Awesome Movie

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Blistering performances.

Released in 1971 and directed by Robert Mulligan, "Summer of '42" is the biographical drama of Herman "Hermie" Raucher (Gary Grimes) coming of age at 15 during the titular season & year on Nantucket Island. He and his two pals, Oscy and Benji, hang out on the island learning about sex and chasing girls. Meanwhile, Hermie is an awe of a 21 year-old woman (Jennifer O'Neill) whose soldier husband is off fighting WWII.This is such a well-done classic film from the early 70s. The island locales are breathtaking while the story is low-key realistic, which is fitting since it was based on a real-life. It's basically about a teenage boy in awe of a beautiful adult whoa-man of whom O'Neill voluptuously fills the bill. Hermie has a mature, spiritual attitude toward love & sex, which is contrasted by Oscy's juvenile, animalistic approach.The movie's not meant to provoke "controversy" but rather to just show the way it was and what happened. The same type of story happened and happens to mid-teens in every community all over North America and the world to this day. I'm not saying it's right or wise on the adult's part (it's not), but simply that it happens; and the teen WANTED it, boy or girl. That said, there's some ambiguity to the ending and it's not 100% certain that such-and-such occurred.The outstanding "Last Summer" (1969) is a comparable movie, but with an unpleasant edge. Both films take place on island beaches during the summer and involve teens coming of age. Both films involve a disturbing element. But "Last Summer" is ugly in a significant way whereas "Summer of '42" maintains a sense of awe and beauty. "The Outsiders" (1983) is also a little comparable, particularly the theater sequence.WATCH OUT for notable cutie Christopher Norris as Oscy's wannabe date, Miriam. If you're not familiar with her, be sure to check her out in Ron Howard's "Eat My Dust" (1976) where she's mind-blowing.THE FILM RUNS 1 hour, 44 minutes and was shot in Mendocino in Northern California and a couple other places in California. They had intended to shoot it on Nantucket, where the true story occurred, but the island had changed so much since 1942 that it proved more feasible to simply find another, underdeveloped locale as a substitute.GRADE: A-/B+

I remember watching this in high school. It was one of those "wish I was Hermie" moments with one look at Jennifer O'Neill. I think any teenage boy would fall in love/lust with just one look at her. If you would have asked my IMDb score when I was 15, my answer would have been 10 out of 10."Nostalgia is one helluva drug," as the saying goes...The cinematography was exquisite. The settings, magnificent. Of course, the music is still timeless. Jennifer O'Neill... extraordinarily luminous. However... If movies have a shelf life, this one's expired somewhere in the early-80s. What I never considered about this movie was just how poorly written and acted this story really was as a film. My understanding is this was based on a true encounter for the author. I'm sure he had wonderful memories of that lady. I wish those memories would have been translated into a more enjoyable viewing experience. I don't know who cast this movie in 1971, but the actors acted like an early-'70s beginning actors' workshop. All were stiff, forced and delivered lines like they read the simplistic script off-screen, stepped in front of the camera and regurgitated those basic words or tried to improv the rest. There was no chemistry between Hermie and Dorothy. The three friends were as dopey as they were supposed to be funny and charming. The dialogue delivered throughout could have been written by a horny, male teenager who wanted to impress his WWII-era teacher without studying language truly spoken in 1942. When everyone looks like they are acting in a school play with just beautiful scenery behind them... you get my drift. The music, however, sets a gorgeous tone. I'd forgotten the theme piece plays throughout. It's beautiful melody weaves a spell over the audience to understand young love and all it's charm. The score most assuredly stands the test of time.The movie's coming-of-age story is sweet, lovely, full of nostalgia... but not innocent. As other reviewers have stated on this site, this is statutory rape by the stunning female lead. We can't gloss over that fact, as beautiful as the scenery surely is. Sure, Dorothy is exceedingly sad and effervescent. Sure, Hermie has been chasing and dreaming about her since the film's opening shot. Sure, the island is one romantic location after another in a lost time we all reminisce about in our dreams... but she's still a pedophile in her actions. Every underage person has had a crush on an older person. It's unlawful for the older person to act on it. The story also had to only have been written by a male. If this would have been a female's perspective, having a 20-something widower taking advantage of a smitten 15yo girl would have a completely different reaction from the audience, no matter the era this movie was filmed.The final line in the movie sums up how basic the storyline is: "In the Summer of '42,... Benji broke his watch, Oski gave up the harmonica, and in a very special way, I lost Hermie... forever." The entire movie just felt... basic. I wanted to love this movie again. I NEEDED to love it again. But some things can't catch their original magic once you open the bottle a second time.I would only recommend this to people who want a sweet look at 1942 New England island life with a haunting melody playing you into a trance. It's very beautiful, serene and worth the trip into our past for that portion of the movie. If you're looking to reminisce about a great story from your childhood, you'll be disappointed. My recommendation: Buy the soundtrack - preferably with a cover featuring Jennifer O'Neill's lovely face. Sit in a quiet room near the ocean with the music playing in the background. And reminisce about lost time and your own lost loves for the soundtrack's entirety. You will be rewarded far more than watching this film. I'm sad this viewing robbed me of a beautiful memory in my youth. Sometimes, nostalgia is better left in the past, much like this movie should have been.

You can argue forever about the morality/legality of what's portrayed here. You can roll your eyes over the implausibility factor. But I'm ready to set those aside to drink in a world of far greater simplicity and time for reflection. Simplicity and reflection are anathema for a teenager of today, but Summer of '42 suggests they could use more of it.The combination of Mr Raucher's book and this movie re-creates a societal atmosphere that characterized American life for 200 years and was swept away in a couple of decades. Our lives today are never off the hook. From childhood to senescence we now exist in a whirlwind of activities and communications that go 24/7/365. There are more texts than we can answer, more entertainment than we can experience and more responsibilities than we can meet.Hermie and his friends travel in a sphere that is hard to imagine for anyone under the age of 70. No television, far fewer phones, slow transportation. No computers, microwaves, air-conditioning, video games. The city streets weren't chock-a-block with McDonald's and the residential streets weren't jammed with McMansions. What they did have was time. And if you were young, you had lots and lots of time to be filled in on your own.Hermie thinks a lot about a lot of things. He doesn't have much help to sort out the details of his adolescent angst and confusion, but he doesn't have many distractions either. He's experiencing the same pain and fear of growing up as we all do, but he's got the freedom and space to work through them at his own pace. He's very troubled and uncertain but he's not getting blasted with imagery and information that has little connection with the real world he is going to be facing.Summer of '42 is schmaltzy, even cheesy, but to imagine a time when a quiet empty field, forest or beach was the norm rather than the exception is an experience to savor.

I recall seeing this movie, probably in the theater, back in the 1970s, but had not seen it since then. So I found the DVD at my public library and popped it in the BD player last night.I wasn't mature (old) enough the first time to really appreciate this movie. It is a lot funnier than I remember it, but funny in a truthful way, the way it depicts 15-yr-old boys, on summer vacation, and more than a bit obsessed with the female body and sex.Gary Grimes at 15 played 15-yr-old Hermie, and the movie is shown from his perspective. He is on the vacation east-coast island with his two buddies Oscy and Benjie. Typical of a boy that age (I seem to remember) he caught a glimpse of a lovely woman, Jennifer O'Neill, 22 during filming, as Dorothy who shared a cottage with her husband. He was smitten and of course, being basically a shy boy with no illusions that a lovely 22-yr-old would ever look twice at him, simply lived his fantasy in his mind.However as young luck ("when preparation and opportunity meet") would have it, Hermie happens upon Dorothy as she is coming out of the local grocery story, arms overladen with bags, and he offers to help and even carry them home for her. On a different day she asks him to help her place some boxes in the attic, all innocent on her part, but for Hermie it was almost like they were dating.The movie also has a few scenes with Hermie and Oscy meeting up with a couple of local girls, exploring their sexuality, but the main story is Hermie coming of age, so to speak.It is interesting that neither O'Neill nor Grimes achieved any particular acting fame after this, even though they are great here, in one of the more memorable movies of the 1970s. SPOILERS: As Dorothy and Hermie get to be better friends and more comfortable with each other, Hermie tells her he will visit one evening. As he gets there he sees a fresh telegram, it was wartime and her husband died in France. She was distraught, she needed some comfort and Hermie was the only one she could reach out to. She escorted him to the bedroom and they shattered his innocence. The next day when he went to the house he found a note on the door, she had left, and in an adult voice-over signifying some years later, Hermie says he never saw her again but that his old self also disappeared that summer.