A friend who loves Geraldine Page and Tennessee Williams recommended Summer and Smoke so I borrowed the DVD from my library and checked it out. The film takes place in the South and is about two childhood neighbors who are polar opposites, but the young woman believes they share an attraction, and I just think that he would do anything that moves so she qualifies. Their conversations become theological arguments regarding the soul versus the body. He is a zealot for the pleasures of the physical realm, and she is a zealot for unobtainable, lofty spiritual goals. They are actually both wounded children drunk on their respective coping mechanisms who never find a real way to function in the world and ultimately are more comfortable living in the extremes.
I wanted to slap both of them and tell them about themselves. Alma, you live in a dysfunctional household where you have been forced to act like the parent when you are the child. Tell your dad to start his ministry at home because you didn’t make any vows to your mom. John isn’t into you. He never was into you. You are an option when he is bored. Even when he is ready to settle down, he looked for the cutest young thing and snatched her up despite the obstacles at her home. Girl, everything in moderation. You deserve better than a mean guy or any guy. You can have fun without jumping literally the next guy to come along. Damn. And also report John to the medical board for making you a drug addict. Love yourself then look for a guy.
John, I know that you think that you are edgy and are just trying to piss off your dad by hanging out with the most ethnic girl in town who BONUS enjoys partying as much as you do, but you are a disrespectful ass. You kick dogs when they are down. You are rude as shit to your father and your neighbors. If you really wanted to be different, you would not depend on your dad’s reputation, property and practice and strike out on your own while living wild. Then when the bill comes due, you make someone else pay it, and like every bad boy, when you decide to settle down, like you were always going to do, everyone erases your past, you get all the benefits that you used to sneer at, and you have really learned nothing.
Women are not real people to you, but accessories to fit your changing mood, and I noticed how you kept tabs on the sweet, young thing at the gambling house for later when she became legal. How is Rosa? Did her dad get arrested? We don’t know because you will never care about anyone, but yourself. You are going to be just like your daddy, but worst in a couple of decades and act like you never walked on the wrong side of the tracks. I hope that you lose your license since it is clear that you are a Dr. Feel Good, and you probably sexually abuse your patients. You definitely don’t mind breaking psychologically fragile people when you are bored. You know that someone may be about to harm herself, and you feel a little bad, but basically do nothing. I wish that Law & Order existed in 1961, and you were featured in an episode. You are trash, and you always will be trash, but now you’re trash with a veneer of respectability. I know whom you would have voted for in 2016.
Summer and Smoke ends with obliteration of the selves that they initially created then they create a new fictional persona to reside inside. How long before they find these new personas unsuitable? Will they ever find balance and happiness? Definitely not. I would highly recommend the film to fans of the cast or Williams’ work, but if you are not a fan of old movies or the acting style of the 1960s, skip it. I enjoyed it, but I did want to shake them and left the film more frustrated than when I started.