Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Blistering performances.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

There isn't anything very good in this film. The screenplay is flippant and shallow with a 60's style beach blanket bingo veneer containing pointless cruelty and rape. The performances from Hershey and Burns are good. Bruce Davidson gives no hint that he will become excellent though. And Richard Thomas, is Richard Thomas. What you see is what you get: cute, and serviceable as an actor. The killing of the pet seagull, and the gang rape at the end of the film, only make any sense in the plot if they are presented as the early manifestations of three burgeoning sociopathic co-serial killer/rapists practicing on their first victims. These types often begin with animals, the seagull, and then move to human victims, Catherine Burns. But that is not how this story is presented or written. It is just poured into your lap as "kids can be so mean sometimes". Well, there's "mean", and then there's "gang rape". And, if you're the ring leader in a gang rape, Barbara Hershey, this is just the beginning. But instead of the creepy scene, as in Hannibal Lecter at the pay phone foreshadowing the worst yet to come, this creepy little film just ends with all the rapists walking into a beautiful sunset, role credits... It should also be noted that the sound mixing is total crap. The ambient music covered up the dialogue in several places. And considering this screenplay, that may have been the point. If you like young hot bods in tight swimwear and don't mind pointless cruelty, this films for you. Count me out. I'd rather watch a lion take down a Zebra on Wildlife Kingdom. At least the violence I'm grossed out by there has a useful purpose in the food chain.

Three teens are spending the summer on Fire Island -- Thomas, Davison, and Hershey. I just love to see the young folks having fun and frisking around. And, man, they are radiantly happy, all sun tanned and drinking Heinekin's and doing a little grass and playing "Truth" and looking mighty handsome, all three of them. There's no jealousy between the boys, although they both have the hots for Hershey. But then there's no reason for jealousy because she lets both of them feel her up at the same time in the movie theater while watching a sexy Swedish movie.There enters the picture Catherine Burns, not from New York but from Ohio. She's not ugly but she takes a little getting used to, next to these exemplars of bronzed and well-bred youth. She's shapeless and wears braces. Her hair isn't fashionably groomed and is configured like a Nazi helmet. On the vast white sand of Fire Island's beaches, her pale, plump figure is the only body that shines with the sheen of sun-blocker. She's moral too. She'd never take off her top and glow with self satisfaction as the two boys stare at her, while Hershey revels in their admiration.The three sort of adopt her and try to teach her how to enjoy herself in accordance with their lights. She doesn't smoke or drink; she doesn't swim; she doesn't do dope; she looks and sounds like an adult and she has adult sensibilities.So, one hot day, at Hershey's urging, the four of them go into the bushes and Burns is raped by the boys and left behind, with the sun a blistering crimson as it settles into the haze.What is this movie about? Better to ask what was going on in 1968 when it was shot. There was a revolution under way in certain sectors of social space -- well-off white kids, mostly. The movie illustrates to the general audience what these spoiled narcissists were up to when they weren't carrying placards on the streets although, to be sure, not an iota of the outside world and its problems is ever mentioned. They're simply on the hedonic treadmill.Whether it intends to or not, the movie also gives us a glimpse into human nature, which is not so flattering. Here are three kids who have everything they need and are free to do what they want. (There is hardly an adult to be seen.) And the world turns Hobbesian. Self indulgence is redefined to include inflicting pain on others. The Summer of Love is behind us -- and forget Flower Power.That's what I got out of it anyway. That and the gradual suspicion that these teen agers of 1968 are now sixty-year-old urban bourgeois who are screeching about not wanting to pay taxes to support government freeloaders. They need the moolah for next year's BMW, the one with the 20 mm. cannon on top. Yes, Sandy, there is a certain strain towards diachronic consistency in cohorts. Some of us manage to grow older without really growing up.I now step down from behind the pulpit. No, please. Save the applause. Just donate your next paycheck to Medecins Sans Frontiers. Thank you.Barbara Hershey, running around clad in that skimpy bikini, is enough to generate a gonadal glow in any normal young man and tempt him to felony. Richard Thomas is the sensitive kid who kisses Burns and chats seriously with her, but only when they're alone, and at the end he turns as savage as the slightly beef-brained Davison.The three of them had been reckless, selfish and cruel before, getting a nice Puerto Rican man drunk and leaving him to be beaten by a couple of thugs. And earlier, having saved the life of a sea gull, Hershey bashes its head in when it accidentally bites her finger. You have to govern that human nature carefully. The performances are pretty good. I could believe each of the individual actors, and Burns is maybe marginally more convincing than the others. But the script has its weak points. NOBODY could be as frisky as the three kids at the beginning, and the transition to barbarity at the end is a little too quick. Pretty scenery though -- the summer beaches.

WARNING: Before you watch "Last Summer", you really need to be warned that the movie is quite adult and has a very traumatic rape scene. Many will find this too troubling--and perhaps it could bring back your own traumatic past experiences as you watch. I am not saying not to watch it--just be aware.As far as the movie goes, it's well made but quite difficult to watch--not just because of the rape but because the characters are quite often jerks--very unlikable jerks. It is set at a beach community on Long Island. Three young people (Barbara Hershey, Richard Thomas and Bruce Davison) meet and soon become friends. However, it soon becomes apparent that there is a lot of sexual tension in these new friendships and a ménage à trois of sorts is in the making. From a voyeuristic point of view, the film is rather stimulating....but any sexual excitement on the part of the viewer may quickly disappear as you begin to see that these people (when together) become jerks. It's as if alone they are normal but together their inhibitions and sense of morality diminishes. Later, when they meet a nerdy and less attractive fourth member of their little group (Catherine Burns), this becomes all the more apparent and the three original members exploit this very vulnerable new member.The acting is competent and the story is decent because it is unique and explores very dark aspects of supposedly 'typical' teens. And, fortunately, while the film has very explicit content, the director manages to hide most of what occurs through creative filming and it is not necessarily exploitational--just very, very dark. Frankly, I did not particularly enjoy the movie--it was a very tough viewing. But, it was well made and hence my overall score of 5.

There's no plot, no apparent theme, and little action. And an hour into the movie, I'm still not sure where it's going. So why is the 90-minutes as riveting as I think it is. For one, the filmmakers begin with that interesting seagull sequence that provides insight into Sandy's (Hershey) manipulative character and the boys' general submissiveness. However, in between the opening sequence and the final one, nothing much happens. Some scenes are overlong (the pot smoking, the hair washing), while the elliptical dialog is often punctuated by long, non- meaningful, pauses.Nonetheless, the three hedonistic kids are attractive, fairly realistic, and found horsing around at a scenic beach. But then, chubby Rhoda arrives, with her needy, yet judgmental, attitude, and it's curious where things will go from there now that an outsider is watching them.There's an undercurrent here, especially with Sandy, that's seductive. It's to the filmmakers credit, including the cast, that they manage to mesmerize with such spare elements. Oddly, the technique reminds me of the popular Swedish auteur Ingmar Bergman— especially his Virgin Spring (1959).I take the upshot as having to do with judgmental people who stand apart from the crowd and not being able to tolerate them. But however you take it, the movie avoids cliché (as others note) and continues to fascinate at a generally unspoken level. Too bad the Perry's didn't make more movies.