RIVER'S EDGE (1986)
d. Tim Hunter; pr. Sarah Pilsbury, Midge Sanford; scr. Neil Jiminez; ph. Frederick Elmes; ed. Howard Smith, Sonja Sones; m. Jurgen Knieper; cast. Keanu Reeves, Crispin Glover, Ione Skye, Joshua Miller, Daniel Roebuck, Dennis Hopper (99 mins)
Moral Indifference in Small Town Americana
The true life criminal case of teenager Anthony Jacques Broussard was widely disseminated in the US media and for many observers and commentators was symptomatic of the moral and social breakdown of contemporary America.
Broussard was a high school student from Milpitas, California who one day murdered his girlfriend and left her dead and raped body at the scene of the crime. He later bragged about it to his friends, and although word spread about his actions, the police were not informed until much later. The speculation was rife: how morally disengaged were contemporary youth to not even feel a twang of outrage at this abhorrent crime? The lack of empathy for humanity amongst contemporary youth was also the subject of a number of films of the early 1980s which sought to explore a kind of sociological breakdown, hence such works as At Close Range and Out of the Blue. It was not surprising thus that the Broussard incident be the inspiration for another of these “sociological nightmare” movies, River’s Edge, directed by Tim Hunter, who had shown an affinity for the moral dilemmas of youth in his debut film Tex, the lesser known of the three cinematic adaptations of S.E. Hinton novels made at the time and all starring Matt Dillon. Of this revival of the youth film in the 1980s, River’s Edge remains the most disturbing and in its outraged sense of black comedy, the most tonally ambitious. In terms of its bold conception of what modern criminality says about the complexities and capabilities of human nature, the film has been justly praised.
Synopsis (contains spoilers)
River’s Edge takes place in an ordinary American small town. A young boy (Joshua Miller) sees his hulking older friend (Daniel Roebuck) by the edge of a flowing river. Roebuck has just killed a young woman: he leaves her naked body on the river bank.
Soon at school he almost casually reveals that he has killed this girl. His friends think it a joke and he takes them to the river’s edge, to show them the body. One friend (Crispin Glover) is almost excited by what has transpired and the only one to have any semblance of moral conflict is Miller’s brother (Keanu Reeves). The nervy, speed-popping Glover takes this as a test of group loyalty and intends to protect Roebuck, who is too disinterested to even hide the corpse. Soon, Glover has plans, finding purpose in his sense of loyalty to his friend. The other students seem indifferent. Reeves has trouble at home (his dope-smoking mother unable to control her kids) and increasingly has a crisis of conscience. Soon, the event is reported to the police and Roebuck becomes a wanted man, with Glover intent to shield him and help him escape. Glover takes him to hide at the house of a dope dealer (Dennis Hopper) whose companion is a blow-up sex doll. Unaware of just who is the informer is (although the audience isn’t) these youths search for Roebuck. But when Miller finds out the informer’s identity he is so outraged that he intends to kill him. In the meantime, Roebuck and Hopper begin to communicate, with Hopper admitting having also once killed a woman. In a final irony, it is Hopper who begins to feel outrage and even greater responsibility.
The Failure of American Patriarchal Socialization in Comedy of Despair
Beneath this film’s sense of moral outrage is a disturbingly funny black comedy about moral disengagement, misplaced priorities and sociological collapse.
In its complex tonal approach, River’s Edge manages to become what is a genuine rarity in cinema – a true comedy of despair. It explores the horror of indifference that comes with the directionless rage and wasteful anarchy of modern youth and develops it with an almost farcical sense of outrage. In its equation between moral desolation and social anarchy, it is a truly frightening depiction of undifferentiated hostility and even the sad irrelevance of humanity itself. Underlying Roebuck’s actions is the idea, for instance, that the denigration of women results in their disposable irrelevance to male humanity. Although this is a monstrous social issue in itself, it is typical of the film’s outrageous irony that the young girls in the film are equally indifferent to the sex murder of one of their own – one thinks to call the police but doesn’t because she cannot remember the telephone number and seemingly cannot think to look it up. The irony in this film is truly despairing, the humor is bleak indeed. The message throughout this film is clear however: from the indifference to humanity springs possible malevolence. Amongst the youths, only Reeves seems aware of this, and although a good man in some ways, his sense of outrage is less at what happened to his female classmate than his realization that he feels nothing about it. At least he is capable of recognizing his own moral disengagement, this alone prompting a moral reaction – is morality’s last hope in the reaction to the realization that it has ceased to have any meaning?
Indifference in River’s Edge is a precursor to a kind of conscienceless psychosis. Only the realization of indifference can save the conscience (and perhaps even re-instate the superego).
Yet there are small paradoxes throughout the movie, as for instance even the indifferent Roebuck seems to genuinely care for a helpless aunt (is he displacing some rage?). In this respect, the contrast between Roebuck and Hopper comes to the fore, and their confrontation on the river bank is the film’s finest moment, taking on added resonance due to what emerges as a deliberate and ironic reworking of Steinbeck’s classic novel Of Mice and Men. The difference between Roebuck and Hopper is telling. Both have killed a woman, but Hopper says that he loved his victim and to him, Roebuck’s crime of indifference is incomprehensible. Hopper is torn by his actions whereas Roebuck can only admit that killing the woman, for whom he felt nothing, has made him the feel the most alive he ever has. Again, the irony is shattering: through the film, Roebuck is a hulking monotone, yet as the film proceeds it reveals the inner rage that he clearly cannot suppress – does indifference prompt murder in order to feel something? Hopper in turn says he is sorry for what he has done and wonders why people cannot simply accept that. It is ironic that in this truly topsy-turvy moral world, Hopper is the only person to be truly horrified by the indifference around him. The odd sense of poetic justice to this film’s conclusion caps off its excellent sense of collapsing socialization. River’s Edge is one of the finest films of the 1980s and its blend of moral outrage and black comedy is un-matched.
Spiralling Socio-economic Deprivation
The visual transfer is unusually effective for a lower-priced DVD release, nicely preserving the film’s severe atmosphere and notion of spiraling despair.
It has an excellent feel for location and setting, making ironic use of a flowing river and a disturbing motif out of the dead naked body, the camera often lingering on the unseeing eyes, looking out at the viewer as if to provoke them into some kind of reaction – this motif is key to the film’s sense of moral questioning, its desire to provoke the audience into some kind of reaction (a realization of the quality of indifference in human nature itself?). It is always glumly realistic (although almost expressive in its sense of nocturnal desolation), with a downcast, grimly authentic look. Isolated details are telling, such as Hopper’s attraction to an inflatable sex doll, and there is a sense of impending collapse to Reeves’ household. Appearances are deceiving as the film spins numerous takes on notions of visual order and disorder. The emphasis however is on the people: character and performance are the things here and on that level the film also succeeds alarmingly well, making this film a truly poignant and thought-provoking addition to the emerging American cinema of sociology. Its depiction of teen lifestyles is convincing as is the film’s ironic sense of social observation (particularly of the absence of adequate adult guidance or supervision) and aimlessness. The film thus explores a multitude of reactions to murder, from the horror of indifference to the invigoration and misplaced sense of loyalty that drives Glover and especially Miller to potentially monstrous acts of their own.
Still-life in Decay
The sound transfer is presented in mono only (alas) but is sufficiently clear and crisp, often surprisingly rich at moments although too flat over all to make the best out of it.
There is an emphasis on naturally occurring sounds (with nice use made of a radio playing in the background on many occasions, suggesting a youth culture driven in part by music and associated heavy metal anarchy). The opening scenes have an ironic sense of natural calm, the flowing river a most ironic sign of life amidst the indifference and moral collapse unfolding. The score adds tension (and some self-conscious artifice) when needed although frequently makes way for the authentic sounds of this small town environment. Nature (small details and sounds in the backgrounds especially) makes for an ironic contrast to human nature in this film, although a fuller stereo transfer would have helped to develop this particular theme. The dialogue frequently verges on the absurd, and there is a sense of mounting hysteria to the film that is well maintained and developed. Nice use is made of the relationship between vocal tones and the person within – from the stylized Hopper to the initially monotonous Roebuck and the excitable Glover – and the mounting hysteria is carried particularly in the increased but entirely misplaced emotion that is eventually felt by these characters. The film’s most powerful scenes however are those between Roebuck and Hopper, the bizarre but appropriate allusion to Of Mice and Men serving as a neat indictment of just how far modern morality has sunk.
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LAST UPDATED:
February 19, 2012 10:52