My favorite summer flicks

My niece Jasmine, the one I currently live with on weekdays, recently had her moving up ceremony. That’s like graduation, only it’s not, because she’s just transitioning from kindergarten to preparatory school. Nobody got a diploma, but the parents surely got the first of many, many moments of academe-related pride. It was this and the heat that got me thinking of my past summers, because— let’s face it—when you’re no longer going to school, summer becomes just one of those seasons that make up, like sand to the hour glass, the days of our lives.

I’ve got plenty of good memories of summer. Many of them are of seemingly endless humid days spent in front of the television, lying on a native mat, drinking cold Hershey’s Brown Cow or Milo, watching Betamax tapes rented from the neighborhood store a good twenty-minute walk a way for five pesos a week.

I don’t really mean to sound like a grandma reliving the good old days, but really, Betamax changed my life from the very first summer I made its acquaintance and, through the years, I’ve seen lots of movies that made an impact on me. Some of them were artsy; some of them, not so much. But all of them were memorable because of any of the following: A. They warped me for good. B. They made me dream. C. They made me realize something important about life.

I’ve made a short list of many of those films below.

Jaws (1975). This film, made before I was born, is about a sea-side summer town that is attacked by a Great White Shark. This falls under Category A, as I’ve never looked at the sea the same since I first saw it. However, when I saw it again as an adult, the Steven Spielberg classic also crossed over to Category C, as I also realized that there is just no messing with nature, as much as there should be no meddling with the food chain.

The Graduate (1967). Fresh college graduate Ben (Dustin Hoffman) has an affair with his mother’s best friend Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) and then falls for her daughter Elaine (Katherine Ross). Watching it as a teenager, I found the May-December affair truly disturbing, but this film made me realize that adults aren’t all that after all, and I should really consider the source when I’m being given advice about what to do with my life.

Friday the 13th (1980). A definite Category A flick. If I don’t feel a hundred percent safe in isolated resorts, it’s because of this teenage slasher flick. Then again, I’m also rarely a naughty vacationer because I want to be the one to live through a ghostly, if not monstrous, massacre.

The Karate Kid (1984). Daniel Larusso (Ralph Macchio) finds himself learning karate after falling for Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue), a popular guy’s girlfriend. The apartment maintenance man, Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita), teaches him karate and enough lessons to last a lifetime. I think, along with Yoda, Mr. Miyagi introduced me to the concept of self-mastery.

My Girl (1991). This film tells the story of unforgettable Vada, the beautiful, quirky 11-year-old hypochondriac, and her friendship with the equally beautiful, but geeky Thomas J. Sennett (Macaulay Culkin), who dies before the summer is over. This film gave me my first idea of acceptance in the midst the tragedy and my first picture of grief that can be survived. It also showed me how stories we tell ourselves sometimes hinder us from moving towards a full life.

Stand By Me (1986). This Rob Reiner film, which is based on the Stephen King novella The Body, is one of my all-time favorites. It is not only an unforgettable coming-of-age tale; it also shines the light on the role of the storyteller as someone whose job it is to draw some sense out of the meaningless events of our lives. A definite Category C for me, who became a professional writer 15 years after I saw this movie.

Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001). This Alfonso Cuarón film about two boys Tenoch and Julio (Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal) who go on a summer pre-college road trip to bed a woman is better watched when you’re 18 and above, not just because of its sexual content, but also because you’re going to appreciate its wisdom better. No film has made me realize how much we miss when we are young and short-sighted, and how much we take moment-by-moment decisions for granted, feeling so much for the wrong things and feeling so little, at first, over things that would truly matter in the end.

Maybe it’s high time I gave the above films another look, and who knows what else I might pick up. After all, I’m still learning a thing or two from my previous 32 summers.

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