Robert Mulligan: 1925 - 2008

Every spring I watch Robert Mulligan’s film of Herman Raucher’s Summer of ‘42 (1971). It’s a personal tradition, something I’ve been doing for decades. The film is loaded with nostalgia, both on the screen and in my mind, taking me back to when it came out and I was 14-years-old... around the age of the guys in the movie. If anything, the film’s a tribute to Jennifer O’Neill’s loveliness. It may not be Mulligan’s best — it may not even be that good at all to some people. But I’ll be forever in Mulligan’s debt for all of its soft-focus splendor, as well as Michel Legrand’s evocative music.