film is even more unsettling when you think about the fact that it's based on an actual case. Troubled teen Samson murders his girlfriend Jamie for no particular reason, leaves her nude body by the river's edge, then brings his friends to see the corpse to prove he did it. They look at her, prod her, and talk about her, but no one seems to manage to feel anything. River's Edge is ultimately a study of kids who are so numbed by drugs, casual parenting, and the ever present threat of nuclear war that not even death can get a rise out of them. A young Keanu Reeves is surprisingly poised as Matt, the one character with a few shreds of empathy left. His quiet performance is powerful enough to hold the audience's interest even with Crispin Glover and Dennis Hopper both being as crazy as they can be. Glover steals much of the movie with his whacked-out performance as Layne, the group's leader. He undercuts his teen alpha-male power with a nervous giggle, and the spin he puts on much of his dialogue manages to be scary and funny at the same time--after hiding Jamie's body for Samson, he complains: "You'd think I'd at least rate a Michelob!" River's Edge is not necessarily a pleasant movie, but it is certainly a compelling one. --Ali Davis


CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 46 reviews)

Chilling tale of kids on the edge  
Samson "John" (Daniel Roebuck) strangles his girlfriend Jamie because she was "talkin' ####." Then, he shows all his friends the nude body.

"A bunch of us are going to check it out," one girl tells another. "It's probably some joke."

But, the kids are going to visit the body by truck loads. They literally convince one of them to cut work to ferry a bunch of kids out to the riverside so everyone can see.

"Nobody has to find out." Layne (Glover) the self appointed ringleader of the young people, tells the group. "There are a lot of people here, we bury her so she doesn't have to be found." Their ersatz leader is doing his best to keep the gang together, to get John out of town when the police start searching for him because Jamie's dead and they can only help John.

One of the boys' big adult role models is Feck (Dennis Hopper) an ex-biker who admits to having killed a girl he loved with his gun. Feck provides the kids drugs and plays a key role in John's escape attempt.

It seems, the only kid concerned is one girl, Clarissa (Ione Skye) who is too afraid to call the police because John might hurt her next. And still her reaction is muted. "I couldn't cry for her," she confesses. "I could cry for that guy in "Brian's Song", but I couldn't cry for her..."

All this is juxtaposed with a little girl's grief over her lost toy. The toy gets a burial and a grave marker. The girl's death is hidden.

"I don't know how I felt," Matt (Keanu Reeves) the kid who eventually told the cops, said when asked about seeing the body of the girl. This is pretty much a reflection of the reactions of most of the kids who've witnessed the girl's body.

Finally, near the end when John's situation gets desperate, he tells precisely why he killed Jamie. The situation goes from bad to worse as the kids are frenzied by John's act run rampant around the town, committing robbery, assault, etc.

"The River's Edge" literally had me on the edge of my seat. There are enough holes and inconsistencies in the plot and bad acting by some of the cast to have me shaking my head, I doubt I will forget the film any time soon.

While this film is a work of fiction, it is based on the true story of the killing of Marcy Conrad by her boyfriend in 1981.

Rebecca Kyle, December 2008
December 24, 2008

crispin glover: dont feed him sugar  
John, this hulking tall kid, kills this girl for making fun of his mom or something. And then he shows his friends and they basically have these very lackluster reactions. No one is scared, no one freaks out, and no one even thinks its incredibly cool. Crispin Glover's character tries to hide the body. The actual murderer John doesnt seem to care if he gets caught or not. He seriously acts like a walking brick. Keanu Reeve's brother in the movie is that annoying little brother from Teen Witch ("A DOG! A DOG! A DOG!"). Crispin Glover is this schizoid freak who just drives around, tries to smoke weed, and hide that girl's body. I didnt feel for any of the characters nor did I care for their plight. I am all for the disaffected youth movies, but this was just annoying and boring to watch.

And how is Keanu a "great" actor in this movie? Keanu isnt a great actor in any movie! He's a sobered version of Bill from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure in EVERY role.

"Woah"
December 15, 2008

The Bizarro World Of Teenagers  
If it came out today, River's Edge would be dubbed an indie flick, which is what it was, only back in the `80's I'm sure it was called something like "low-budget" because no doubt it was that, too. Indie, low-budget, whatever label you want to stick on this film, it actually delivers a watchable, puzzlingly intriguing plot from a young cast that by and large found later fame. Centering around the days immediately following the reasonless slaying of a teenage girl by her teenaged boyfriend, a killing that took place along a river's edge, this movie feels intellectually alienating, even as it also embroils subconscious instincts and compels a viewer to question what her or his own conduct might be if caught up in the situation presented here. A friend has committed murder, in fact unrepentantly committed murder, so what happens next? To what extent will and can normal life continue? Do you offer your friend help? "Do what is right" and go to the police? Is your friend suddenly someone to be feared? Far from being sensationalized, River's Edge proceeds so calmly downstream toward the inevitable rapids that it reaches something inside of almost everyone, even as it also disgusts, and not only for the crime at its heart, but because of the utter turmoil that exists peripherally and daily in the characters' lives. River's Edge isn't a classic but it is just different enough to stand out from most other movies of the Reagan era.
January 28, 2008

Interesting  
3.5 stars

Just saw this for the first time. Might have been a big deal 20 years ago, now it seems almost ironic. No one cares anymore about going to war with any country we're told is full of terrorists, so this is kid's stuff.
Keanu is so bad here that it's pretty funny. Glover is so weird that he actually carries this film, I'd say.
This is a topic worth exploring and a decent job of doing just that. Not great but pretty good, and most of the performances are solid, except old Mr. Reeves. My God he's helpless! Always looks cute though so that's why they keep hiring him 20 years later I guess. He seems perpetually confused in almost all of his roles. Type-casting?
Ione Skye was believably annoying, and Keanu's kid brother may have stolen this film if not for Glover's goofiness.
Worth seeing.
December 17, 2007

Back to the eighties  

You want acting? Try another movie.

You want hair and clothes from the eighties. Try this one.

This is the high school movie for the not-so-pretty youth. Happy memories of younger days. And the references to Easy Rider are hilarious.

August 23, 2007


SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Blue Velvet (Special Edition)
by Frederick Elmes, David Lynch, Duwayne Dunham, Fred C. Caruso, Richard A. Roth
Directed by David Lynch
Starring Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern, Hope Lange
MGM (Video & DVD)

Permanent Record
Directed by Marisa Silver
Starring Pamela Gidley, Alan Boyce, Michael Elgart, Jennifer Rubin, Michelle Meyrink
Paramount

My Own Private Idaho - Criterion Collection
by River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves
Starring Chiara Caselli, Mickey Cottrell, Tom Cramer, Sally Curtice, Matthew Ebert
Criterion

Wild At Heart
by David Lynch, Alan Baral, J.M. Kenny, Jonathan Strailey, Michael Kuhn, Michael Meadows, Barry Gifford
Directed by David Lynch
Starring Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe, J.E. Freeman, Crispin Glover
MGM (Video & DVD)

Tune in Tomorrow
Directed by Jon Amiel
Starring Barbara Hershey, Keanu Reeves, Peter Falk, Bill McCutcheon, Patricia Clarkson
MGM (Video & DVD)
© 2009 BrightSurf.com