Movies - Summer of '42

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	Movies - Summer of '42

Summer of '42 is a 1971 American "coming-of-age" motion picture drama based on the memoirs of screenwriter Herman Raucher. It tells the story of him as a boy in his early teens on his 1942 summer vacation at Nantucket Island on the coast of New England. He will experience his first sexual encounter with Dorothy, a beautiful young woman whose husband has died in World War II. The movie's novelization (written by the film's author, Herman Raucher) was one of the best selling novels of the first half of the 1970s, requiring 23 re-prints between 1971 and 1974 to keep up with customer demand; the Academy Award winning score by Michel Legrand also became one of the best selling music albums of 1971.

Summer of '42 was a major box office success and one of the top grossing films of 1971, costing $1 million to produce and earning $25 million at the American box office. It is estimated that video rentals and purchases in the United States since the 1980s have produced an additional $25.5 million dollars.

Historical basis

The movie (and subsequent novel) were memoirs written by Herman Raucher; they detailed the events in his life over the course of the summer he spent on Nantucket Island in 1942 when he was fourteen years old. Originally, the film was meant to be a tribute to his friend Oscar "Oscy" Seltzer, an Army medic killed in the Korean War (Raucher made up the character of Benjie to act as a stand in for various other friends that were with him on the island). Seltzer was shot to death on a battlefield in Korea while attending to a wounded man; this happened on Raucher's birthday, and consequently, Raucher has not celebrated a birthday since. During the course of writing the screenplay, Raucher came to the realization that despite growing up with Oscy and having bonded with him through their formative years, the two had never really had any meaningful conversations or gotten to know one another on a more personal level. Instead, Raucher decided to focus on the first great impacting experience of his life, his falling in love for the first time. The woman (named Dorothy, like her screen counterpart) was a fellow vacationer on the island whom Raucher had befriended one day when he helped her carry groceries home; he became a friend of her and her husband and helped her with chores after her husband was called to fight in World War II. Raucher lost his virginity to her one night when he came to visit her, arriving only minutes after she received notification of her husband's death. The physical coupling was mostly a result of her distress, and likely would have never otherwise happened. The next morning, Raucher discovered that she had left the island, leaving behind a note for him (which is read at the end of the film and reproduced in the book). He never saw her again; his last "encounter" with her came after the film's release in 1971, when she was one of over a dozen women who wrote letters to Raucher claiming to be "his" Dorothy. Raucher recognized the "real" Dorothy's handwriting, and she confirmed her identity by making references to certain events only she could have known about. She told Raucher that she had lived for years with the guilt that she had potentially traumatized him and ruined his life. She told Raucher that she was glad he turned out all right, and that they had best not re-visit the past; in a 2002 interview, Raucher lamented never hearing from her again and expressed his hope that she was still alive. Raucher's novelization of the screenplay, with the dedication, "To those I love, past and present," gives more background on his relationship with Oscy, including his death.

Controversy

The film was initially the subject of great controversy due to its frank and sentimental portrayal of teen sex and love. Upon its initial release in 1971 it was rated R; after it left theatres, network television stations refused to air it. PBS began to air the movie at midnight, where it gained a cult following; supposedly, in some high school social circles, it was a rite of passage to see the film on late night television. Eventually, the proliferation of more graphic portrayals of sex in the mainstream media led to the acceptance of Summer of '42, which critics of changing social mores regarded as much more positive in comparison to contemporary pop culture's portrayals of sex and love. This led to the MPAA re-rating the film PG. The rating was reverted back to "R" in the 1980s, allegedly after calls from conservative groups. The 2002 Warner Brothers DVD is released with both "R" and "PG" ratings, though the contents are the same.

Trivia

One of the most successful films in American history, with a ratio of expense to profit of 1:25.
Reportedly one of Stanley Kubrick's favorite films; it is playing on a television set in the Overlook Hotel in The Shining.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Summer of '42 ]

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