SUMMER OF '42
US, 1971, 100 minutes, Colour.
Jennifer O'Neill, Gary Crimea, Jerry Houser, Oliver Concent.
Directed by Robert Mulligan.
Summer of '42 was very popular in America in 1971. It seemed to correspond to the mood of nostalgia that occupied the country and was manifested in plays, films, fashions etc. However, the film could stand on its own feet at any time. It 1s a film of reminiscence, a man of 1971 thinking back through emotion to the past, the summer during the war, when he was 15, and he fell 1n love with a lovely young woman and she changed his emotional way of life. Other than that the summer of '42 was Just like any summer when boys grew up, talked (especially about sex) and fooled around.
Director Robert Mulligan has made some moving and humane films - To Kill a Mockingbird, Love with the Proper Stranger, Up the Down Staircase, The Stalking Moon. He handles this potentially sensational or potentially syrupy story with a lighter touch so that, while it is full of sentiment, it is humorous, sometimes wry, but directed to adults who are invited to look again at youth, laugh with the.problems and the uncertainties and remember that they passed through the same stage.
Mulligan is assisted by the beautiful colour photography of Robert Surtees who uses a muted, hazy style - 'desaturated’ - which gives the film the visual quality of some of the American landscape painters, like Andrew Wyeth. Michel Legrand contributes another romantic score which does fit in with the mood of the film. Jennifer O'Nelll is charming as Dorothy, the young wife and widow; Gary Grimes has an engaging personality and portrays the uncertainty and bravado of adolescence very well. Jerry Houser makes Oscy like any boy round the place.
It is a piece of popular entertainment of quality.
1. Did you find this film enjoyable? Why? Humorous? Moving?
2. What did the title evoke in terms of memory, sentiment, nostalgia?
3. What note did the adult voice of 1970 at beginning and end, with his comments on memories, add to the film? Was it sadness, regret, content ?
4. What did Robert Surtees' 'desaturated' photography do for the film? would it have been different if photographed more sharply?
5. What contribution did Michel Legrand'a musical score make? Was its sentiment appropriate for the film?
6. Did the 'Terrible Trio' really behave and talk like schoolboys on holidays?
7. Was their fascination by and preoccupation with (and ignorance of) sex ordinary for that stage of their lives?
8. Why didn't we see any parents, but just hear one calling out?
9. Why was Hermie absorbed by Dorothy in the early part of the film?
10. What were your impressions of Dorothy as she said goodbye to her husband, did things around the house after he left and went to sunbake?
11. Comment on Hermie's behaviour in carrying her packages and in his first visit. How did he show his age? How successful was he at acting maturely - e.g, carrying all the parcels, the coffee, his word-choice and manner? Did he change at his second visit to put the boxes in the loft?
12. Why was the visit to the cinema to see Now, Voyager, so humorous and entertaining?
13. Why was the visit of Hermie's to the drugstore included? What was its effect? Was it successful?
14. The youngsters were being laughed at in the night beach sequence. Why was Oscy's attempt to follow his method funny?
15. A commentator said that the climax of the film was dramatically implausible and morally unacceptable. Would you agree? Why did Dorothy give herself to Hermie? Did her letter adequately explain? "I will not try to explain what happened last night because I know that, in time, you will find a proper way in which to remember it."
16. What was Hermie like the next day? How was this shown in his responses to Oscy and his wanting to be alone?
17. What did Hermie learn from this period of his boyhood? The voice at the end of the film says: "In the summer of '42 we raided the Coast Guard Station four times. We saw five movies and had nine days of rain. Benjie broke his watch; Oscy gave up the harmonica and, in a very special way .... I lost Hermie forever. "
18. "The enjoyment of the comic scenes about sex depends on having successfully coped with the problems of youth, or at least, of having forgotten the misgivings and blunders of this uncertain age. For this reason the film would not be entirely appreciated by adolescents. " Do you agree?
