In the past week I have paid five dollars twice to watch the 1978 popcorn flick “Corvette Summer” starring a young Mark Hamill, the actor most remember as Luke Skywalker. The first time it was by myself at my aunt’s house in the middle of the night; a victimless crime. More recently, in fact just this past Friday night, I rented it at my former place of residence, Aristotle’s house, and this expanded audience wasn’t quite as taken with the nostalgic 1970s cinematography as I was.
At one point I remember yelling to everyone in the room, “See how the chandeliers are so much brighter than the rest of the frame?! That’s because 1970s analog cameras are much more limited in their range of light exposure!!” The line got a stony reception, and the whites of my friends’ eyeballs yellowed a little bit more with simple boredom. For some reason, I just can’t get enough of this movie. Its not just because Mark Hamill is so attractive as a strong, young Jedi Californian. By the way, he acts the shit out of this movie.
He delivers a performance that is all class. Plus the film is a whole lotta bubblegum in times when all other media seems to trigger avalanches of lurching emotion (read: election coverage.) Even though I was never alive in the 1970s (3rdarm.biz wasn’t online yet, man…) I still feel a great deal of nostalgia for the period. Perhaps evidence that I missed my mark in life by a couple decades. All I know is that Corvette Summer comforts me, at a time when the sun rays are getting weaker and autumn is a-creepin’, but still a couple weeks off.
Inspired by this film, and also the Humble Pie album “Smokin'” from 1972, I have created a late-Saturday-night mixtape. I plan on making many copies of this to be distributed to the lucky recipients of serendipity. Here is the track listing:
1 – 30 Days in the Hole by Humble Pie
2 – Killing Floor by The Electric Flag
3 – Sally Go Round the Roses by Grace Slick and the Great Society
4 – Autumn Stone by The Small Faces
5 – You’re Still A Young Man by Tower of Power
6 – City of New Orleans (live) by Arlo Guthrie
7 – I’d Love You to Want Me by Lobo
8 – Go All the Way (live) by The Raspberries
9 – Never Been Any Reason by Head East
10 – Popcorn by Hot Butter
11 – Somebody to Love by Grace Slick and the Great Society
12 – All the Young Dudes by Mott the Hoople
13 – Everybody Plays the Fool by The Main Ingredient
My advice to anyone confronted with 3rdarm enthusiasm for a film is to take a hard look at said film before devoting time to it: his taste swings to the bizarre, the pointless, the confusing.
I was down the hole, just killing time………..
where is the U2 on this soundtrack? Bear, you know it belongs.
i love my copy of this CD. tanks a lot!!!
haha! i might agree w/the opinion of reader #1, reeeeeeet, about the movie choice but since mark hamill was my first superstar crush i might need to watch it someday!