Boys readingFirst off, for those who haven't signaled their intention to post a story Thursday on Powder Burn Flash, please advise Mystery Dawg. I am posting links to anyone who said three weeks ago there were in, so if you got busy and don't have one, please advise. Thanks.
Friday is Non-fiction forgotten books. If anyone would like to post one on here, let me know. I didn't solicit one from anyone.
Charleston was wonderful but I sprained my heel and had to be wheeled through airports which was a surreal experience. It was choreographic-dozens of people being wheeled by silent attendants in green uniforms while flashing lights and strange music guided our journey. There's a story in that.
Now:
What movies signal summer to you? I'm not talking about movies that came out in summer--like Batman Begins or the recent Star Trek.
But movies *about* summer or mostly set in summer.
I'm going with Goodbye Columbus, JAWS and The Flamingo Kid.
27 comments:
JAWS came to mind for me immediately. THE LONG HOT SUMMER, possibly because I lived in the South for a few years while in the Army. To a lesser extent, BULL DURHAM qualifies, as baseball is the Summer Game.
BULL DURHAM-yes and I loved TLHS, probably because it teamed Newman and Woodward and was so sultry.
Endless Summer.
Bull Durham and Jaws, especially Jaws. Jurassic Park comes to mind. I think it was set in the summer. And, perhaps it was set in the desert, deserts are hot, summer is hot, but Raiders of the Lost Ark also feels summery to me.
Any of you young'uns see LAST SUMMER. That was a doozy.
Being wheeled along with the flashing lights makes me think of the movie Westworld. Maybe you were all robot actors being taken to the lower levels for repairs.
Oh, I loved Westworld.
Relating to an ongoing online conversation I've been having about originality in films and screenplays, I've had "Body Heat" on the brain.
For some reason, Field of Dreams does it for me.
Two sensational movies. Just watched Body Heat a few weeks ago. It holds us well. And Field of Dreams is a great one. When did Kevin Costner stop making good movies.
Stories ready to go for Thursday over on my blog. I'll e-mail you a FFB tonight so you have something over here.
Summer Movies: Die Hard is what I always think of as a summer flick. I am also old enough to recall the last days of the Drive In, where I saw Star Wars and those 50s style let's go to the snack bar cartoons.
Stand By Me.
And what is the criteria for the flash piece. Or is there any?
Hi Travis-the only criteria is that a wedding cake in the middle of the road shows up in the story. Doesn't have to be the main thing--just there like a gun in PLOTS WITH GUNS. Around 750 but I'm not counting. Thurs, June 4th.
STAND BY ME and DIE HARD. Yes.
How about The Graduate?
Sorry, I have to bow out of the current challenge. I realized my piece needed much more fleshing out than the first few flash drafts required. I may even have to throw out the wedding cake on my next draft, but not before licking the icing.
Jerry-Don't be too hard on yourself. It's just for fun. Or send it to me later and I'll post it then.
More summer films-- how about some 80s teen also ran's: One Crazy Summer, Under the Boardwalk, and Nice Girls Don't Explode. A teen comedy can be set in the dead of winter they always scream summer to me.
The Frankie & Annette movies, which I plowed through last summer (I was into all things surf-related after reading "The Dawn Patrol.") Also, Esther Williams movies.
In which case, I add GIDGET and A SUMMER PLACE-guilty pleasures.
Because I always attended schools with summer breaks, summer was a lot more important to me, as a non-parent, as a youth than it has since. While Barbara Hershey was great and Richard Thomas almost typecast (in those pre-WALTONS days) as Sinister Youth in LAST SUMMER, the film didn't do much for me (other than put young Hershey on display)...but some summer films, such as THE BAD NEWS BEARS and AMERICAN GRAFFITI came along when I was optimally young enough to enjoy them, and capable of picking up on the nostalgic (and anti-nostalgic) tug of the latter. BODY HEAT certainly surprised me (and I was rather wondering what my grade-school age brother, who had come with me to see the other half of the double-feature, BLADE RUNNER, was making of the brief and relatively subtle but memorable anal sex scene, among others) when I was in high school (I think I preferred Turner as fatal woman to even Stanwyck). Costner stopped making good movies, as much as he has altogether (he hasn't, quite) after the bloat of DANCES WITH WOLVES did so well, allowing for the ridiculous self-indulgence of the two sf movies and much of what followed (and FIELD OF DREAMS has a fair scrap of self-indulgence to it, too...as when the female lead is able to turn a town meeting with an utterly unconvincingly persuasive pitch for American Freedom).
Welcome back, and I hope your foot is feeling much better.
WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER and INSOMNIA (preferring the original) might be my favorite eccentric summer choices...and LAST NIGHT if the events leading up to the Sun engulfing the Earth (or so it seems) counts as the Absolutely Last Summer. For a more conventional choice, A WALK ON THE MOON. (Which, set as it is in 1969, reminds me of JAZZ ON A SUMMER'S DAY, MONTEREY POP, WOODSTOCK, and GIMME SHELTER, among the most memorable of the concert films to arrive in that decade, even if the first was of the 1959 Newport Jazz Fest).
Love Walk on the Moon. Diane Lane is a favorite. And the original INSOMNIA was stunning.
The folks on the Rara-Avis list who've seen it, and the NYT reviewer, seem to like the new Diane Lane film on video, KILLSHOT, which is good--I'm always happy when she (finally) chooses another project worthy of her (I was thinking the last good film she's done is WALK, but I'd forgotten HOLLYWOODLAND, which I haven't seen yet).
My first thought was Picnic with Kim Novak and William Holden. Just watched the dance scene that has been described as the sexiest dance on film. Also thought about the Canadian film Paperback Hero set in smalltown Saskatchewan in the summer. I'll never forget the scene set in the dressing room of a deserted rink with Keir Dullea playing a minor league player who has returned for the summer and Elizabeth Ashley. They both had quite a summer.
Oh, yes PICNIC. She was a knockout. Never saw the other one. But how about The Seven Year Itch.
I keep meaning to see PICNIC, which was easily my father's favorite film before another Kier Dullea (and Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick) film, very different from PAPERBACK HERO or PICNIC, came along to be his co-favorite.
PICNIC is something special. Kim fairly vibrates with lust and longing.
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