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by Troler
Free Software fundamentally misses the point. It fails on a practical, ideological, economic, and political level. Letβs examine precisely how (in a slightly different order for the purposes of presentation).
6 Minute Read
"I like you"
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"That's very sweet of you <...>, I like you too"
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"I mean, I don't like many people"
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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.
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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 havenβt seen Summer of β42 projected in an I.B. Technicolor 35mm film print, you havenβt seen Summer of β42). 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.
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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 Iβve ever witnessed (apparently Kubrick felt the same)". Do not take Tarantino's word for it, watch what Wendy is watching in The Shining
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 drinkinβ 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.
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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."
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Tell me @BlenderDumbass , are you willing to do a psycho-sexual analysis on one horny teenager and a miserable widow?
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Fin.
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The somber tale of Summer of '42
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/18/Summer_of_%2742_POSTER.jpg)
Troler
π 12 π¬ 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
Broken Wings ( 2002 ) is satisfyingly depressing
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7e/BrokenWINGS.jpg/250px-BrokenWINGS.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
π 13
There is a feeling I'm chasing sometimes that only a few things can give me. A feeling of satisfying depression. Films like Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, or Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away give me that feeling to some extent in some of the sequences. But Nir Bergman's 2002 film Broken Wings gives it all throughout.
#BrokenWings #film #movies #review #cinemastodon
Man on Fire 2004 is Tony Scott's Leon: The Professional
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e8/Man_on_fireposter.jpg/250px-Man_on_fireposter.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
π 25 π¬ 1
Critics gave negative reviews to 2004 Tony Scott's film Man on Fire because of "grim story that gets harder to take the longer it goes on". Are you fucking serious? How then Lars Von Trier movies get good reviews? Something isn't quite right here. To be frank, the film is very ultra-cinematic. Which could rub some critics the wrong way. Scott doesn't just direct the shit out of it. He also edits the shit out of it. Making one of the coolest directed films in existence. Which if you think about it, isn't particularly what critics find as a serious picture. And yes, the film is grim. At times it feel like a horror film. Not just a thriller. But the film is a rather satisfactory experience.
#manonfire #tonyscott #dakotafanning #DenzelWashington #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Rollerball 2002 at least attempted something
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1d/Rollerball_2002.jpg/250px-Rollerball_2002.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
π 11 π¬ 1
When looking at the poster of 2002 film Rollerball you ask yourself 2 questions: 1) Why somebody thought it would be a good idea? 2 ) Why this somebody is John McTiernan, the filmmaker that brought us classics like Predator and Die Hard?
#Rollerbal #JohnMcTiernan #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Final Destination ( 2000 ) is a suprisingly well directed movie
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a3/Final_Destination_movie.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
π 17
There is this hype wave over the Final Destination franchise because of a new movie that was released in the series. At first I resisted it, but then I saw a few shots from the opening of the first film, directed by James Wong and thought that it was actually something good, that at least worth my attention.
#finaldestination #jameswong #film #movies #review #cinemastodon
The Naked Gun ( 2025 ) is a descent movie about enshitification, but not as funny as the originals
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/The_Naked_Gun_2025_poster.jpg/250px-The_Naked_Gun_2025_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
π 16 π¬ 1
Paramount snatched "The Naked Gun" / "Police Squad" rights from Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams and instead gave the material to a different Jew Akiva Schaffer to adopt. And while Schaffer is a good comedy / parody director, it seems like the movie ended up being just "merely clever".
#theNakedGun #policesquad #LiamNeeson #PamelaAnderson #film #review #comedy #movies #cinemastodon
The Voice of Hind Rajab or how a 5 year old was shot
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b5/The_Voice_of_Hind_Rajab_film_poster.jpg)
Troler
π 10 β€ 2 π 1
The heart was blackened with tears from Kaouther Ben Hania's feature film The Voice of Hind Rajab. The choice of the story being told about Hind Rami Iyad Rajab was lead by the individual need to speak out. The director wasn't the only one to do so in big screen form.
#TheVoiceofHindRajab #Hind_Rajab #MotazMalhees #KaoutherBenHania #HindRajab #film #review #movies #horror #cinemastodon
Summer of '42 ( 1971 ) is about Empathy
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/18/Summer_of_%2742_POSTER.jpg/250px-Summer_of_%2742_POSTER.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
π 21 β€ 2 π 1 π¬ 8
First time I heard of the movie Summer of '42 when reading Tarantino's review of American Graffiti. In his review a large chunk is dedicated to this picture, because he is trying to illustrate the aesthetic similarities between the two pictures and the broader genre shifts of the 60s and 70s cinema landscape, that gave way to something like American Graffiti. Shortly after that, there was the review by Troler. And then finally, which made me grab my lazy ass and put it into the chair to watch this film, was a conversation I had with @Troler , where he so kindly spoiled the ending of this movie for me, while breaking down the cinematic techniques used in the film.
#summerof42 #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Together 2025 is yet another Romantic Comedy disguised as a Horror film
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e0/Together_film_poster.jpg/250px-Together_film_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
π 24 β€ 1 π¬ 2
I see a trend lately with films like Spontaneous where it seems like the writer / director is trying to do a romantic comedy, but knows it is not going to sell, so the movie is sold as a horror film instead. Michael Shanks's 2025 film Together starring Dave Franco and Alison Brie is another such film.
#together #horror #film #review #movies #cinemastodon #davefranco #alisonbrie
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
π 34 β€ 1 π¬ 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
Avatar: Fire and Ash 2025 is very horny WTF
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/95/Avatar_Fire_and_Ash_poster.jpeg/250px-Avatar_Fire_and_Ash_poster.jpeg)
Blender Dumbass
π 65 β€ 3 π 2 π¬ 5
Avatar: Fire and Ash adds a new villain to the Avatar universe, in a form of Varang ( Oona Chaplin, a grand-daughter of Charlie Chaplin ), an evil Na'vi lady with a tribe of fire-hungry psychopaths, traumatized by the shier insanity of human destruction. As she says in the film, when she was little she witnessed a huge fire ( probably caused by human machines ) that destroyed a lot of the forest. There was no Eywa to save them, or provide for them, so she turned to the "dark side", so to speak. So how the writer and director James Cameron show that she is evil? Well, she rapes people.
#avatar #jamescameron #fireandash #avatarfireandash #movies #review #film #cinemastodon
True Lies 1994 is James Cameron doing a Michael Bay movie
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/81/True_Lies_poster.png)
Blender Dumbass
π 9 π¬ 1
1994 film True Lies feels like watching a James Cameron directed Michael Bay movie. It has explosions, check, it has outlandish set pieces, check, it has beautiful shots of the military, check, it has sexy ladies, check, it has teenagers with an attitude, check. It is a Michael Bay movie through and through. Yet it is a James Cameron movie, so what happened?
#TrueLies #JamesCameron #ArnoldSchwarzenegger #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Star Trek 2009 is when you mix Spielberg with Michael Bay
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/29/Startrekposter.jpg/250px-Startrekposter.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
π 12 π¬ 1
I have a soft spot for J. J. Abrams. His masterpiece Super 8 inspired me greatly to develop film-projects when I was a teenager. But his 2009 other masterpiece Star Trek ( together with 2009'th other Sci-Fi masterpiece Avatar by James Cameron ) is what pretty much started my obsession with space movies.
#startrek #jjabrams #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
So what is the meaning of Kill Bill?
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1c/Kill_Bill_The_Whole_Bloody_Affair_poster.jpg/250px-Kill_Bill_The_Whole_Bloody_Affair_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
π 18 β€ 3 π 1 π¬ 1
In December of 2025, my neighbor, Quentin Tarantino finally released Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair. The film that was originally meant to be, but that was unfortunately cut into two volumes upon its original release, 2 decades ago. Therefore for this review I will be treating Volume 1 and Volume 2 as one film, even though it has a rather substantial intermission in its not-directors-cut version. Re-experiencing the story of the Bride and her revenge, for this review, filled me with some rather profound questions. Questions that I believe I started asking in my review of Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood. Questions as to: what is the meaning of Kill Bill?
#killbill #quentintarantino #tarantino #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
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