A SUMMER STORY
A film review by Eric Roskos
A SUMMER STORY, apparently one of the worst box office failures of this season, was also one of the summer's best films.
Based on a story by an author best known for his appearance on high school reading lists, the film involves a superficially trite love story which touches on most of the social issues in today's popular films, yet addresses them with an awareness and sensitivity almost always lacking.
The story involves two young men, students at an elite British university; one is an aspiring doctor, the other a lawyer and poet. For a few weeks, they have left behind, to an extent they consider a appropriate, the amenities of their affluent lives to walk across the moors of England.
One of the two, we quickly learn, is a "man of the world," with many opinions both about women and the social life; the other is a romantic with what seem unattainably naive ideals.
It is this latter character around whom the story centers. When his traveling companion challenges him to jump a fence, he undertakes the challenge only to fall and injure his ankle, preventing further travel. In seeking help, he encounters a young woman and her family; although he immediately falls in love with the woman, he quickly comes to realize that barriers of social class exist which complicate their relationship.
Given this start, it is easy to see why the film would fail. What is much harder to see is that the film, much like the failed TV series THE DUCK FACTORY, is an unusually well-executed example of a literary form too difficult for most popular film makers to get right. The relationship which evolves in the film has the poignant beauty which was one of the principal successes of AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN; the conflict and emotions that develop when the young woman's fiance begins to suspect her unfaithfulness is reminiscent of the rivalry between Tom Pearson's "Jimmy" and Benton Lynch, over Jane Elizabeth Firesheets, in the popular novel OFF FOR THE SWEET HEREAFTER.
But it is not until the ending of the film that the viewer begins to realize the film's full depth. The ending is formulaic and trite; parts of it have appeared in numerous stories and films before. Yet nowhere is it more perfectly balanced: although tragic, the thoughtful observer will realize that the ending is true-to-life. The viewer is led, along with the characters, through a series of misconceptions, always thinking that surely *this* familiar scene is the end of the film. But no; when we are finally told how the story ends, and there is yet one more unexpected surprise, we realize that this is a tragedy in which someone is clearly innocent, but no one else is entirely guilty. Even two workmen on the street some 15 years previous seem to be unwitting contributors to the tragedy. Perhaps this is part of the reason for the film's unpopularity; for few viewers are likely to feel less guilty, only more fortunate, than the characters themselves.
In an era in which a popular pastime is to boast of a taste for the subtle and elegant, it is regrettable that this film may vanish to the archives, to be a rare treat for only the most determined students of the cinema.
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