A seagull lays injured on the beach. A good looking teen girl (Hershey) comes to it's rescue. Later she meets two good looking teen guys who help her nurse it back to health and also become friends in the process. Soon the three bond in what has become traditionally known as the teen clique. Then Burns enters. She is not as 'hip' as the others nor is she as good looking. Her entrance into the clique causes a great deal of underlying friction and tensions. (Especially between her and Hershey). The film then pretty much plods along as it tries to explore how these tensions sort of ebb and flow. It finally ends with a completely unexpected and shocking finale.
Touted upon it's release in 1969 as a sophisticated and serious study of today's teens. Yet everything it shows we already know and take for granted. We all know that teenagers can be moody and their likes and dislikes can fluctuate. We also know that their can be a very severe line between the haves and the have nots. Some people will be destined not to fit in simply because they are not good looking or cool.
The only thing that seems mildly different is the ending, yet this too fails. There is no real explanation for it and there is no follow up. It simply ends abruptly and then we, the audience, are left to ponder it, which we don't because the rest of it just wasn't interesting or original enough. A much better way to have done it was to have it begin with the shocking climax and then have it work backwards. They could show through flashbacks what may have lead up to it, plus shown it's aftermath and consequences.
Instead we are given a very pretentious and slow moving adolescent character study that acts like it is saying way more than it really is. The teen characters, for the most part, are all typical and rather limited. There is no new insight for what they do nor explanation. The filmmakers seem as out of touch with the subculture as anyone else.
Touted upon it's release in 1969 as a sophisticated and serious study of today's teens. Yet everything it shows we already know and take for granted. We all know that teenagers can be moody and their likes and dislikes can fluctuate. We also know that their can be a very severe line between the haves and the have nots. Some people will be destined not to fit in simply because they are not good looking or cool.
The only thing that seems mildly different is the ending, yet this too fails. There is no real explanation for it and there is no follow up. It simply ends abruptly and then we, the audience, are left to ponder it, which we don't because the rest of it just wasn't interesting or original enough. A much better way to have done it was to have it begin with the shocking climax and then have it work backwards. They could show through flashbacks what may have lead up to it, plus shown it's aftermath and consequences.
Instead we are given a very pretentious and slow moving adolescent character study that acts like it is saying way more than it really is. The teen characters, for the most part, are all typical and rather limited. There is no new insight for what they do nor explanation. The filmmakers seem as out of touch with the subculture as anyone else.