I agree with you about most of this...1988 DID offer a lot. However, I couldn't STAND Tenet...one of those films I regretted watching. I much enjoyed Yesterday and liked Midsommer (more so when i watched it a second time on tv). I liked (as I recall) the Way Way back. And though usually I'm not much into action movies, I have a soft spot for the Die Hard movies (except that awful one that takes place in Russia, lord, was that ever dreadful). Speaking of summer movies, I went to the last Jurassic one, also much to my regret. My criteria for all movies (I think) is the script has to be good. That one wasn't.
In a related thought, my favorite Summer song, aside from Summertime (when I first heard as a teenager, too many decades ago, I thought it must be a folk song that had just come bubbling up out of the earth, and not something that a person actually wrote) is: the Lovin' Spoonful's Summer in the City.
There are some movies that I associate with Summer, because I saw them in the summer and can remember the circumstances of doing so. These are not always great art, but I enjoyed them!
First, so glad you included The Endless Summer poster. Some great graphic artistry there. If memory serves, that movie wasn't a "summer movie," in that it wasn't released in the summer. In fact, it's hard to say what its release date was, because initially it was "distributed" as a silent film with the filmmaker providing in-person narration at campus screenings. Of course, in another sense, The Endless Summer is the ultimate summer movie, since its central conceit is that a couple of surfer dudes follow summer around the globe.
Second, your mention of E.T. reminds me of a cool thing a grad school friend did in the summer of that film's release. To get to said grad school, she drove across the country, from North Carolina to L.A. Each night, wherever she stopped along the way, she went to the local movie theater and watched E.T. She reported that this exercise was a great way to discern cultural differences across the country--differences she could hear and feel in the audiences' response. At the same time, she was struck by how galvanizing the film was: audiences might have reacted differently, but in every case, the movie cast the same spell. Of course, today it is easy to identify differences among us but harder to imagine a cultural experience that we can all share.
I loved Endless Summer and the Moon-spinners! Reading Hayley Mills’s memoir has made me love the latter even more. Loved all the silly beach movies with Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon, and Jody McCrea.
Peyton Place and A Summer Place are still two favorites. And Carousel. Following on Darrell’s song theme, Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer and all Beach Boys songs from 1960s.
Jaws is probably my favorite summertime movie. It holds up so well! It might finally be time to screen it for my younger family members. Wonder if they're ready.
Also LOVE the Way Way Back. I need to rewatch it.
Also I remember really loving Shag as a fun summer movie, but I cannot find it to stream anywhere
A key omission from 1984, a year that solidified my love of movies: Gremlins!
As far as movies that capture the feel of the summer season, I have to go with:
Little Children (2006): extra-martial romance/drama set around a small suburban neighborhood and in particular, the community pool, starring a luminous Kate Winslet, plus Patrick Wilson, Jennifer Connelly, and an Oscar-nominated Jackie Earle Haley .
Adventureland (2009): 80s period comedy about a college graduate dreamer finding romance at a dead-end job in an amusement park. Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Martin Starr, Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader & Kristen Wiig.
After seeing Jaws (I was 14) we were afraid to swim in the *pool* at night!
My best summer movie memories are from drive-ins in Everett, WA: Blazing Saddles (1974) at the Puget Park Drive-in and Star Wars (1977) at the Everett Motor Movie. The opening star cruiser shot was especially impressive on a massive drive-in screen.
I am watching "The Way Way Back" for the first time and it is a total gem. Did someone have hidden cameras on my childhood? So much awkward in the characters, and so much grace too.
I was at camp when Jaws came out, so during our beach vacation, I was the only one who wanted to swim! I remember a terrible horror movie I saw one summer "Frogs." It is seared in my brain, especially when my brother touched my neck and I screamed in the theater.
My three friends and I went to the theater. George kept making fun of people saying the movie was scary. We sat in the front row, the only available seats. When we left the theater I noticed George’s face was white as a sheet.
I saw Jaws six times in theaters the summer it came out. I couldn’t get enough of its adult thrills and characters. Benchley’s book soon became a key element of my adolescence largely due to its sex scenes.
Another summer movie memory: I saw The Hills Have Eyes at a drive in with a couple of buddies and was utterly terrified. There are freaks in them hills!
My summer movie favorite: Released in July 1979, Breaking Away captured so well that time of "what next?" we've all faced between high school and the rest of life. So much of the greatness of this little film with its town versus gown backdrop comes from the character actors. Dennis Quaid. Daniel Stern. Barbara Barrie. Paul Dooley!! And so many memorable lines, e.g.:
Dad (Paul Dooley playing a used car salesman frustrated with his son's dreaminess): "He's never tired. He's never miserable."
Mom (the luminous Barbara Barrie): "He's young."
Dad: "When I was young I was tired and miserable."
Mike (Dennis Qaid playing a former high school football star) [after discovering that the college kids beat Cyril up]: "They want a fight, we'll give 'em a fight."
Cyril (Daniel Stern): "We rednecks are few... college paleface students are many. I counsel peace."
Isn't it always the case? So much of what we remember fondly has to do with the place and the time that we partook of it, rather than the actual content itself. You spent summers on the Cape. Lucky you. Love the Cape and the Islands. A fond memory - though not a particularly comfortable one - was riding down from Hanover to the Vineyard on the back of Jon Herron's motorcycle to eat bagels at the Black Dog, where he used to work during his summers.
Because my dad grew up far from any ocean, we spent our summers in a tiny town of less than 2000 people in the southwest corner of Iowa, with nights around campfires by a manmade lake. There were ice cream sodas from an actual drugstore fountain (cherry cokes were the best), burgers and shakes from an ersatz DQ called Frosty Trete, and an ancient movie theater called the Harlin, which showed hits from the previous year throughout the summer because they couldn't afford the rentals for first run. But it was air-conditioned and the popcorn and Chick-o-Stick candies were good, and the movies... well, they feel good now, in the roseate of nostalgia. Most prominent in my memory stand: Lord Love a Duck, a truly awful late-60s mess of a Roddy McDowell vehicle; Dear Brigitte, a movie that centerpieces Billy Mumy and Jimmy Stewart leering at BB; and Blue Hawaii, which was no King Creole (nuff sed). In fact the only truly good movie I can recall seeing at the Harlin was A Fistful of Dollars. But the experience was so lovely, of staying up late with the cousins in that chilly hall, and walking home to my grandmother's house afterwards in the dark while cicadas sang a rhythmic chorus from every tree - these movies have stayed with me for more than half a century, when far better films have been lost down the memory hole.
Do you remember the little back-pasture drive-in in Orford, with the smell of apples from the adjacent orchard lending a natural AromaRama to the show? Or screening movies in the yard at David Parry's house? I can't recall the movies I saw with Julie Ross at the White River drive-in, but I sure
remember buckets of KFC and steamy windshields as clearly -and fondly - as if they happened yesterday.
As I look at my list, I realize that none of these were actually 'summer' movies. The Harlin flicks, third-run, were released in fall and winter outside of the hinterland; the drive-in fare was whatever would fill a three-hour program. So I haven't answered your question. I will tell you my favorite summer movie, and not because it was released in summer, if it can ever be said to have been released.
A Three-Story Barn was the most fun I ever had at the movies.
One of my most thrilling summer movie experiences happened in 1981. School had just gotten out, and I rode my bike to the Golf Mill Theatres to see something called Raiders of the Lost Ark. I was (of course) blown away by the film, utterly gobsmacked that a movie could do that to me. I was riding my bike home, feeling the buzz of one of the greatest movies of all time swirling around me, when I came to a driveway that I knew really well. This driveway was the PERFECT angle for me to jump my bike - if you hit it just right, you'd fly up a bit, and land right back in the street, pedaling away. I hit the driveway, and at the very moment I went sailing through the air, THREE OF THE LOWEST, LOUDEST JETS I HAVE EVER KNOWN FLEW RIGHT OVER MY HEAD. I very nearly fell off my bike, my handlebars wiggling like mad, but I managed to just barely stay up. It turns out that the Chicago Air and Water Show was happening that weekend, and back then, jets flying low, shattering sound barriers and rattling windows and the fillings in people's teeth was a way to advertise that the Air Show was happening. (I believe they aren't allowed to do that anymore.) But that frightening, thrilling moment was the perfect exclamation point on one of the greatest summer movie experiences of my life.
I love hearing about your poor sisters trying to rein in your genuine belief in the screen action! I cherish those innocent memories too. Like the time I went to the “Haunted Mansion” at Disneyland, in its first year. I thought the dancing ghosts were “my people” and cried real tears of joy because I always told my mom that ghosts were real!
I thought the “Way Way Back” was fantastic. Right up there among best depictions of what scumbags most parents/adults are. Nailed the teenage perspective. Steve Carrell’s character was SO evil! I wanted to strangle him with my bare hands, and I don’t have any sisters to hold me back!
In Los Angeles, as a child, just the thrill of air conditioning, round the clock, was tempting enough that we’d watch anything, and our parents would agree to anything, no matter how bad.
Years later, as an adult, our AC in my Los Angeles apartment building failed on a 100+ Degree day. I rounded up everyone who was melting in their apartment, to go to the Pussycat Theater down the street. They’ve never sold so many tickets to exasperated women. We laughed our asses off. We ruined it for all the raincoaters, by yelling, “WHEN DOES SHE COME.” I think that was my favorite summer movie experience of all.
I agree with you about most of this...1988 DID offer a lot. However, I couldn't STAND Tenet...one of those films I regretted watching. I much enjoyed Yesterday and liked Midsommer (more so when i watched it a second time on tv). I liked (as I recall) the Way Way back. And though usually I'm not much into action movies, I have a soft spot for the Die Hard movies (except that awful one that takes place in Russia, lord, was that ever dreadful). Speaking of summer movies, I went to the last Jurassic one, also much to my regret. My criteria for all movies (I think) is the script has to be good. That one wasn't.
In a related thought, my favorite Summer song, aside from Summertime (when I first heard as a teenager, too many decades ago, I thought it must be a folk song that had just come bubbling up out of the earth, and not something that a person actually wrote) is: the Lovin' Spoonful's Summer in the City.
There are some movies that I associate with Summer, because I saw them in the summer and can remember the circumstances of doing so. These are not always great art, but I enjoyed them!
Tropic Thunder (saw in Estes Park Colorado)
Bowfinger (saw at a drive in on the Cape)
Pineapple Express
This is the End (saw in Chicago)
The End of the World
Coming to America (also in Estes Park)
and of course, more recently Summer of Soul
Two unrelated thoughts:
First, so glad you included The Endless Summer poster. Some great graphic artistry there. If memory serves, that movie wasn't a "summer movie," in that it wasn't released in the summer. In fact, it's hard to say what its release date was, because initially it was "distributed" as a silent film with the filmmaker providing in-person narration at campus screenings. Of course, in another sense, The Endless Summer is the ultimate summer movie, since its central conceit is that a couple of surfer dudes follow summer around the globe.
Second, your mention of E.T. reminds me of a cool thing a grad school friend did in the summer of that film's release. To get to said grad school, she drove across the country, from North Carolina to L.A. Each night, wherever she stopped along the way, she went to the local movie theater and watched E.T. She reported that this exercise was a great way to discern cultural differences across the country--differences she could hear and feel in the audiences' response. At the same time, she was struck by how galvanizing the film was: audiences might have reacted differently, but in every case, the movie cast the same spell. Of course, today it is easy to identify differences among us but harder to imagine a cultural experience that we can all share.
I loved Endless Summer and the Moon-spinners! Reading Hayley Mills’s memoir has made me love the latter even more. Loved all the silly beach movies with Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon, and Jody McCrea.
Peyton Place and A Summer Place are still two favorites. And Carousel. Following on Darrell’s song theme, Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer and all Beach Boys songs from 1960s.
Jaws is probably my favorite summertime movie. It holds up so well! It might finally be time to screen it for my younger family members. Wonder if they're ready.
Also LOVE the Way Way Back. I need to rewatch it.
Also I remember really loving Shag as a fun summer movie, but I cannot find it to stream anywhere
A key omission from 1984, a year that solidified my love of movies: Gremlins!
As far as movies that capture the feel of the summer season, I have to go with:
Little Children (2006): extra-martial romance/drama set around a small suburban neighborhood and in particular, the community pool, starring a luminous Kate Winslet, plus Patrick Wilson, Jennifer Connelly, and an Oscar-nominated Jackie Earle Haley .
Adventureland (2009): 80s period comedy about a college graduate dreamer finding romance at a dead-end job in an amusement park. Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Martin Starr, Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader & Kristen Wiig.
After seeing Jaws (I was 14) we were afraid to swim in the *pool* at night!
My best summer movie memories are from drive-ins in Everett, WA: Blazing Saddles (1974) at the Puget Park Drive-in and Star Wars (1977) at the Everett Motor Movie. The opening star cruiser shot was especially impressive on a massive drive-in screen.
I am watching "The Way Way Back" for the first time and it is a total gem. Did someone have hidden cameras on my childhood? So much awkward in the characters, and so much grace too.
I was at camp when Jaws came out, so during our beach vacation, I was the only one who wanted to swim! I remember a terrible horror movie I saw one summer "Frogs." It is seared in my brain, especially when my brother touched my neck and I screamed in the theater.
June 20, 1975. Jaws.
My three friends and I went to the theater. George kept making fun of people saying the movie was scary. We sat in the front row, the only available seats. When we left the theater I noticed George’s face was white as a sheet.
I saw Jaws six times in theaters the summer it came out. I couldn’t get enough of its adult thrills and characters. Benchley’s book soon became a key element of my adolescence largely due to its sex scenes.
Another summer movie memory: I saw The Hills Have Eyes at a drive in with a couple of buddies and was utterly terrified. There are freaks in them hills!
My summer movie favorite: Released in July 1979, Breaking Away captured so well that time of "what next?" we've all faced between high school and the rest of life. So much of the greatness of this little film with its town versus gown backdrop comes from the character actors. Dennis Quaid. Daniel Stern. Barbara Barrie. Paul Dooley!! And so many memorable lines, e.g.:
Dad (Paul Dooley playing a used car salesman frustrated with his son's dreaminess): "He's never tired. He's never miserable."
Mom (the luminous Barbara Barrie): "He's young."
Dad: "When I was young I was tired and miserable."
Mike (Dennis Qaid playing a former high school football star) [after discovering that the college kids beat Cyril up]: "They want a fight, we'll give 'em a fight."
Cyril (Daniel Stern): "We rednecks are few... college paleface students are many. I counsel peace."
Isn't it always the case? So much of what we remember fondly has to do with the place and the time that we partook of it, rather than the actual content itself. You spent summers on the Cape. Lucky you. Love the Cape and the Islands. A fond memory - though not a particularly comfortable one - was riding down from Hanover to the Vineyard on the back of Jon Herron's motorcycle to eat bagels at the Black Dog, where he used to work during his summers.
Because my dad grew up far from any ocean, we spent our summers in a tiny town of less than 2000 people in the southwest corner of Iowa, with nights around campfires by a manmade lake. There were ice cream sodas from an actual drugstore fountain (cherry cokes were the best), burgers and shakes from an ersatz DQ called Frosty Trete, and an ancient movie theater called the Harlin, which showed hits from the previous year throughout the summer because they couldn't afford the rentals for first run. But it was air-conditioned and the popcorn and Chick-o-Stick candies were good, and the movies... well, they feel good now, in the roseate of nostalgia. Most prominent in my memory stand: Lord Love a Duck, a truly awful late-60s mess of a Roddy McDowell vehicle; Dear Brigitte, a movie that centerpieces Billy Mumy and Jimmy Stewart leering at BB; and Blue Hawaii, which was no King Creole (nuff sed). In fact the only truly good movie I can recall seeing at the Harlin was A Fistful of Dollars. But the experience was so lovely, of staying up late with the cousins in that chilly hall, and walking home to my grandmother's house afterwards in the dark while cicadas sang a rhythmic chorus from every tree - these movies have stayed with me for more than half a century, when far better films have been lost down the memory hole.
Do you remember the little back-pasture drive-in in Orford, with the smell of apples from the adjacent orchard lending a natural AromaRama to the show? Or screening movies in the yard at David Parry's house? I can't recall the movies I saw with Julie Ross at the White River drive-in, but I sure
remember buckets of KFC and steamy windshields as clearly -and fondly - as if they happened yesterday.
As I look at my list, I realize that none of these were actually 'summer' movies. The Harlin flicks, third-run, were released in fall and winter outside of the hinterland; the drive-in fare was whatever would fill a three-hour program. So I haven't answered your question. I will tell you my favorite summer movie, and not because it was released in summer, if it can ever be said to have been released.
A Three-Story Barn was the most fun I ever had at the movies.
One of my most thrilling summer movie experiences happened in 1981. School had just gotten out, and I rode my bike to the Golf Mill Theatres to see something called Raiders of the Lost Ark. I was (of course) blown away by the film, utterly gobsmacked that a movie could do that to me. I was riding my bike home, feeling the buzz of one of the greatest movies of all time swirling around me, when I came to a driveway that I knew really well. This driveway was the PERFECT angle for me to jump my bike - if you hit it just right, you'd fly up a bit, and land right back in the street, pedaling away. I hit the driveway, and at the very moment I went sailing through the air, THREE OF THE LOWEST, LOUDEST JETS I HAVE EVER KNOWN FLEW RIGHT OVER MY HEAD. I very nearly fell off my bike, my handlebars wiggling like mad, but I managed to just barely stay up. It turns out that the Chicago Air and Water Show was happening that weekend, and back then, jets flying low, shattering sound barriers and rattling windows and the fillings in people's teeth was a way to advertise that the Air Show was happening. (I believe they aren't allowed to do that anymore.) But that frightening, thrilling moment was the perfect exclamation point on one of the greatest summer movie experiences of my life.
I love hearing about your poor sisters trying to rein in your genuine belief in the screen action! I cherish those innocent memories too. Like the time I went to the “Haunted Mansion” at Disneyland, in its first year. I thought the dancing ghosts were “my people” and cried real tears of joy because I always told my mom that ghosts were real!
I thought the “Way Way Back” was fantastic. Right up there among best depictions of what scumbags most parents/adults are. Nailed the teenage perspective. Steve Carrell’s character was SO evil! I wanted to strangle him with my bare hands, and I don’t have any sisters to hold me back!
Oh, re: summer movies:
In Los Angeles, as a child, just the thrill of air conditioning, round the clock, was tempting enough that we’d watch anything, and our parents would agree to anything, no matter how bad.
Years later, as an adult, our AC in my Los Angeles apartment building failed on a 100+ Degree day. I rounded up everyone who was melting in their apartment, to go to the Pussycat Theater down the street. They’ve never sold so many tickets to exasperated women. We laughed our asses off. We ruined it for all the raincoaters, by yelling, “WHEN DOES SHE COME.” I think that was my favorite summer movie experience of all.
It's not a movie that I saw but it was the reaction of my two older sisters and all their teen friends:
"Psycho".
They were all totally freaked out and I thought to my 9 year-old self, "that must be one heck of a movie!"