blenderdumbass . org
Reviews
by Troler
Free Software fundamentally misses the point. It fails on a practical, ideological, economic, and political level. Let’s examine precisely how (in a slightly different order for the purposes of presentation).
6 Minute Read
"I like you"
↩ Reply
"That's very sweet of you <...>, I like you too"
↩ Reply
"I mean, I don't like many people"
↩ Reply
Seldom do I eat the same food twice, reread a book or even rewatch a movie. Barely do I ever want to rewatch the movie as I am watching it. You did not misread, not after the ending, but during the actual viewing. If you somehow didn't read the title, the movie in question is Robert Mulligan's Summer of '42.
↩ Reply
I came across it when I was reading Quentin Tarantino's review of 40s nostalgia pieces. What piqued my attention was the radiating love and affection for the picture and his knack for collecting film prints ("if you haven’t seen Summer of ‘42 projected in an I.B. Technicolor 35mm film print, you haven’t seen Summer of ‘42). I set down at the middle of the night and saw something I cannot unsee. Neither did the audience in 1971, since this slice-of-romance film about horny teenagers beat Dirty Harry and even Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange in the box office. To say it was impactful is an understatement.
↩ Reply
What was it that caught the attention of the viewers? Well, it was sex of course! Imagine this, the Sexual Revolution has swept the United States, arguing that all this restriction on sex is making people grow into perverts. The tidal shift of demographics, as brought by the Baby Boom, resulted in American cinema unshackling itself. This change is known as New Hollywood. In 1971 Robert Milligan was one of these crazy New Hollywood men. At a budget of a million (lead actress Jennifer O'Neill says it was 8 million) created relatively simple movie. Simple, yet effective. To a point where it deeply touched Kubrick ("climax of the film is quite simply one of the most devastating sequences I’ve ever witnessed (apparently Kubrick felt the same)". Do not take Tarantino's word for it, watch what Wendy is watching in The Shining
↩ Reply
The story follows a group of 3 ragtags Oscy (Jerry Houser), Benjie (Oliver Conant) and Hermie (Gary Grimes). All of them are a trio of lusting adolescents. They are at a stage where they want to have sex yet paternalism laws do not allow them to. Naturally that gives the same results as boiling water with the lid shut down. A good bit of the half of the movie is about teenagers being stupid bunch of horny bastards. There Hermie falls deep in love with Dorothy (Jennifer O'Neill). Hermie is 15 and Dorothy is in her 20s (the actor was 22). There is this Licorice Pizza scenario. The movie corrupts the audience into believing the relationship between a teenager and a woman is okay. WW2 is in the background: you have soldiers strolling the town, Dorothy sending her husband to France, radio broadcaster talking about the war. It is in the background... until it is not. The movie is set during 1942, it is a nostalgia piece after all. The Dorothy observed is meeting this 15 year old, while her husband is out fighting Nazis. At one point she buys flowers, keep that in your mind, it will be relevant later. For a good part of the film, the focus is on the "Terrible" trio and their quest to get laid.
c:2 ↩ Reply
Since the budget of the film was not that high (a million), it resulted in quite simple camera arrangement. Most shots were done out-doors, resulting in less expenses on props. Since the emphasis is on the characters, the shots are done using wide lens. The movie actually becomes quite a bit darker as it progresses. I mean, literally darker. First scenes are bright, moving with life of the beach-goers. Later on you have the shabby "Terrible trio" hut, movie theater, sex during midnight. As mentioned before, it being a movie from 1971, sex in movies was still taboo. Robert Mulligan is corrupting the audience by having a scene where teenagers actually fuck during the middle of the night. None of it is displayed on the screen. It was distributed by Warner Bros. in 1971 after all.
↩ Reply
The music composed by Michel Legrand is nearly non-existent. It starts in the beginning, with the showcase of the important places throughout the movie and resumes only at the end. Upon the rewatch, the beginning slide-show made me tear up.
↩ Reply
The love between Hermie (Herman) and Dorothy (Dorothy) was, by the words of the screen writer Herman Raucher, "had effected a strange relationship". Herman, in a way is a romantic, similar to Steven Spielberg. For him love is more than just putting his sausage into girl's scissors, as did Oscar, who in character, was closer to Luc Besson with his pussy-curse. Naturally having Dorothy's husband was murdered in France, meant "she was alone on an island and drinkin’ and playing their favorite song and in walks this kid and <...> She just thought I (Herman) was him". Powered by mourning, she danced, danced with Hermie (Herman) to their favorite song and went to bed with a 15 year old kid. It was Dorothy's way of curing herself from the trauma. She was alone on island with no-one except that strange Hermie (Herman). The flowers she bought few days ago were thrown out. The vase was left empty. Not even water was present in it.
↩ Reply
30 years later, after the film was released, the writer received "numerous letters from women claiming to be Dorothy". One of them stood out, it had Dorothy's handwriting. The letter mentioned, she had remarried and was living in Canton, Ohio. She was intrigued what effect did she have on Herman. The letter was ended with these words: "The ghosts of that night 30 years ago are better left undisturbed."
↩ Reply
Tell me @BlenderDumbass , are you willing to do a psycho-sexual analysis on one horny teenager and a miserable widow?
c:3 ↩ Reply
Fin.
↩ Reply
0
Find this post on Mastodon
The somber tale of Summer of '42
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/18/Summer_of_%2742_POSTER.jpg)
Troler
👁 16 💬 109
Sex and love are hard to miss on present block-busters. Even topics such as love between a child and an adult are discussed. In early 1970s and before it was hard to find films delving into such topics. A nostalgia film of that. The movie may start out light-hearted, it went deep so to make the illustrious Kubrick cry.
#Summerof42 #1942 #JenniferO'Neill #GaryGrimes #JerryHouser #RobertMulligan #HermanRaucher #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
A Sacrifice 2025 is a bit amateurish
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a8/A_Sacrifice_poster.jpg/250px-A_Sacrifice_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 14 💬 3
Ridley Scott has a full family of filmmakers. His brother Tony Scott is a legend. But Ridley also has kids. His son Jake Scott is a bad ass music video director that started already branching out into feature films. Luke Scott directed a cool little 2016 sci-fi horror film Morgan. And was a second unit director on a lot of recent Ridley Scott films. And then there is Jordan Scott, Ridley's daughter that wrote and directed the 2025 thriller A Sacrifice.
#ASacrifice #JordanScott #EricBana #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Is Dracula 2025 the ultimate Luc Besson film?
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/27/Dracula_2025_film_poster.jpg/250px-Dracula_2025_film_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 17 ❤ 4 🔄 1 💬 7
Just a year ago we had Nosferatu by Robert Eggers. A truly horrid type of a horror film, based on the story of Dracula. A real cinematic treat for the fans of horror. But then suddenly in 2025 Luc Besson was just like... "Hey, I also made a Dracula movie". At first I was skeptical about it. Why would Luc Besson care about some horror tale? But after finally seeing it I must tell: This movie has more to do with Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein than Nosferatu. And I am not just talking about Christoph Waltz here...
#dracula #lucbesson #CalebLandryJones #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Predator: Badlands 2025 is like Avatar 2009 but Horror
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/90/Predator_Badlands_Poster.jpg/250px-Predator_Badlands_Poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 8 ❤ 2 🔄 1 💬 5
Predator: Badlands is Dan Trachtenberg's third Predator movie after Prey 2022 and Killer of the Killers 2025. And strangely enough non of these movies have any kind of connection to one other. They are not sequels. They are stand alone films, different in style and tone. Telling different stories and having different structure. The only thing that binds them together, so to speak, is the fact that they are all technically a part of the Predator franchise.
#predatorBadlands #predator #ellefanning #DanTrachtenberg #horror #action #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Flight Risk 2025 is Mel Gibson failing to be Robert Rodriguez
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e2/Flight_risk_2024.jpg/250px-Flight_risk_2024.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 8 💬 1
The first shot of the 2025 thriller directed by Mel Gibson called Flight Risk is an establishing shot of a location you might see on television, which already says a lot about the movie. But that's not all of it. The shot is also very much computer-generated. I wouldn't say it's Ai ( but anything's possible ). It looks more like a 2D composition using various elements. A modern matte-painting of sorts. It's hard to point out specifically what's wrong with it, but it looks obviously fake. And obviously put together on a computer. And then the rest of the film doesn't really shake off this fakeness.
#flightrisk #melgibson #markwahlberg #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Angel's egg boils my heart
![[thumbnail]](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/Y1NOR6V3VL1PHG3L.png)
Troler
👁 18 ❤ 1 💬 3
It is far too easy to drown in the flow of information we have to endure. Most with to take a break from it by rejecting it all together. I say, one ought to train themselves by entertaining to a slow dance. It can be a book, or... a movie. One of such movies is Angel's Egg
#Angel's Egg #angelsegg #Mamoru Oshii #YoshitakaAmano #YoshihiroKanno #GKIDS #Little Amélie or the Character of Rain #AmélieNothomb #MaïlysVallade #bible #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Pulp Fiction 1994 is kind a amateurish actually
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3b/Pulp_Fiction_%281994%29_poster.jpg/250px-Pulp_Fiction_%281994%29_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
🔐 4 👁 75 ❤ 4 🔄 2 💬 2
Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary at some point in their early film-maker lives came up with a bunch of tiny little stories that they wanted to develop into movies. And one day a stroke of genius struck these two. Those little stories could be told together as one film, with interconnected characters. Quentin took off with the concept and wrote the final script. And then took off with said final script and made the movie itself. A movie that a lot of people consider to be one of the greatest masterpieces ever made. Yet, with that, re-watching it for this review, it struck me how amateurish the movie feels, despite its greatness.
One of things that slightly annoyed me on this re-watch...
#pulpfiction #film #review #cinemastodon #movies #quentintarantino #tarantino #stevenspielberg #spielberg
Domino 2005 is Tony-Scott-hem!
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/10/Dominoposter.jpg/250px-Dominoposter.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 23 💬 1
Tony Scott appeared to be trying to outgrow Michael Bay in the 2000s. In 2001 he does Spy Game which is a kind of slightly bayhem-ish movie. Where Tony Scott is no longer trying to make pretty pictures, but is trying to go for ultimate intensity. His Enemy of the State before that, is still more of a classic Tony Scott. While making Spy Game his brother Ridley Scott was making Black Hawk Down while Michael Bay was making Pearl Harbor. While Pearl Harbor has the Bay's explosions and stuff, the colors of the film still look relatively normal. Only his next film ( 2003 Bay Boys II ) go crazy with colors. Spy Game, while being more energetic in directing and editing department, than even Enemy of the State still looks like a normal movie, albeit it is a little desaturated. But Black Hawk Down ( probably in attempt of messing with Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan ) is super moody, with extreme contrast and intense colors. A thing that Michael Bay tries to replicate right away for Bad Boys II and then Tony Scott also replicated for Man on Fire in 2004. And then on Domino in 2005, Tony Scott goes even harder with the style. While Bay is doing roughly the same thing in his own way in The Island.
#Domino #TonyScott #MichaelBay #movies #film #review #cinemastodon
Bronson 2008 is how you make a low budget film
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e0/Bronson_poster.jpg/250px-Bronson_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 36 ❤ 1 💬 1
Having only a quarter of a million dollars, director Nicolas Winding Refn and actor Tom Hardy decided to make a period piece based on true events. Just so you know, period pieces are usually far more expensive to make than contemporary films. And yet they had almost nothing, in terms of budget to pull this movie off. How the hell did they do that?
#bronson #NicolasWindingRefn #TomHardy #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Polisse 2011 is the greatest "fuck you" in the history of French cinema
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fe/Polisse_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 23 💬 1
Maïwenn Le Besco's 2011 film Polisse tells a story about a "child protection unit" in French police. The film is written by Maïwenn based on real life cases that she researched with a real "child protection unit". So the film has no bullshit in it. And yet given Maïwenn's personal life, this begs the question: Was this movie secretly a hate letter to Luc Besson? Was this film the greatest "fuck you" in the history of French cinema?
#polisse #maiwenn #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood 2019 is Tarantino respecting the audience
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a6/Once_Upon_a_Time_in_Hollywood_poster.png/250px-Once_Upon_a_Time_in_Hollywood_poster.png)
Blender Dumbass
👁 47 💬 1
People often complain about dumb movies with too much unnecessary spoon-feeding. We get so much explaining and over-explaining that the brain hurts sometimes. You already know what is going on. You are following the story. You don't need no god damned reminder of what you are watching. And yet the studio heads still think that you are too dumb to understand what's going on in front of you on the screen. Respecting the audience on the other hand is a leap of faith on a part of a film-maker and only the greatest do that well. Quentin Tarantino with his 2019 film Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood takes the hardest such leap of his career.
#OnceUponaTimeinHollywood #QuentinTarantino #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
The Fifth Element 1997 is the most tragic film in Luc Besson's career
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/65/Fifth_element_poster_%281997%29.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 63 💬 1
It is not a spoiler in 2025 that the message of Luc Besson's 1997 film The Fifth Element is "Love". The fifth element itself ( a revelation in the end of the film ) appears to be Love. And the thesis is that Love is the thing that can defeat the evil in the world. But looking at the film and the behind the scenes drama around it, you can say that Besson didn't really mean love in its purest sense. But he was instead preaching a Bonobo Philosophy. Where "love" or in modern language sex, is used to deescalate conflict. Bonobos are known to fuck each other instead of fighting with each other, making themselves more peaceful. Looking at how horny The Fifth Element ( and Luc Besson ) is, the Bonobo philosophy theory sounds to be a much more plausible reading of the film. Making it very tragic indeed.
#LucBesson #Maiwenn #MillaJovovich #Love #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
The Lunacy of Buckaroo Banzai
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/ba/Adventures_of_buckaroo_banzai.jpg/250px-Adventures_of_buckaroo_banzai.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 10 ❤ 3 💬 1
Few films come close to the shier amount of WTF moments as the 1984 W. D. Richter film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. The best way to describe this film is "WTF". Let me explain.
#BuckarooBanzai #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Kill Bill is quite a chill
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c4/Kill_Bill_Volume_2.png)
Troler
👁 11 ❤ 2 💬 2
Kill Bill is a reference loaded film. The director lives in cinema, after all. At one point, the Bill of Kill Bill (David Carradine) reviews Superman, during a monologue with the presence of the protagonist Beatrix Kiddo (Uma Thurman). The said review made sense inside of the given scene, it made sense within the given plot. What if anything it was a flex. Q. Tarantino spoke through Bill about Superman and millions of people heard him. It could be argued, his most popular review... was part of a martial arts movie.
#killbill #quentintarantino #tarantino #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Powered with BDServer
Plugins
Themes
Analytics
Contact
Mastodon