Presented by the Chicago Film Society | Screenwriter Tim Hunter in Person! | CLICK HERE to Purchase Tickets

Amidst the soul-sucking prefabs and potential real estate developments of New Granada, Colorado, is a seething, angry mass of kids: ignored by their parents, sick with boredom, deeply loyal to each other, distrustful of authority, and not a whole lot to do except cause a whole lot of trouble. Inspired by a local newspaper article about a rash of juvenile crimes in the suburbs, writers Charles Haas and Tim Hunter created a script about the implosion of a middle-class planned community and rounded up a crew of very young and eerily talented nonactors, including the burning ember that was a 14-year-old Matt Dillon. The result was one of the most beautiful and respectful films about teenage rebellion ever made. Woefully mismanaged by a studio that made weak attempts to market it as a horror film before dropping it from theaters altogether, OVER THE EDGE became a cult classic, influencing celebrity slackers from Kurt Cobain to Richard Linklater.

Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive