Summer of ’42 is a 1971 sentimental coming-of-age drama which is very reminiscent of a certain time in all our lives. Not 1942, obviously, but that time when we start noticing people in sexual way.
The film, directed by Robert Mulligan based on the screenplay by Herman Raucher, stars Jennifer O’Neill as a married woman staying on an island retreat while her husband is away fighting in World War II.
Gary Grimes plays a teenage boy who, along with his friends, is seeking to lose his virginity. Without revealing the entire plot, the death of O’Neill’s character’s husband in the war leads to the main plotline.
In terms of cinematography and film quality, Summer of ’42 hasn’t really stood the test of time. But the story is still compelling and should remind us all of a certain time when we were young. Before we lost our innocence.
