SHAG

US, 1988, 98 minutes, Colour.
Phoebe Cates, Bridget Fonda, Annabeth Gish, Shirley Anne Field.
Directed by Zelda Barron.

Shag comes rather later in the day as regards films about the younger generation, the problems of youth. It is also part of a nostalgia series in the late '80s - looking back to the late '50s and the early '60s as a time of innocence. This film also resembles the most famous of these and most popular, Dirty Dancing.

The film is a reminiscence: four girls going on a weekend to the beach to meet boys, one of them about to be married. The girls give very good performances, especially Bridget Fonda (Scandal) with her eye on a Hollywood career; Phoebe Cates as the girl about to be married who changes her mind; Annabeth Gish (Desert Bloom, Hiding Out and, especially, Mystic Pizza) as the girl who thinks she is fat but who wins the dance competition with a shy young boy that she meets; and Page Hannah, very good as the bespectacled daughter of a senator.

There is good observation of character with some irony - however, it veers into the Animal House spring break party kind of genre and the two do not mix so well. There is satire on the popular singers of the time (the post-Elvis, Frankie Avalon types) as well as on the naivety, possibly innocence, of the times.

Kennedy was about to be assassinated, the Vietnam War and the turmoils of the '60s were soon to come. The film was directed by Zelda Baron (the British film, about girls in boarding school, Secret Places).

1. Images of the '60s: nostalgia, innocence, time of change?

2. Carolina settings, the south, the beach cities? The holiday style?

3. The title, the musical score, the songs, the lyrics, the dances, shag competition?

4. The four girls, the plan for the marriage, the girls lying to their parents, going to enjoy themselves, the adventures, the finale with the singing of the Alma Mater song? What happened to them?

5. Louanne: the senator's daughter, the car, her fussiness, her rules, prim and proper, covering for the accidents that happened, the party in the house, her collapsing and drinking, falling in love with Harley, arranging everything, blurting out the truth to Carson?

6. Carson, her manner, the preparations for the marriage, prim, the farewell to Harley, the initial encounter with Buzz, the attraction, with him most of the day, to the yacht, the sexual encounter, wide-eyed, innocent, decisions, the consequences, the reaction to Buzz, Harley's arrival, covering and pretending, the truth, her future?

7. Hudge, her real name of Caroline, wanting a good time, attractive, the encounter with Chip, sharing the day with him, the party, in the bath, with Melaina and her advice, going to the dance, the encounter with Chip, winning the competition?

8. Melaina, escaping from the rectory, pert, daring, the competition and her rendition of Gone With The Wind, jealousy of the other girls, arranging the party, arranging the party, getting Jimmy Valentine there, dancing with him, seeing his manager push him around, making her decision to attract the manager, her success, the possibility of Hollywood? Louanne's mother's dress?
9. Harley, prim and proper, his arrival, his disappointment with Carson, the attraction to Louanne, the party, the day after?

10. Buzz, his presumptions, Yale, the attraction to Carson, the night with her - the invitation for her to come to Yale? No definite future? The young man about town?

11. Chip and his niceness, the answering of the quizzes with Caroline, driving the parents to the competition, dancing with Pudge, his pen pals, the Marines, a future?

12. The jealous girls, the competition, rivalries, the acrobatic rendition for the competition?

13. The maid, her cleaning up, comment on the young people and their behaviour?

14. Louanne's parents, the senator's background, using his name to get Jimmy Valentine, the arrival at the airport, Chip driving them in the car, the competition, the mother seeing her dress on Melaina?

15. Jimmy Valentine, empty-headed, pushed around by his manager, bored at the competition, wanting the party, with Melaina? The manager and his shrewdness, taking Melaina on?

16. Youth, the '60s, the mores? A settled period? The change of the '60s, Vietnam and alienation to come?