Edwin Pereyra
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Oct 26, 1998
- Messages
- 3,500
In the true spirit of this series, Tim Hunter’s River’s Edge comes as a recommendation from one of the Forum members that would fit the running description of this series.
River’s Edge is based on a true story about a high school boy who kills his girlfriend. He then tells about it to his circle of friends but no one seems to do the right thing and report the incident to the authorities. Among others, the film stars Keanu Reeves as Matt, Dennis Hopper as the eccentric Feck whose main companion is a blowup doll and Crispin Glover as Layne. This is a film about alienated kids from broken homes who spend most of their time getting stoned, drinking beer and having sex. These eccentric and colorful characters become all the more chilling because of some well-delivered performances by its cast.
The film, however, left me a little indifferent and I attribute that to the lack of fully developed characters. Boys Don’t Cry and Bully, for the most part, touched on the same themes but these two films were more powerful and made for a more compelling character study. The narrative benefits from the characters’ behavior as each person’s actions are explained, even though the characters themselves may be less than moral.
Crispin Glover’s performance was so over the top that after a while, it was hard to take his character seriously. It becomes an exercise in hilarity. But director Tim Hunter is very cautious in making this comical or even a satire as he certainly wants us to take the film seriously. So in the end, I was left asking, “What was the point of this whole exercise?” Certainly, it was not to educate, enlighten, inspire, nor to entertain – the reasons why I go to see a film. If River’s Edge does have a message beyond the obvious commentary on social depravity and moral bankruptcy, it is that there is still hope for some dysfunctional kids and that doing the right thing is always the best.
But to get there Tim Hunter paints a bleak picture of a poor American society of disrespectful kids, where a mother is more worried that her son is stealing pot from her rather than setting good examples and raising them right, where a 12-year old child is bent on killing his older brother and where losing at a video game creates more of a sense of loss than a death of a fellow friend. This society of disillusioned youth and false allegiances that the filmmakers paint, while realistically may have existed in the early 1980’s (and even today), is also one that was not prevalent and an exception, for the most part. To that end, the resulting film offers very few redeeming qualities most especially in its storyline and themes and contains very little positive attributes to cling on to.
Certainly a film such as River’s Edge can be polarizing and I would like to hear from those who have seen the film.
Tino?
- - -
Film Greats – A continuing quick look at motion pictures that, in one way or another, have been called “great films” by some. Other Films In This Series: Federico Fellini’s Nights Of Cabiria : John Badham’s WarGames : John Frankenheimer’s The Train
~Edwin
River’s Edge is based on a true story about a high school boy who kills his girlfriend. He then tells about it to his circle of friends but no one seems to do the right thing and report the incident to the authorities. Among others, the film stars Keanu Reeves as Matt, Dennis Hopper as the eccentric Feck whose main companion is a blowup doll and Crispin Glover as Layne. This is a film about alienated kids from broken homes who spend most of their time getting stoned, drinking beer and having sex. These eccentric and colorful characters become all the more chilling because of some well-delivered performances by its cast.
The film, however, left me a little indifferent and I attribute that to the lack of fully developed characters. Boys Don’t Cry and Bully, for the most part, touched on the same themes but these two films were more powerful and made for a more compelling character study. The narrative benefits from the characters’ behavior as each person’s actions are explained, even though the characters themselves may be less than moral.
Crispin Glover’s performance was so over the top that after a while, it was hard to take his character seriously. It becomes an exercise in hilarity. But director Tim Hunter is very cautious in making this comical or even a satire as he certainly wants us to take the film seriously. So in the end, I was left asking, “What was the point of this whole exercise?” Certainly, it was not to educate, enlighten, inspire, nor to entertain – the reasons why I go to see a film. If River’s Edge does have a message beyond the obvious commentary on social depravity and moral bankruptcy, it is that there is still hope for some dysfunctional kids and that doing the right thing is always the best.
But to get there Tim Hunter paints a bleak picture of a poor American society of disrespectful kids, where a mother is more worried that her son is stealing pot from her rather than setting good examples and raising them right, where a 12-year old child is bent on killing his older brother and where losing at a video game creates more of a sense of loss than a death of a fellow friend. This society of disillusioned youth and false allegiances that the filmmakers paint, while realistically may have existed in the early 1980’s (and even today), is also one that was not prevalent and an exception, for the most part. To that end, the resulting film offers very few redeeming qualities most especially in its storyline and themes and contains very little positive attributes to cling on to.
Certainly a film such as River’s Edge can be polarizing and I would like to hear from those who have seen the film.
Tino?
- - -
Film Greats – A continuing quick look at motion pictures that, in one way or another, have been called “great films” by some. Other Films In This Series: Federico Fellini’s Nights Of Cabiria : John Badham’s WarGames : John Frankenheimer’s The Train
~Edwin