If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good movie but grossly overrated

Absolutely Brilliant!

Living in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do, the bored and disaffected teenagers of a poorly resourced planned community are eventually driven to revolt against the oppressive adult population in this searing drama written by Tim Hunter, who also helmed the similarly themed 'River's Edge' a few years later. The film tackles a very real issue that, with urban sprawl all around the world, still exists today: families lured into cheap housing in new communities that are improperly resourced to handle energetic adolescents. Indeed, while the parents of the film come under scrutiny for not understanding their kids and how boxed up they feel, the poor planning of the town is really the villain of the piece. It takes a long time for the film to make its point though, and with the revolt only occurring in the final third of the movie, there are a lot of repetitive scenes of the teens trying to score drugs, pick up girls and evade the sadistic police to firstly endure. The antagonism between the police and teenagers is a little undercooked too; while all the teens believe that the cops are hell-bent on power and tend to overreact, it is hard to blame the police for being like that if the teenagers do actually constantly vandalise their cars and create public nuisances for no good reason. Unless, of course, boredom is a reason, and say what one may about the film, the movie deftly shows the power of boredom to lead to mischief. Topped off with a mood-setting, eerie score by Sol Kaplan (of 'Niagara' fame), it is a haunting experience that lingers in the mind too.

I grew up in Aurora Colorado and I know where most all of the filming locations are. If your a location hunting buff here is the information. 1. Carl's House: The Park Townhomes located at the corner of E. Yale Ave. and S. Elmira Street in Aurora CO. You can GPS the intersection. The town-homes are on the southeast corner. 2. The Rec: This was a set built directly across the street from The Park Townhomes on the north side of E.Yale just about 50 yards east of the S. Elmira Street intersection. There is a large apartment complex there now.3. The party house: 1484 S Vaughn Circle Aurora Co. This is a private residence so please be respectful of the current owners. There is a large pine tree in front of the house now and it's painted a different color. 4. Richie's Apartment: The scene where Richie is with his Mom, in her orange jeep, was filmed along Cherry Creek Drive South, just east of Colorado Blvd between E. Kentucky Avenue and E. Mississippi Ave. The complex where he lived is the "Esprit Cherry Creek Apartments" on E. Mississippi. These have been totally remodeled but you can still tell it's the same place. The parking area where Richie and Carl jump into the jeep just before Doberman shows up is along the back side of the complex, which now has carports built there. 5. Much of the chase scene with Richie, Carl and Doberman was filmed on the Cherry Creek Dam Road which runs across the top of the dam. It is still there and looks the same. 6. Stawberry Fields: 2625 S. Vaughn Way, Aurora CO. The town-homes where Corey and Abby steal the gun. These are on the west side of S. Vaughn Way. In the movie they are painted yellow, they are now painted blue. The last set of these on the street is number 2625. The land beyond them was vacant then, now there is a grassy area with trees as the street begins to curve to the right.Hope you enjoy finding these if you are visiting Denver and Aurora.

i love this film, my childhood was exactly the same, this movie should be talked about more and seen, its the best high school teen movie ever made. big influence on the larry clark films, the smells like teen spirit film clip, over the edge was the inspiration. think fast times at ridge high, but serious. movies like KIDS, BULLY, were inspired by this film. for 1979 it was way ahead of its time, the high school movies made now are a joke, schools should use this film, its perfect, not one ounce of sentimentality if i was a 16-17 year old i would love this film. sad thing is the film has become just a footnote, rather than a genre definer, if you kids think breakfast club is cool, once you have watched this you will change your mind

The thing I find extraordinary about this movie is that it captures so well the way we looked and behaved in the 70's. These aren't Hollywood teens, they're real teens. The kids in this movie are almost like a marijuana-hazy tidal pool, self-contained, separate from, and ignored or misunderstood by, adults on the other side of the "generation gap." Which is exactly what it was like.Someone criticized the acting, but that's precisely the point -- these kids aren't acting, they're real. Other Hollywood productions of the era were made by older people who were puzzled by and didn't understand the changes that occurred in the 60's. We used to laugh at their efforts, because they were so clueless. This movie gets us as we really were, and it takes me back in a way that no other movies do. I wish there were an equivalent for the oh-so-wonderful 60's, an era which is very well remembered but the spirit of which has not been preserved.That being said, I find the filmmakers' social attitudes somewhat dated. Arguably, the anything goes attitude of the parents of our generation was a disaster, leading to rampant drug use, teen pregnancy, an epidemic of crime. In particular, (SPOILER) I find the PC notion that a cop is wrong to shoot a kid who pulls a gun on him is more than a little ridiculous. What do the filmmakers expect him to do? Wait to see if a bullet leaves the muzzle, then deflect it if necessary with his Wonder Woman bracelets? You don't have to be an adult to know that drawing a gun, loaded or not, on a police officer is Darwin Awards territory.The few sympathetic adults in this movie actually seem to like the kids, rather than treating them as unfathomable enemies or ignoring them. And because they like and know them, they understand them. But a bit of firmness is necessary as well. For all the guns, cigarettes, pot, booze, and sexuality, these are still kids, working to become adults and needing guidance to do so. In this movie, the firmness comes in the wrong form, delivered by police officers and school officials who have no affinity with or understanding of the kids in their charge. But license isn't the key: events showed that.