River's Edge
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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River's Edge is a 1986 American crime drama film directed by Tim Hunter, written by Neal Jimenez, and starring Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye Leitch, Daniel Roebuck and Dennis Hopper. It follows a group of teenagers in a Northern California town who are forced to deal with their friend's murder of his girlfriend Jamie, played by Danyi Deats, and the subsequent disposal of her body. Screenwriter Jimenez partially based the film's script on the 1981 murder of Marcy Renee Conrad in Milpitas, California.
Shot in Los Angeles in 1986, the film premiered that year at the Toronto International Film Festival before Island Pictures purchased it for distribution, theatrically releasing it in the United States in May 1987. Several critics praised the film's performances, and its subject matter resulted in several critics classifying it as a contemporary horror film. It was awarded Best Picture at the 1986 Independent Spirit Awards.
Contemporary film scholars have noted River's Edge as an example of the "killer kid" film, as well as one of the most polarizing youth-oriented films of the 1980s. In a 2015 retrospective, Salon deemed it "the darkest teen film of all time." The film features an original score by Jürgen Knieper, as well as a soundtrack featuring songs from various punk and metal bands, including Slayer, Agent Orange, and the Wipers.
Plot
In Northern California, a preteen boy, Tim, throws a doll into a river. On the opposite bank, he sees teenager John smoking a cigarette while sitting next to the nude corpse of his girlfriend, Jamie. Later, at a convenience store, Tim encounters John arguing with a clerk who will not sell him beer due to being underage. Tim returns home, where his older brother Matt and mother are searching for his little sister's doll. Matt's friend Layne arrives to pick him up, and the two drive to the home of Feck, a neurotic ex-biker and drug dealer, to obtain marijuana. On the car ride there, Layne recounts a party from the night before at which John and Jamie were arguing. At school, Layne and Matt smoke with their friends Clarissa, Maggie, and Tony. Matt talks about wanting to run away to Portland, which Clarissa dismisses. John arrives and mentions that he killed Jamie. Thinking he's joking, Clarissa and Maggie leave for class. John brings Layne and Matt to view Jamie's body; Matt is disturbed, while Layne is focused on covering up the crime.
The group all plan to go see Jamie's body that evening, with Clarissa still assuming it is a practical joke. Layne's older brother, Mike, grudgingly drives them there in his truck, and they all see Jamie's body for themselves. Later that night, Clarissa calls Matt, but he is reluctant to talk to her. Meanwhile, Layne returns to the scene and pushes Jamie's body into the river. While driving afterward with John, he notices police cars near John's house. Layne panics, but John remains calm. They drive to Feck's house, and Layne leaves John there to hide out. Matt directs the police to the river, where they find Jamie's body washed up on the shore. The police subsequently interrogate him, threatening to charge him as an accessory after the fact. Matt returns home and argues with his mother and her boyfriend. When he sees that Tim has defaced the grave marker for her "dead" lost doll that their sister made, Matt chases Tim down and hits him in the face. Tim goes to his friend Moko's house and they steal Moko's father's car to drive to Feck's so Tim can obtain a gun.
In the middle of the night, Layne, Clarissa and Matt drive to Tony's house, but Tony's father chases them off with a shotgun. Layne argues with Clarissa and kicks her out of his car. Matt gets out and walks with her. They stop at a convenience store and run into John and Feck. Tim and Moko break into Feck's house looking for the gun, but instead find his stash of marijuana, which they use to get stoned and then pass out in his house. Matt and Clarissa go to a park to talk, where they confide in each other about their conflicting feelings of grief and apathy over Jamie's murder. John and Feck go to the river's edge to drink beer, with Feck bringing along his blow-up doll, Ellie. Feck confesses to murdering his own girlfriend years prior, despite having deeply loved her, whereupon John drunkenly begins to brag about killing Jamie, recounting his strangling of her with a relish that disturbs Feck. Matt and Clarissa have sex in the park nearby before falling asleep, while Layne drives around town in a panic, compulsively taking pills.
At dawn, after John falls asleep on the riverbank, Feck shoots him in the head. He returns to his home, where Tim and Moko accost him and steal his gun. The police find Layne unconscious in his car and bring him in for questioning. At school, reporters interview Maggie and Tony, who seem dispassionate. During history class, Mr. Burkewaite, a teacher Clarissa respects, discusses morality, and asks Clarissa what Jamie meant to her in front of the class, but she cannot respond. Layne calls Feck's house asking where John is, and Feck tells him he's gone to the river. Before the conversation ends, the police break down Feck's door and arrest him. The teenagers go to the river together, where they spot something floating in the river that resembles a corpse, but turns out to be Feck's doll Ellie. Matt tells Layne he told the police that John murdered Jamie. Layne runs off down the riverbank and comes across John's body. Tim arrives at the scene and holds Feck's gun on Matt, threatening to kill Matt for hitting him the night before, but Matt dissuades him.
The police arrive and escort the teenagers and Tim away as the medical examiners remove John's body. In the hospital, Feck admits to killing John "because there was no hope for him," and confesses to murdering his girlfriend years ago. Matt, Clarissa, Tony, and Maggie attend Jamie's funeral, where they show emotion at seeing her for the last time.
Cast
- Crispin Glover as Layne
- Keanu Reeves as Matt
- Ione Skye Leitch as Clarissa
- Daniel Roebuck as Samson 'John' Tollet
- Dennis Hopper as Feck
- Joshua John Miller as Tim
- Roxana Zal as Maggie
- Josh Richman as Tony
- Phillip Brock as Mike
- Tom Bower as Detective Bennett
- Yuzo Nishihara as Moko
- Constance Forslund as Madeleine
- Leo Rossi as Jim
- Jim Metzler as Mr. Burkewaite
- Richard Richcreek as Kevin
- Taylor Negron as Checker
- Danyi Deats as Jamie
- Christopher Peters as Tom
