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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"
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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 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.
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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 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
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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 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.
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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
👁 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
Transformers 5 is Too Good to be Good
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/26/Transformers_The_Last_Knight_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 92 ❤ 1 💬 1
There is this satisfaction when it comes to animation, that I know from personal experience where the longer you work on a shot, or a sequence, the more details there is in the animation, the more satisfying it is to later just watch this insane level of effort simply wash over you one frame after another.
#transformers #MichaelBay #film #review #movies #cinemastodon #kingArthur
Predator 1987 was always a B-movie
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/95/Predator_Movie.jpg/250px-Predator_Movie.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 23 💬 3
As I observed in my review of Predator 2, the Predator films feel very B-movie-like. And the first film, John McTiernan's 1987 Predator is not an exception.
#predator #horror #ArnoldSchwarzenegger #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
My Neighbor Adolf 2022 expresses the longing for peace
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/18/My_Neighbor_Adolf.png/250px-My_Neighbor_Adolf.png)
Blender Dumbass
👁 15 ❤ 4 🔄 1 💬 3
My Neighbor Adolf is an Israeli, English language film about an old Jew living in Argentina, who got a new neighbor, who has a striking resemblance to Adolf Hitler. And it is about the paranoid obsession of this man with his neighbor.
#myneighboradolf #leon #udokier #film #movies #review #cinemastodon
Gladiator 2000 is Ridley Scott's turn at mimicking Michael Bay
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/Gladiator_%282000_film_poster%29.png/250px-Gladiator_%282000_film_poster%29.png)
Blender Dumbass
👁 15 💬 1
There are quite some differences between the Scott brothers ( Ridley and Tony ) and the Maximus himself Michael Bay. You can read Troler's observations and then my rant in the comments to see why they aren't quite the same. But specifically Tony Scott films sometimes feels almost like Michael Bay movies. Especially early Tony Scott and early Michael Bay, before both of them knew how similar they are and before they started trying to develop each other into opposite directions. Which happened roughly in time with the 21st century. And yet with all this the Ridley Scott epic Gladiator which was shot at 20st century and released at 21st, bluntly steals one of the shots Michael Bay is known for.
#Gladiator #RidleyScott #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
Footnote 2011 is a suprisingly good Israeli film
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/he/thumb/5/58/Footnote.jpg/250px-Footnote.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 17 ❤ 1 💬 4
Footnote originally הערת שוליים is an Israeli film written and directed by Joseph Cedar. The film is about a very strange dramatic bureaucratic situation, where two professors, a father and a son, are in the same field, and one of them gets a honorary award for his achievements. But the bureaucrats made a mistake and told about the award to the wrong one of them.
#footnote #הערתשוליים #JosephCedar #LiorAshkenazi #Israel #film #review #movies #cinemastodon #jews
Trap 2024: oh... M. Night Shyamalan is Back, Baby!
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5e/Trap_2024_%28film_poster%29.jpg/250px-Trap_2024_%28film_poster%29.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 7 ❤ 2 🔄 1 💬 3
We are living in the most exciting era when it comes to M. Night Shyamalan. The era I would call "A lottery". M. Night started strong. Critical acclaim and commercial success hit him hard, when he was a young film-maker. They were calling him "the next Spielberg". Then doubt possessed his sole. Some critics said something about something he did. And there he went. On a downward spiral towards the bottom. The Happening, The Last Airbender, After Earth... M. Night never truly recovered from this turmoil. He did great films since: The Visit, Split, Knock at the Cabin. But he then made strangely not so great films in between: Glass, Old, the strangely The Happening esque ending of Knock at the Cabin. Going today to an M. Night Shyamalan movie is truly a lottery. You never know what you are gonna get. With Trap we all got a fucking jack-pot!
#trap #mnightshyamalan #shyamalan #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Novocaine is way more melodramatic than I expected
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e8/Novocaine_%282025%29_poster.jpg/250px-Novocaine_%282025%29_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 13
The premise of 2025 Dan Berk and Robert Olsen co-directed film Novocaine is very simple: An action adventure about a dude who doesn't feel pain. On paper it sounds like a kind of absurdist horror comedy that is constantly shocking the audiences with something that is utterly fucked up, but the joke is, the main character doesn't give a damn. And there is this, if you are looking for this, in Novocaine. But there is also more.
#novocaine #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Drive-Away Dolls 2024 is Ethan Coen's attempt as a Grindhouse picture
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cf/Driveaway_dolls_poster.png/250px-Driveaway_dolls_poster.png)
Blender Dumbass
👁 8 💬 1
Ethan Coen is a brother of Joel Coen with whom they made a lot of cool black-comedies and other cinema throughout the years. From starting a mock-religion with The Big Lebowski in 1998, to winning a best picture Oscar in 2007 with No Country for Old Men and doing other great cinema before, after and in between, those motherfuckers know how to make movies. So then comes a movie just from Ethan ( and his wife Tricia Cooke ) about lesbians, that is intentionally trying to be a bad film ( like the bullshit Robert Rodriguez is doing with Mechete )? Interesting...
#driveawaydolls #ethancoen #MargaretQualley #film #review #comedy #movies #cinemastodon
The Retreat from Kiska (1965) moralizes imperial Japan
![[thumbnail]](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/NBYB67XOXQ43O8R6.jpg)
Troler
👁 9 ❤ 2 🔄 1 💬 8
How daring must be a film studio to make a film applauding the acts of the Japanese Empire not only for the local, but the global market as well. One of the ways to do it, is to make a documentary, use objectivity as a shield for political play. Alternatively it can be about the individuals, who were concerned about the life of brethren than some pity war goals.
#TheRetreatFromKiska #1965 #Japan #Toho #SeijiMaruyama #wwii #movies #film #cinemastodon #review
Why "Halloween" 1978 is a classic?
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/af/Halloween_%281978%29_theatrical_poster.jpg/250px-Halloween_%281978%29_theatrical_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 17 ❤ 1 💬 1
Compared to the contemporary slasher films ( with blood and guts displayed viscerally ) and even compared to John Carpenter's other horror classic The Thing, 1978's film Halloween is rather un-scary in comparison. Yes, it is a slasher, where a lot of teenagers die. Yes it has a lot of disturbing ideas and a lot of rather good cinematic tension. But it is weak in the blood department. Which begs the question: What's so special about this movie?
#halloween #horror #johncarpenter #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
The Terminator would not have happened if not for Rear Projection
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6d/The_Terminator.png/250px-The_Terminator.png)
Blender Dumbass
👁 12 ❤ 1 💬 2
So James Cameron is in Italy, having a fever. I mean of course he is. He was just involved in a nightmare project that is Piranha II. While there he has this fever dream of a nightmarish scenario. A metal skeleton coming out of a fire.
#Terminator #TheTerminator #JamesCameron #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
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