Review: 'Summer Movies: 30 Sun-Drenched Classics'

What should be considered a "summer movie"? The first thing that may come to mind is anything featuring Frankie, Annette, and a whole lot of bikinis and sand. Or you may think of a summer movie as any you first saw as school let out and the sun seemed to stay out right up until bedtime. For me, Return of the Jedi is a summer movie not because of its metal bikini and Tattooine sand but because I very clearly remember seeing it in the summer of '83 and having it loom over that whole season of freedom and play. 

John Malahy isn't quite that loose with his definition of "summer movie," but his new book Summer Movies: 30 Sun-Drenched Classics does look at nearly every angle of what that term could mean. Yes, he throws a beachball to Frankie and Annette (Beach Blanket Bingo), but he also includes such disparate movies as Jaws and its bloody beach water, Caddy Shack and its seasonal silliness, and Do the Right Thing and its sweltering summer discord. There are B-grade things like Beach Blanket Bingo and high art like Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night.  

Because the films vary so much in style, genre, and quality, I'm not quite sure to whom Summer Movies would most appeal. That variety nearly renders it a book of randomly assorted movies even as Malahy is always sure to bring his discussions of each film back to the season that is their ostensible connecting thread. Still, his writing is insightful enough and the book is a nicely designed hardcover with lots of full-color photos. 

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 291

The Date: July 17

The Movie: The Seventh Seal (1957)

What Is It?: During the black plague, the knight Antonius (Max von Sydow) sits down to a game of chess against Death with his life at stake. Ingmar Bergman never gets so bogged down in existential philosophizing that he doesn’t take the time to construct sympathetic, interesting, and eccentric characters. The cinematography, emphasizing desolately grey skies and a roiling, foreboding sea, is as rich and haunting as the constantly looming specter of Death is both sinister and oddly soothing.

Why Today?: Today is 7/17. That’s plenty of sevens.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 233

The Date: May 20

The Movie: Wild Strawberries (1957)

What Is It?: Ingmar Bergman puts his bleakness in the cupboard to make a very touching portrait of an old grump’s journey to receive a Doctor Jubilaris degree. Along the way, he meditates on his past, present, and future; picks up hitchhikers; and picks the title fruit.

Why Today?: Today is National Pick Strawberries Day.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 77

The Date: December 16

The Movie: Persona (1966)

What Is It?: Ingmar Bergman explores his usual themes of sex, death, and religion by shattering them with a hammer and piecing them back together in a mosaic of striking imagery and shocking dialogue. Bergman shatters and pieces back together Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann in ways that would profoundly influence filmmakers from David Lynch to Robert Altman to Woody Allen.

Why Today?: On this day in 1938, Liv Ullman is born.