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Plot Summary
Winning an Academy Award for Best Musical Score (Michel Legrand) and nominated for three additional Oscars, this box-office hit is the sensual, heartwarming and sentimental story of three 15-year-old boys who spend a pleasant but sometimes painful summer vacation in New England. While his friends fumble with girls their own age, one boy finds first love in the arms of Jennifer O'Neill ("Bare Essence"), a young war bride. An appealingly nostalgic and touching story rated three stars by Leonard Maltin.
Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
77%- Reviews Counted: 22
- Fresh: 17
- Rotten: 5
- Average Rating: 6.7/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: "Summer of '42" is a memory movie, written, directed and acted with such uncommon good humor that I don't think you'll be put off by its sweet soft-focus, at least until you start analyzing it afterwards.
Rotten: Summer of '42 has a large amount of charm and tenderness; it also has little dramatic economy and much eye-exhausting photography which translates to forced and artificial emphasis on a strungout story.
Fresh: In the early hijinks phase, the film seems like a dry run for Porky's, but it later gets into the business of fluttering curtains, walks on sandy beaches and longing glances.
Fresh: The interaction between Grimes and his teenage co-stars - the sharp, crude Houser and the more innocent Conant - is engaging, and the spare, uncluttered soundtrack is recompense for Mulligan's overblown visuals.
Customer Reviews
A work of art that seems to grow only finer with the passing of time.
What a stunning piece of craftmanship. A masterpiece. Such innocence. Such humanity. Such wisdom. Such truth. Such is the need to touch the soul of another, and such is the need to seek comfort. Yet tenderness risks so much. Oh to be tender again. Yet who could bear it again?
I remember what a splash this movie made. I don't really recall that I was told or even understood why, and of course I wasn't taken to see it at that age, at that time, when it was common to keep children ignorant of much they are not today. I'm not sure now that it wasn't the craving of the parents to let themselves drown in the strangeness that is naivety prolonged too long just for the sake of innocence itself rather then some strange desire to protect the children from things they could already begin to feel within themselves but were not allowed to mention or ask about. Though the latter is, even today, what is trumpeted about as the reason for shielding children from things they might not be ready for, I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't really the parents who are just protecting themselves, trying to squeeze out more childhood days from their children for the parents to enjoy before they must finally release their darling children into the fray that tides upon the whims of nature and destiny.
One might say it is simply about a couple of 15 year old boys coming of age. But it is more than that. So much more. In fact, without question, it is about the human condition itself.
This is a movie about sex, no doubt about that either. But a movie of a kind that I don't think I've ever seen before. Everyone should see this film. Everyone.
If you live alone, see it and feel your own soul's needs. If you live with someone, see it together and draw him or her close.
Above all, when it is over, you will find yourself remembering and feeling that rarest of all feelings, true tenderness.
The young men should have received Oscars, and without question so too should have the woman.
What innocence?!
The score is so gorgeous I had to see it. But it's not what I expected. There's an overdose of sex (all the funny parts come from that--comic relief is needed for a sad movie). It is advertised as "innocent" but SPOILER ALERT Dorothy and Hermie make love when she knows he's underage. And I really needed a break from Oscy's sex obsession. It's fun, but we don't need to talk about it all the time. Could have been better if they were not throwing "rubbers" at you every ten minutes. The whole thing was about bad romance. They should tone it down some.
STILL HOLDS UP WELL AFTER ALL THESE YEARS!!!
Great story, one movie you won't forget. Good acting by all, Gr8 music score. If you have seen this film, its time to see it again, if you never saw this film, RENT it NOW!!
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- $17.99
- Genre: Drama
- Released: 1971
- © 1971 A Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Also Available
- Summer of '42 (Original Cast) [Soundtrack from the Musical]
- Various Artists