GIDGET (1959) **1/2 It's strange the things that will set off social tectonics. A black lady won't sit in her assigned section of the bus; a white man dressed up as an Indian throws some tea off a boat. This appears benign enough, but it's California Youth Culture asserting its power over.everything.for a period that would last.appears set to go on forever, full steam ahead a half-century later. Wow. Well it sure doesn't look like all that. What was once so Bohemian and licentious now barely qualifies as engaging "heterosexual undertones." The avatars of breaking the entrenched mores look like squares and nerds: who ever heard of a 16 year old girl allowing her father to dictate her social agenda, under any circumstances. And yet it's all that. For those who will see this as only a movie-i.e., anyone who hasn't already seen it-it's a friendly coming of age tale full of schmaltzy and stale music and moments. I mean, the Beach Boys had to have had more to do with what eventually happened, right? Right. Sandra Dee has several heartfelt moments of emotional abandon, but the cool people have to appreciate how Sally Field developed this character on tv, and now it relates back favorably. Cliff Robertson breathes more depth into The Big Kahuna than was written into him, and for that we would all be eternally grateful, if he hadn't been so convincing that gratitude is a transitory aspect of some moment other than now, for someone other than me. Or did he, and don't we? Whatever their point was, we overblew it to the extent of exploding exponents. Lots of good in that, some bad. There's a feel of truth to this depiction of California: it looks like the promised land, it feels like there's something wrong about it. But this all looks so innocent, even when it's trying to wolf whistle. Little enough of that around these days, but what would you trade for it that isn't inexplicably entwined with something better?
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