Walking the Edge (1983)

They drove him to the edge, and on the edge there are no rules.

Cult movie icons Robert Forster (Medium Cool) and Joe Spinell (Maniac) star with Nancy Kwan (Flower Drum Song) in Norbert Meisel’s gritty action drama Walking the Edge. Jason Walk (Forster), a down on his luck cabbie and numbers runner, has a chance at redemption when he crosses paths with revenge-seeking Christine Holloway (Kwan). She’s after the gang of violent criminals, led by Brusstar (Spinell), who her murdered her husband and son. Jason unwittingly drives Christine to their lair and when she is unable to finish the job, a hellbent Brusstar and his goons hunt the pair with a vengeance.

Jason Walk’s cab prowls the seedier, grimier locales of early ‘80s Los Angeles and picks up passengers—gamblers, prostitutes and addicts—who match this environment. As such, Walking the Edge is both a sleazy urban thriller and a valuable visual record of an L.A. that has long since been scrubbed clean and redeveloped. And like Max Cherry in Jackie Brown, Jason Walk is the kind of everyman-turned hero that Forster excelled at playing throughout his career.

With Edge, director Meisel (Mafia Girls) teamed with his wife Kwan for the first time. Screenwriter Curt Allen’s subsequent credits include Forster’s cult favorite Hollywood Harry. Genre veteran Jay Chattaway (Maniac and Vigilante) provides the film with a driving and catchy score. The leads are supported by a diverse cast that includes A Martinez (Powwow Highway), Luis Contreras (Repo Man), Aarika Wells (Sharky’s Machine) and Frankie Hill (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter).

Walking the Edge has been restored in 4K from its original camera negative and now makes it worldwide Blu-ray debut.

directed by: Norbert Meisel
starring: Robert Forster, Nancy Kwan, Joe Spinell, A Martinez, Aarika Wells, Wayne Woodson, James McIntire, Russ Courtney
1983 / 94 min / 1.85:1 / English Mono