Product Details

• Actors: Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye, Daniel Roebuck, Dennis Hopper
• Directors: Tim Hunter
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Polygram Video
• VHS Release Date: October 27, 1998
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305165882
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #46,313 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Editorial Reviews

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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars forget Blue Velvet..., October 28, 2000

By	Kelly EC (England) - See all my reviews

River's Edge is a shocking, real life, under-rated and very unavailible 80's cult movie. It about how a gang of teenages cope when a friend murders a girl and leaves her body naked beside the river. The haunting atmosphere and horrific imagery are comendable, but its the characters that really bring this film alive. They also bring some wonderful moments of unexpected humour (yes! It is funny!).

Okay, first and formost there's Crispin Glovers enthralling Layne. He is basically the only kid who reacts to the killing, however his warped morality makes him side with the killer. Glovers performance really lights up the screen and his character has a same weasely appeal as Mr Pink had in Reservoir Dogs. This is a truely special role.

But it doesn't stop there. I was also seriously facinated by the boy who played Tim (Damien was it?). The kid is hard as nails and had a burning precense. Then there's John (the all important role of the killer). The guy playing the character really looks like the blank psycho's you see on the news. A really hate worthy villian.

Denis Hopper is as good as ever playing the demented Feck and (Shock! Horror!) Keanu Reeves is pretty damn good as Matt. I used to be one of the masses of people who would slate Keanu's acting- but since seeing "My own private Idaho" and this, I'm having to eat my words.

I hope this cracking and important film will be widely availible soon. Teen films these days tend to be utterly souless, brain dead crap.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction !!!, April 10, 1999

By A Customer

If you ever doubted that truth is stranger than fiction, check out this true story and masterful film that became an instant cult classic in 1987, and still survives today as a case study in adolescent psychology at many major universities. Director Tim Hunter (Saint of Fort Washington) brings to life this spine chilling yet somber contemporary drama that will have you not believing your eyes, or the fact that this story is a true one. This film exemplifies a raw, honest look at teenage alienation and ambivalence, where values have been twisted far beyond adult comprehension. It is an account of an actual event whereby a close knit group of teenagers discover that one of their own has killed his girlfriend. Emotionally ill prepared, they struggle to differentiate between friendship and responsibility. What ensues is a chain of events that is as mesmerizing as it is incredible, and as hypnotic as it is horrifying! Expertly cast and acted, this film is brought to life by very memorable character portrayals by Crispin Glover (Layne), Keanu Reeves (Matt), Ione Skye (Clarissa), Roxana Zal (Maggie), Daniel Roebuck (Samson), Joshua Miller (Tim ), and Dennis Hopper (Feck) as a half crazed psychopathic murderer himself. The close associations drawn by this film with such things as sex and death will linger in your consciousness for days on end, and compel you to see this movie again and again. Truly a work of cinematic art and great film making. Excellent !!!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars doesn't quite add-up, but still unforgettable, January 25, 2004

By	Rottenberg's rotten book review (nyc) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: River's Edge [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This was a great movie, but it's not quite the social indictment that it purports to be. Mostly it works on the power of its stars and some godawfully chilling mood music.

Samson (AKA "John") is a not-so-gentle giant of a teen who impulsively strangles his girlfriend. Though the murder and murderer are quickly common knowledge to local high-school denizens, nobody immediately runs to the police. This doesn't keep just about everybody her age from gawking at her now stripped corpse when it's found along the river's edge. Various reasons keep Samson's peers from even alerting the police to the body - mostly they have to do with loyalty. In a bizarre twist, their loyalty stems not from Samson, but from his friend Layne, a local Death-Metal kid who is determined not to "narc" out one of his own. While the rest remain silent, Layne makes Samson's safety and escape his personal crusade. Matt (Keanu Reeves) stirs from the pack, and calls the police. At first a suspect (he can't explain to the police the delay) Matt's released, whereupon he pretends to help Layne keep Samson safe. Most of the film is confined to the late hours of a single night, when our characters split up and tragically collide. When police flood the streets looking for Samson, it's clear that somebody "Narced". Though Layne never suspects Matt, Matt's younger brother immediately fixates on his elder sibling's betrayal, and plots revenge. At first, Layne stashes Samson with Feck (Dennis Hopper), an elder pot-head who's on the run for murder, but Samson is too impulsive to stay in one place for very long. When Feck runs out of beer, the pair leave the safety of Feck's house for beer, bullets and a trip back to the river's edge.

"River's Edge" is a stirring flick, but it's not quite the statement of society's collapse that it purports to be. (A nebbish, conservative student is put-down for just that sort of self-righteousness late in the story.) Just too much of the story doesn't add up. Matt's mom is simply weak - she's got a bossy live-in boyfriend, and looks to be have barely recovered from the sort of teenage existence now suffered by her kids. (instead of being emboldened, she's actually the weakest character in the flick - "I'm not your mother", she rants near the end "You're all mistakes!") Matt's brother plots revenge for Matt's treason - but he never connects with other characters in a way that suggests his loyalty. The other's are supposedly in sway to Layne, but Crispin Glover's mannerisms are less death-metal than post-modern mime (he simulcasts most of his lines with his hands) and he can barely hold himself together, let alone his peers. While separated from Layne, Matt uses his new-found inner strength to get closer to Clarissa (Ione Skye), but the story isn't sure which is really causing the other (maybe Clarissa is actually inspiring him to think past Layne). Especially weird is the way that while Layne searches for Samson, Matt runs into him at a liquor store after hours. There, using Feck's gun, and in front of Matt, Samson forces the storeowner to sell Matt beer. Matt never tells Layne of the meeting. The biggest hole is Feck. The flick tosses him and Samson together in a night that climaxes with something out of "Of Mice and Men" - but the script only partly succeeds in creating that intimacy between Feck and Samson. When Feck later says of Samson "he didn't love her", it's unclear whether he's referring to Samson's murdered girlfriend or to Elly, Feck's blow-up doll and captive passenger on that last night.

That said, this is still an incredible flick. Crispin Glover is still unforgettable as Layne (after watching enough of "Edge" you may find it hard not to talk like him). The plot, for its holes, stays focused on that one last night. If the ending is way-too-pat, it's probably because the flick's ambition is more than it can achieve. In any case, I sat down for this click and couldn't pull myself away. Supposedly based on a true story, "River's Edge" should be appreciated on its own, without us having to wonder where the true story became a way-out cautionary tale of impulsive murder and misplaced loyalty.