THE JOURNAL
Mr Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, 1967. Photograph by Embassy Pictures/Kobal Collection
The movies to get you in the mood for the longer days as the temperature rises.
There are two kinds of summer movies. There’s the popcorn films that draw you out of the melting heat into the coolness of the multiplex in high July, with big special effects and a hero’s journey. And then there’s those films that linger with you all year long, maybe all life long, like sand in the heel of an old boat shoe. They evoke the emptiness and possibility of summer, the balmy months when everyone has time and no one has the energy or inclination to judge. When the same few songs play hypnotically on the radio and the warmth seems to turn us into looser, fuller versions of ourselves – at least until September snaps us back to attention. Summer is a time of transitions and rites of passage, the season of living between the institutional demands of schools, colleges and work. Long days without adult supervision are a ripe time for misbehaviour, whether for teenage girls at a beach club or men left alone in the city by their wives. Anything can happen. And frequently, anything does. These movies all bottle some of that languid summer magic, to be consumed long after summer has past.
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Mr Spike Lee in Do The Right Thing, 1989. Photograph courtesy Universal Studios/Kobal Collection
Every character in Mr Spike Lee’s tale of one scorching, tumultuous day in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood glistens with sweat. From the languid early morning to the riotous, tragic night, sitting on stoops, playing in the flow of opened fire hydrants and eating in Sal’s Famous Pizzeria. Here is all the romance, profanity and danger of New York City in high summer, simmering along to the boom of Public Enemy. But this was the late 1980s. Now Bed-Stuy’s brownstones are coveted by ex-Manhattanites and the only fights are for spots on the local farm-share.
Get the look
The Graduate (1967)
Mr Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, 1967. Photograph by Embassy Pictures/Kobal Collection
What is a fine young man to do? Benjamin Braddock, played by Mr Dustin Hoffman, comes home from college and is told the future lies in graduate school. Drifting through his summer, he succumbs to the beckoning finger of Mrs Robinson. He is spiritually lost in the bleached-out glare of Southern California, until he realises that he loves Elaine, Mrs Robinson’s daughter. Summer is when the graduate yields to temptation before discovering who he is. It is a time of bedroom doors left ajar, of misspent afternoons, lunchtime cocktails, and if you’re lucky, just enough time for redemption.
Get the look
THE FLAMINGO KID (1984)
Mr Matt Dillon and Ms Janet Jones in The Flamingo Kid, 1984. Photograph by Photoshot
It’s 1963 and a working class boy, Jeff, played by Mr Matt Dillon, takes a job at a fancy Long Island beach club the summer before college. Before long, he has ditched his pork pie hat, bored wives are tucking tips into the pockets of his tight, white trousers, and their daughters are ogling him from beside the pool. It’s a long way from his Brooklyn family, who warn him not to be taken in by it all. First he’s dazzled, then he learns the treacherous ways of this affluent class on the beach and around the gin rummy table with the rich, older men at the Club Flamingo. It’s the ultimate internship.
Get the look