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movie: Gidget
Jan. 3rd, 2007 11:45 pmWatched Gidget last night and finished it tonight. It was a sweet movie-- charming, amusing, and it got a little racy at the end there-- racier than I expected from a movie made in the late 1950s.
It dripped in its wealth of 1950s sexism, but at the same time had some redeeming qualities for a movie of its era: the protagonist was forthright, clever, and unapologetically strong-minded, and she spends most of the movie doing her damnedest to break into a boy's surfing club where there are no "dames" allowed. I was also pleased that although the movie is a romance, romance doesn't have anything to do with her love of surfing (it comes after), and when her attention moves from surfing to le surfer boy, it's presented mostly as part of her character flaw of always needing to have a project, something to go after. She's always talking about how people need to have a "goal" in life, and her goals range from outdoor water sports to losing her virginity; her character is amusingly self-focused. Le surfer boy was also given decent characterization, though I can't say the two songs he sang did anything for me. Nice voice, boring songs. (keep in mind I've never been serenaded before so I could just be secretly bitter) The ending was a little too rushed, but the climactic beach partyand its consequences were funny in an embarassing way that makes me glad I never tried to seduce anyone when I was 16.
Favorite line in the movie:
"After all those hours of concentrated effort I come home pure as the driven snow!"
It dripped in its wealth of 1950s sexism, but at the same time had some redeeming qualities for a movie of its era: the protagonist was forthright, clever, and unapologetically strong-minded, and she spends most of the movie doing her damnedest to break into a boy's surfing club where there are no "dames" allowed. I was also pleased that although the movie is a romance, romance doesn't have anything to do with her love of surfing (it comes after), and when her attention moves from surfing to le surfer boy, it's presented mostly as part of her character flaw of always needing to have a project, something to go after. She's always talking about how people need to have a "goal" in life, and her goals range from outdoor water sports to losing her virginity; her character is amusingly self-focused. Le surfer boy was also given decent characterization, though I can't say the two songs he sang did anything for me. Nice voice, boring songs. (keep in mind I've never been serenaded before so I could just be secretly bitter) The ending was a little too rushed, but the climactic beach partyand its consequences were funny in an embarassing way that makes me glad I never tried to seduce anyone when I was 16.
Favorite line in the movie:
"After all those hours of concentrated effort I come home pure as the driven snow!"
