Summertree (1971) User Reviews (14)

Likable drama about a society drop-out anxious to find himself.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 1 December 2011]

Long before he became the pin-up model for oversexed middle aged men, Michael Douglas was a promising young actor who played a guitar strumming college student unsure of his future in the Vietnam War era. He falls for a married nurse (Brenda Vaccaro) and politely battles his conservative but loving father (Jack Warden) over his education and the draft. In the meantime, he is the big brother to a young black boy (Kirk Callaway) whose adored older brother has already gone off to fight. Barbara Bel Geddes ("Dallas"'s Miss Ellie) is his loving mother to whom he can do no wrong. Just watch how she responds to husband Warden as their son considers going to Canada to avoid being drafted.

Just on the verge of stardom in "All in the Family", Rob Reiner is instantly recognizable as one of Douglas's roommates, while Teri Garr is seen briefly as one of his dates. The film tenderly shows Douglas's confusion over the world around him, shows a generation gap that isn't ugly (just confused), and explores his humanity in a humorous and tender light.

Make it a 6.5!

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 29 January 2023]

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.

Most shattering ending to a movie ever

[evening1 · 7/10 · 30 May 2020]

This seems to be a forgotten film from the Vietnam genre. Released in 1971 and only 12 reviews before mine. It's hard to see why.

Michael Douglas makes a stunning movie debut as Jerry, a 20-year-old college dropout forced into a desperate flight to Canada to avoid the draft. As a mother of boys, I think I understand why Jerry made the decisions he did. He could have gotten a deferment by remaining at school, but he didn't want to go through the motions, spending precious time in classes he found meaningless. You can't expect a guy in Jerry's frame of mind to make the rational choice. And wow, is that hard for parents to accept! Barbara Bel Geddes, as Jerry's mom, tries her best to understand. After all, her own dad had emigrated from Poland 50 years earlier to avoid conscription there.

Douglas's Jerry is an idealist. The only course of learning that turns him on is the guitar that had been a gift years earlier from his hard-nosed dad (Jack Warden). He has dropped out of college to pursue music, only to learn too late that the conservatory won't accept an autodidact unfamiliar with the musical canon. Jerry has fallen for older nurse Vanneta (Brenda Vaccaro), and, even though she's betrayed his trust, imagines they could make a life together somewhere north of the border.

The most moving part of this film is its final frame. Why, why, why did we send our boys into the jungles of Vietnam? The heart of a mother breaks!

Micheal Douglas in his second film

[jaybob · 6/10 · 11 September 2009]

From what I researched Micheal was fired from the stage production of the play this film is based upon. His father Kirk Douglas purchased play for his son to appear in the film version. He also produced the movie.

Ron Craven is the author of the play, the screenplay is by Edward Hume. This was Micheal Douglas's second film.

Micheal is quite good as the college student unsure of what he wants to do with his life except play the guitar. Time period is the Vietnam era,he is also conflicted about wanting to fight .

In other words folks, this is a propaganda movie, similar in style to the many made during any war period.

Brenda Vacarro is this nurse he meets & falls in love with, she has a secret we don't find out about till near the end.

Jack Warden & Barbara Bel Geddes are his loving & caring parents.

Micheals character is also involved in the Big Brother movement & has a precocious, cute 12 year old black youth that he is trying to mentor. In his only film role Nick Calloway assays this role. The director was Musical comedy actor & singer Anthony Newly, it was his second & final directorial effort.

We inevitably reach a sad unneeded,inconclusive ending.

This really is not a bad film,its just not very believably done.

It had next to no theatrical release in 1971 & this is the first time on DVD

Ratings **1/2 (out of 4) 75 points (out of 100) IMDb 6 (out of 10)

I miss the movie

[regorwin · 29 July 2005]

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

michael douglas and others from the 1970s

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 7 November 2019]

Michael Douglas is "Jerry", one of his early film roles, who comes home, and is about to be drafted. co-stars Jack Warden, Brenda Vaccaro, Barbara BelGeddes. Rob Reiner and Teri Garr are also in here. The plot is pretty lame. Jerry, signs up to be a "big brother". Vaccaro is "Vanetta", the love interest. when Jerry gets drafted, he doesn't think he can fight, so of course there's a huge argument with his parentals on the right thing to do. Jerry butts heads with dad, and suddenly, the film is over, and we find out what Jerry decided. quite the abrupt ending. like they lost the last reel of film and had to sum it up in one minute. One of only TWO films directed by british Tony Newley! Newley was a jack of all trades.. musician, actor... and married to Joan Collins for eight years! this one is okay. not anyone's best work.

Absolutely Awful

[quarterwavevertical · 3/10 · 7 October 2019]

I have nothing good to say about this movie. The story's been done numerous time: a young man who can't make up his mind what he wants to do with himself tries to become a draft dodger.

But it's worse than that. None of the characters are likable. Michael Douglas as the son is in serious need of growing up. Jack Warden as his father is an Archie Bunker type (fitting, considering that Rob "Meathead" Reiner has a small role).

Brenda Vaccaro's character is redundant to the plot, adding little to the story. Even so, she's far from admirable as she's not completely honest with the son.

I found the movie boring and pretentious and I wasn't entirely surprised at how it ended.

Avoid this one like the plague.

"Your best routine is yourself."

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 15 January 2017]

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 ****

This is a fatal attraction...

[gkhege · 1/10 · 6 October 2019]

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.

Anyone who gives this a "10" is a phony--Spoilers

[thomas196x2000 · 2/10 · 6 October 2019]

Any way you slice it, this is a bad movie. Not technically inept, not poorly acted, but a bad film.

Douglas is a know-it-all young man that wants to play his freaking guitar and avoid the war.

His dad doesn't particularly want him to go to war, so the answer is stay in college. Douglas refuses to listen to his dad, and pins his hope on getting into an art college.

He has a relationship with Brenda Vacarro, which goes nowhere. When he does not get accepted to the college, his draft comes through, and off to Vietnam he goes.

His dad is still proud of him for not going to Canada and dodge the draft. As he and his wife start to fool around, they miss a newscast that shows Douglas shot dead in Vietnam being taken away. The last shot is on Douglas' dead face.

The End.

Now, imagine that plot stretched to movie time. Turgid, boring, and cynical.

A Superstar in the making

[darad · 10/10 · 31 October 1998]

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.

still makes you wonder

[ryelou · 9/10 · 18 December 2019]

Coming of age in the 60's this movie bought back so many memories. I could not stop myself from crying. Michael Douglas does a wonderful job as the conflicted young man faced with hard choices.

A movie I crave to see again!

[amygroetzberg · 10/10 · 22 April 2007]

I was about 10 years old when I started to watch Summertree. I liked Michael Douglas. I thought he was handsome! Just that alone was enough for me to stop changing channels and watch! I was mesmerized by the great acting! Michael Douglas played his role with such conviction and depth I was drawn to keep watching the movie. The roles of his parents were for me heart wrenching to watch. The conflict between father and son probably was played out (in real life!) in homes all across the country during the Vietnam war. The mother was played my one of my all time favorite actresses. She was torn in half physically & emotionally for she deeply loved her son and yet honored her husband. A tough no-win situation to be in! This is the other reason I am posting comments about Summertree. The Music! I heard the most beautiful guitar song!(no words) I couldn't believe how BEAUTIFUL IT WAS! I ran to my piano to pluck it out! I play it to this very day!(30 years later)I have craved to hear it again, I have done hours of research to find the music, the title, & score. The tempo makes me think of Waltz Dancing music. Maybe Strauss? It's Hauntingly Beautiful! I wish that this movie would come out on DVD!

You MUST see William Smith's performance!

[billsmit · 17 March 1999]

A great, thought-provoking movie. Of particular note is the performance of William "Bill" Smith, who played the Draft Lawyer!