The Edge

The billionaire Charles Morse, the photographer Bob Green and his assistant survive a plane crash in Alaska. In the forest they have to find their way out and stay ahead of a Kodiak bear. Meanwhile Morse suspects something between Green and his wife. Lee Tamahori directed, from a screenplay by David Mamet. Anthony Hopkins plays Morse and Alec Baldwin plays Green. Art Linson produced, 20th Century Fox distributed and Jerry Goldsmith wrote the score. The bear is played by Bart the Bear, a trained Kodiak. The script was called Bookworm until three months before release. Filming took place mostly in Alberta, Canada, in and around Banff National Park. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 6 September 1997 and opened in the US on 26 September. On a 30 million dollar budget it grossed 43.3 million worldwide. Reviews ran from mixed to positive. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 62 percent. Roger Ebert gave it three stars out of four and called where the closing credits were placed a spectacularly bad idea. Who it is for: viewers who like survival films and Mamet dialogue. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for the tension between the two men to resolve. The film ties it off hurriedly in the last act.