Over The Edge
WE WERE DOING WHAT WE USUALLYDO OF A SATURDAY NIGHT (LOOKING FOR RARE BRAT PACK BOOKS ONTHE INTERNET) WHEN WE CAMEACROSS MATT DILLON'S FIRST FILM, OVER THE EDGE. RELEASED IN 1978,IT WAS ALMOST IMMEDIATELYPULLED FROM CINEMAS FOR FEAROF INCITING RIOTS IN THE KIDS WHO CAME TO SEE IT. IN THE EIGHTIES IT BECAME A CABLE AND VIDEO HIT -NOT LEAST WITH KURT COBAIN,WHO DECLARED IT NOTHING LESSTHAN HIS FAVOURITE FILM.
Oh how impossibly cool is that? The cover of the original programme/book for the first run release of Over The Edge
in Japan. The on location ladder posed photograph is great full stop but the addition of the red hot Japanese font just takes it beyond.
Even in this first screen role, Dillon established his 'sleeveless or die' dress code. At no point in the film - or indeed in the next five or so he made - does he wear a shirt! See more of the programme here. 18 pages and 42 pictures. That's the kind of book we like!
Matt Dillon was fourteen when he made Over The Edge. He was cast straight from high school with no acting experience. At his audition he was asked what his parents did and he said, "My father is a fucking stockbroker and my mom, she don’t do shit."
