Summertree

I don't know whether I came to the right column. It was about 30 years ago when I watched this movie. I was a teenager. English was my second language and I had to work hard on learning. I almost forgot what the movie was talking about but purely I remembered Douglas' performance and the atmosphere took me into another place where I remembered for 30 years. Thanks to God we have internet communications nowadays, at least I have an avenue to trace the movie I would like to see a few more times. Please let me know as how I can attain the chance to see it again. I miss the young Michael, too!

Regina Orwin

The only reason this Movie was even made was because Kirk Douglas bought the movie rights so his Son Michael would have a job. I tried , as a Vietnam Combat war veteran, to watch this movie with an open mind. It's so hard picture Michael Douglas as a draft dodger. Come on, his Dad had to much money for this kid to be drafted. It's a bad movie and very hard ti through the entire film.

20-year-old college student, anxious to ditch the dull standard curriculum to study music at the school's conservatory, butts heads with his father over the decisions he's making and the girl he's dating while the Vietnam War and the draft looms large over him. Thinly-derived adaptation of Ron Cowen's off-Broadway play, a generation-gap tale directed by Anthony Newley (of all people), does have a distinctive middle-America look that captures life around mom's dining room table better than "The Subject Was Roses". Still, this young man's journey isn't very enthralling and his arguments aren't very persuasive. Newley keeps a lively pace but doesn't reign in his actors, although Michael Douglas, in one of his earliest film roles, is comfortable in front of the camera. Despite a bad haircut and a reddish face that looks sunburned, Douglas handles the leading role well, sharing a few strong scenes with Jack Warden as his father and Brenda Vaccaro as his girlfriend, a nursing student. Kirk Douglas (Michael's real-life dad) produced the film as a gift for his son; that kind of love and generosity is faked in the movie, which has an overlay of TV-styled melodrama that renders it ultimately unimportant. **1/2 from ****

Even though its plot was basically an anti-war movie, it gives good argument on both sides. Summertree shows that the Vietnam War was also a battle between generations; Michael Douglas as the misdirected young man and Jack Warden the "give em hell" dad. Douglas plays a college student who keeps the draft board off his back until he mistakenly decides to change majors, suddenly he's drafted and faced with a difficult choice with very few options.

Luckily my parents had a VCR during the late 70's and Summertree just happened to be playing late one night. My mother was a huge Michael Douglas fan so she recorded anything he starred in and thanks to her I was able to see this gifted talent as it blossomed into super stardom. Although that old tape is still in good condition I'd love to own this great movie on DVD.

Michael Douglas plays a college student who's trying to figure out what to do with his life, as most 19-21 year old kids are wont to do. As long as he stays in college, he can get a deferment from the draft to Vietnam. Following his Christmas break, he decides to apply to a music conservancy after he gets good initial reviews from his audition (guitar playing). A man waiting off-stage offers him a job to play in between band sets at a coffee house he owns, and Douglas jumps at the chance. Things are going swell. He has a job offer, a chance to study and make music, a love life that is sweet and hot with Brenda Vaccaro (a nurse who's separated, but not yet divorced from her husband), good rapport with his 'little brother', played by Kirk Callaway, and a somewhat tepid, but improving relationship with his parents (Jack Warden and Bel Geddes).

Then he makes the fateful decision to drop out of college to pursue his music education. Since the conservancy is tied to the university he's attending, things should be fine as far as his draft status is concerned. Things in his life begin to unravel as the first big 'Whoops' occurs. He doesn't get a scholarship to the conservancy. His father shows up to give him his draft notice. His girlfriend's husband shows up from 'Nam. His 'little brother's' real life brother is killed in 'Nam. Talk about when it rains, it pours!! So Jerry (Douglas' character) tries to figure out how to get out of the draft. He settles on his last, best idea, which is to high-tail it off to Canada.

He buys a beat up Ford Falcon and stops at his home to bid his parents adieu. His mom doesn't like the idea of him leaving, but she's supportive of his decision. Dad is against the idea. Is it because he's concerned about his son being labeled a fugitive or a coward? We aren't sure, but he gives in and takes his son to an auto repair shop to check out the car and get a new set of tires for the trip north. While at the garage, Douglas overhears Jack Warden speaking with the owner of the body shop imploring him to do something, anything to disable the vehicle for a few days (presumably to try and reason with his son). Douglas freaks out, jumps in the car, burns rubber, and tries to speed off, but instead T-bones a car being hauled by a tow truck to the body shop. Warden gets in on the passenger side of the car and has a stare down with his boy.

I'm not going to give away the ending here, but it does have a stunning twist to it. Well, stunning as far as I was concerned. I'd give it about 6.5 out of 10.