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Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: January 13th, 2015.
Director: Tim Hunter
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Crispin Glover, Dennis Hopper, Ione Skye, Daniel Roebuck
Year: 1986
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The Movie:
Directed by Tim Hunter in 1986, River's Edge was actually based on a real-life murder case that took place in California. The movie beings when the naked body of a murdered girl is discovered on the banks of a muddy river. Shortly after, at the local high school, Samson (Daniel Roebuck) boasts to his friends Matt (Keanu Reeves), Clarissa (Ione Skye), Layne (Crispin Glover) and a few others that he was the one responsible for the murder - he's able to offer up a disturbing amount of detail, but many of his peers still doubt him.
Later on, full of drugs and booze, the teenagers head to the murder scene and find that the body he had previously told them about is still there, just as he described it. They now believe that Samson really did kill this girl but instead of going to the cops and reporting him, they instead decide pretty much unanimously to keep quiet about all of this. In fact, Layne starts to look to an older man named Feck (Dennis Hopper), the local drug fiend, for help getting rid of the body. As the days pass, Matt, understandably, starts to question his decision to go along with this. After he decides to go to the police, he finds himself at odds with those who were previously his friends and that his younger brother, a troubled kid named Tim (Joshua Miller), has also become involved.
Written by Neal Jimenez the story here makes some interesting, albeit now fairly obvious by modern standards, observations about media obsessed teenagers and the desensitization that can accompany those obsessions. Some of the characters in the movie connect more intimately with TV shows than with their flesh and blood peers and siblings but the dialogue that they spout off is a little too ham-fisted for its own good. There's a decent enough story here, however, and that's part of the reason the movie is well remembered and liked.
The main reason though? The cast. This is an early film for Reeves but it helped launch his career. Long before he got 'huge' with The Matrix movies he played scruffy, pot smoking slacker Matt in this film and he did it fairly well. As the character most likely to be considered a protagonist, Reeves is given a decent part and while he'd go on to be joked about for his penchant for 'woh' style acting, he does just fine with this material. He looks the part too, but in typical Reeves fashion he does seem very distant from much of what's happening. Running circles around everyone else, however, is Crispin Glover as the completely unhinged Layne. This kid is off the wall, completely hyper and more than a little delusional - in short, the right sort of part for Glover to play. The actor does not go for subtle here, but he's a lot of fun to watch even when the movie is doing its damnedest to come across as a serious, dark drama. The rest of the cast have the typically zoned out, uninterested teenager thing down to a science but because of this they don't stand out so much. And then there's Dennis Hooper, well cast as a drug dealer who is more than a little removed from everyday society. He lives alone with an inflatable blow-up doll he's named after his ex-girlfriend that he shot dead years ago and he's definitely the WRONG guy for Layne to go to for help. Watching Hopper and Glover act alongside one another in the movie is a big part of its appeal.
There's some nice style to the camera work. The small California town where all of this unfolds is nicely shot and we get some camerawork that is not only inspired and creative but quite effective in creating mood as well. The soundtrack features a few choice Slayer tracks and some Agent Orange too but this clashes in strange ways with the mid-eighties stereotypical synthesizer tracks that make up the original score. Somehow though, that fits with the characters - we get that weird mix of over the top and unusually subdued in the music as we do in the performances.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Kino gives River's Edge a nice looking AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.85.1 widescreen. It's a little soft in spots but you definitely see the advantages that HD offers here in both improved detail and texture. Grain is never hard to spot and sometimes heavier than at other times, but it's not overpowering or distracting. Minor print damage does show up here and there. Skin tones seem accurate, black levels are good. The transfer won't floor you, that softness would seem to be inherent in the elements, but it's a nice HD presentation of the movie and the good most certainly outweighs the bad by quite a margin.
The only audio option on the disc is an English language DTS-HD 2.0 track and it sounds just fine. Clarity is good, there's a reasonable amount of depth and range to the mix and the levels are properly balanced throughout. Hiss and distortion are non-issues and both the score and effects have good presence. Optional English language closed captioning is provided.
The main extra on the disc is a commentary track with director Tim Hunter that is definitely worth listening to. Hunter seems keen here to talk about the making of the film as he goes into quite a bit of detail surrounding the events leading up to the picture before then sharing some stories about the shoot. He covers what it was like working with a younger cast as well as with a more experienced (and eccentric) actor like Hopper and also discusses the pros and cons of shooting the movie on location. He also talks up the script, the cinematography and the editing and along the way offers up plenty of little anecdotes as well as his thoughts on various aspects of the production itself.
The disc also includes a theatrical trailer for the feature, static menus and chapter selection.
The Final Word:
River's Edge has lost some of its bite over the years but it remains a pretty engaging and occasionally twisted dramatic thriller. Crispin Glover's fans will appreciate his work here as he's the one that really stands out but Reeves and Hopper do a fine job in front of the camera as well. The movie is well shot and quite tense, and Kino's Blu-ray release offers a nice upgrade over the previously released DVD (which, if memory serves, was completely barebones).
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
