I saw this movie over 30 years ago when I was a young college student and loved it. However, my opinion of it has changed a bit over the years. I would still recommend this classic coming of age tale (both as an amusing glimpse into the hormones kicking in, so to speak, and also a young male adolescent's bittersweet experience of first love), but with a big disclaimer. Please don't anyone get their standards of appropriate adult behavior from it.
In summary, this story, especially during the first half, revolves around the humorous, almost innocent sexual fantasies of three male adolescents (Hermie, Oscy, and Benjie) who get their thrills chortling over explicit reproductive pictures from medical journals and comparing notes about 'how far they got' (really, not very far!) with the young girls. Sadly, this would of course not make any story whatsoever today because sex is everywhere in the media and throughout society all the time.
Later the main and quite endearing character, Hermie, is smitten with an 'older' 20 something year old woman, Dorothy (played by the lovely Jennifer O'Neill), whose husband is off fighting World War II. The early scenes between them as he helps her with groceries and so on are quite amusingly and touchingly done. Viewers of both sexes would be sympathetic toward Hermie's awkwardness, his youthful emotions and passions. Like one of the other reviewers, I found it pretty funny when 15 year old Hermie tries to impress the mature object of his affections with his fondness for black coffee!
*** WARNING: SPOILER AHEAD ***
However, the finale to their relationship now gives me pause. One evening when Hermie visits Dorothy's beach house, he finds her quietly grief stricken, having just discovered that her husband has been killed in action oversees. He tries silently to comfort her, they begin slow dancing, one thing leads to another...and you can imagine the end result here. Hermie's conflicted emotions following his first sexual encounter are touching, as the two basically never see each other again.
Now, 30 years after my original viewing and having raised a son myself, I find myself questioning Dorothy's behavior. I have every sympathy for the young widow's pain and am perhaps judging her a little harshly, but I'd be pretty upset, grief stricken or not, drinking or not, if a woman her age had slept with my son when he was 15. Hermie, raging hormones notwithstanding, isn't the one who took advantage of Dorothy's fragile emotional state to satisfy his own physical needs; SHE'S the one who took advantage of HIM and his youthful feelings to comfort HER.
I was quite pleased to note that I'm not totally way out in left field here. Some reviewers seem positively livid and question whether Dorothy is a child molester or pedophile, and use phrases like statutory rape. I definitely wouldn't go that far, given her traumatized state, but make no mistake, it's not laudatory adult behavior. Using others (especially vulnerable adolescents) isn't right, so while it may be dramatic, let's not make this a rosy enchanting ending, please.
If Hermie wasn't permanently scarred by the encounter, great. The point is, boys aren't just hormones but have emotions, too. A few have rightly commented that the public would be outraged if the sex of these two characters had been reversed, with a young girl being taken advantage of by a recently bereaved man in his 20's. They're absolutely correct that it wouldn't have been called a 'nostalgic' tale in that case.
That being said and bear it in mind, it's an amusing and touching story all in all, and I suppose in a sense its sins are pretty minor (to say the least) when compared with the outrages on the screen today. You'll enjoy this movie and yes, you'll probably recall your own particular Summer of 42, whatever form it may have taken.
In summary, this story, especially during the first half, revolves around the humorous, almost innocent sexual fantasies of three male adolescents (Hermie, Oscy, and Benjie) who get their thrills chortling over explicit reproductive pictures from medical journals and comparing notes about 'how far they got' (really, not very far!) with the young girls. Sadly, this would of course not make any story whatsoever today because sex is everywhere in the media and throughout society all the time.
Later the main and quite endearing character, Hermie, is smitten with an 'older' 20 something year old woman, Dorothy (played by the lovely Jennifer O'Neill), whose husband is off fighting World War II. The early scenes between them as he helps her with groceries and so on are quite amusingly and touchingly done. Viewers of both sexes would be sympathetic toward Hermie's awkwardness, his youthful emotions and passions. Like one of the other reviewers, I found it pretty funny when 15 year old Hermie tries to impress the mature object of his affections with his fondness for black coffee!
*** WARNING: SPOILER AHEAD ***
However, the finale to their relationship now gives me pause. One evening when Hermie visits Dorothy's beach house, he finds her quietly grief stricken, having just discovered that her husband has been killed in action oversees. He tries silently to comfort her, they begin slow dancing, one thing leads to another...and you can imagine the end result here. Hermie's conflicted emotions following his first sexual encounter are touching, as the two basically never see each other again.
Now, 30 years after my original viewing and having raised a son myself, I find myself questioning Dorothy's behavior. I have every sympathy for the young widow's pain and am perhaps judging her a little harshly, but I'd be pretty upset, grief stricken or not, drinking or not, if a woman her age had slept with my son when he was 15. Hermie, raging hormones notwithstanding, isn't the one who took advantage of Dorothy's fragile emotional state to satisfy his own physical needs; SHE'S the one who took advantage of HIM and his youthful feelings to comfort HER.
I was quite pleased to note that I'm not totally way out in left field here. Some reviewers seem positively livid and question whether Dorothy is a child molester or pedophile, and use phrases like statutory rape. I definitely wouldn't go that far, given her traumatized state, but make no mistake, it's not laudatory adult behavior. Using others (especially vulnerable adolescents) isn't right, so while it may be dramatic, let's not make this a rosy enchanting ending, please.
If Hermie wasn't permanently scarred by the encounter, great. The point is, boys aren't just hormones but have emotions, too. A few have rightly commented that the public would be outraged if the sex of these two characters had been reversed, with a young girl being taken advantage of by a recently bereaved man in his 20's. They're absolutely correct that it wouldn't have been called a 'nostalgic' tale in that case.
That being said and bear it in mind, it's an amusing and touching story all in all, and I suppose in a sense its sins are pretty minor (to say the least) when compared with the outrages on the screen today. You'll enjoy this movie and yes, you'll probably recall your own particular Summer of 42, whatever form it may have taken.