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Summer films series: dramas
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Promo poster for Sunset Boulevard
Summer is typically seen as a carefree, warm time full of great experiences to be had, vacations, relaxing, and fun. Still, when the summer heat rolls in, drama is often in the air along with it. If you're more into the dramatic side of things, there is plenty of tension this summer with the dramatic films with hot or summer themes and backdrops. In faraway or familiar places, these dramas deal with issues both heavy-handed and on our minds.
Life in the big city seems to be always filled with dramas, but mixed in with a warm, summery background, things tend to get haywire. The film-noir drama from 1950, Sunset Blvd. is a creepy looking at an aging actress's descent into madness due to the fast lane life in Hollywood. The Billy Wilder film stars William Holden and Gloria Swanson, with appearances by Buster Keaton, Cecil B. DeMille, gossip queen Hedda Hopper, and H.B. Warner in roles as themselves to cement the Hollywood atmosphere. The dramatic tragedy of a hack screenwriter trying to bring back an aging star is a film unparalleled, a must see classic.
Elia Kazan's 1954 film about a prize-fighter turned longshoreman fighting union bosses became the sensation hit On the Waterfront. Starring Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger. Brought into a union-supported murder of an activist, longshoreman Terry Malloy's conscience begins to nag at him and with help from the lovely Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint), he begins to fight for what is right, no matter what it might cost him. Though not set during the summer, this is a good film to watch at any time of the year.
The 1976 Martin Scorsese film Taxi Driver is set in the summer, dealing with a variety of intense issues and persons. Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) is a troubled Vietnam vet now stuck driving a night taxi in a bad part of town. Iris (Jodie Foster) is a teenage prostitute with no way out. Their lives intertwine on the gritty streets of a scum-ridden city until, consumed by his own madness, Bickle decides to turn things around. Cybill Shepherd and Peter Boyle also appear in the movie, with a cameo by director Scorsese.
Based on the book by Chuck Palahniuk, the 1999 film Fight Club is the story of a man bored with his current life (Edward Norton) who finds a mysterious friend in Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and a strange relationship with Marla (Helena Bonham Carter). The Narrator's friendship with Durden is first a mischevious, almost boylike relationship but soon develops into a cult-like atmosphere of Project Mayhem, with the intentions of overthrowing capitalism and thereby the world.
Dandrige and Poitier in Porgy and Bess
The South in the summer is humid, sticky, and hot, a lot like many of the situations in southern dramas. Based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell, the 1939 classic Gone with the Wind is a perfect way for anyone to spend their summer out of the heat yet still in the heat of the moment. Based on plays by Tennessee Williams, both 1951's Streetcar Named Desire and 1958's Cat On A Hot Tin Roof are great, sensual, dramatic ways to spend a lazy summer afternoon with amazing all-star casts. From the short stories of Southern writer William Faulkner comes the 1958 movie The Long, Hot Summer, which puts the acting talents of Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Orson Welles, and Angela Lansbury into Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County. From the play by Robert Harling is the 1989 classic chick flick Steel Magnolias about strong women dealing with hardship in Louisianna. Together, these five films would make a decent movie marathon on their own.
Battles with racism seem to be often set against the scenery of the summer, a hot button issue during a time when everything is supposed to be peaceful and calm. The 1959 Gershwin-based film Porgy and Bess strikes beautiful musical chords about the harsh life of fishermen in an African American community in 1912 South Carolina. With Sidney Poitier as Porgy and Dorothy Dandridge as Bess, tells the tale of a disreuptable woman trying to get out of her abusive relationship and finding herself falling for a crippled man. Pearl Bailey, Sammy Davis Jr., and Brock Peters also star in the film.
Based on the award-wining novel by Harper Lee and a continual critic favorite, the 1962 film To Kill A Mockingbird deals with racism, false accuastions, and the life of small town lawyer Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) trying to instill good values into his children despite harsh racial relations in the South. Partially based on Lee's own experiences growing up, this amazing film features the acting work of Brock Peters, Robert Duvall, Frank Overton, Kim Stanley, and stars Mary Badham as Scout. The film has gone on to become an icon and is even listed as the favorite film of superhero Superman.
The 1967 film In the Heat of the Night deals with an African-American policeman Virgil Tibbs(Sidney Poitier) trying to solve a murder in a racist southern town. Tibbs is originally arrested for the murder, though he is from out of town. When his identity is established as a hardworking Philadelphia cop, he is made to work with local officer Gillespie (Rod Steiger) to solve the case since the town has little experience with murder investigations. Though set in summery Mississippi, the film was actually made in Illinois during the autumn.
O'Toole portrays T.E. Lawrence
Exotic locations are often the ideal spot for a hot, fun summer getaway but they can also become the locale for drama in the midst of war or romance. Starring Katharine Hepburn, the 1955 film Summertime is about a lonely woman's trip to Venice, where she finds romance, excitement, and perhaps more than she bargained for. Based on the play The Time of the Cuckoo by Arthur Laurents, the playwright intended for Shirley Booth to star, not Hepburn. Director David Lean states that this is the favorite of his movies and made him fall in love with Venice.
The 1962 adventure, biopic Lawrence of Arabia follows the life of British military hero T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) who came to make his home in Saudi Arabia. The seven-time Oscar winning film includes a cast of Sir Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Claude Rains, and José Ferrer and is somewhat based on Lawrence's own writings. Like Summertime, this film was also directed by David Lean.
From the classic Joseph Conrad story Heart of Darkness came the idea for the plot of Apocalypse Now. The Congolese jungle is changed to the darkness of Asian jungles and the story is catapulted from the Victorian era to the Vietnam War. The 1979 Francis Ford Coppola classic follows Captain Willard into Cambodia witht he job of assassinating a rogue officer, who has convinced tribespeople that he is their god. With a cast including Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest,
Laurence Fishburne, Harrison Ford, and Dennis Hopper, it is no wonder that this film remains a classic. The tagline "The horror... the horror" is taken directly from the novel, as are the names of some characters.
So, if you have a penchant for the dramatic yourself or just want something to spice up your summer, a little movie marathon of dramatic films is a great way to heat things up while still remaining in the comfort of that cool A/C.
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