I happened by a classic the other day. 1980’s “Little Darlings” starring Tatum O’Neal, Kristy McNichol and Matt Dillon (also, a young, adorable and naturally blonde Cynthia Nixon as hippie girl “Sunshine”). For those of you who may have forgotten the details, McNichol plays “streetwise” Angel. You can tell she’s streetwise by the fact that she is smoking in nearly every scene. Streetwise kids always smoke. It’s one of the things that make them streetwise. Tatum O’Neal smoked in “Paper Moon,” and she was like 7. She also smoked in “The Bad News Bears.” However she did not smoke in “Little Darlings” because she represented the rich girl – over educated and snotty. The movie is rated R, and I’m betting it’s not because of the smoking, but rather the content, which, by today’s standards, is downright prudish. Which is what got me thinking in the first place.
Anyway, Ferris (O’Neal) and Angel (McNichol) are summer camp rivals, you know being from opposite sides of the tracks and all, who enter into a contest to see who can lose their virginity first. Ferris immediately sets her sights on the unobtainable adult counselor, Gary, portrayed by a disturbingly hairy Armand Assanti, while Angel rows across the pond to the boys’ camp and finds Randy (Dillon) whose feathered locks are enough to make any girl quake in her tube socks. Of course, the whole camp is in on it, betting their allowances. In the end - SPOILER ALERT! – Angel and Randy do it, but Angel lies and said they didn’t, while Ferris and Gary don’t do it, but Ferris lies and says they did.
I was 14 when this movie came out. I don’t actually remember seeing it in the theatre, yet it has always been part of my consciousness. Tatum O’Neal and Kristy McNichol (and for that matter, Jodie Foster, the girls from “The Facts of Life,” and “Square Pegs’” own Sarah Jessica Parker) were about my age. They were my peers. When I looked to find myself in the movies and TV, I saw them. So when it was time for Buddy from “Family” to give it up to the badass from “My Bodyguard,” it’s going to make an impression. Er, so to speak.
And that’s my point! The double entendre. The wordplay, the dirty overtones to every sentence spoken. Those did not exist in this movie. As Randy and Angel started to have real feelings for each other they got emotional and weird. They cried, they didn’t communicate, they acted like 15 year olds who are in over their heads. I found myself thinking about the movie “Juno,” and how everything that came out of Ellen Page’s mouth was precious. Here was this pregnant girl endlessly quipping, while Angel used smoking a cigarette to stall the eventuality of having to take off her clothes. “Juno,” for the record, is rated PG-13.
Meanwhile Ferris played at sophistication while chasing an older man. She pretends to drown; she shows up at his cabin in a nightgown. Not a negligee but a nightgown, like a proper 15 year old wore in 1980. His treatment of her was respectful and sweet. Her lie to the campers was romantic and exactly what they wanted to hear. The contrast between the fantasy and reality of sex when you’re not ready for it are played out starkly and emotionally. Ferris has no idea that she’s implicated Gary in statutory rape and it’s not until he spells it out for her that she even gets an inkling of where her misguided crush could have led.
As they age, movies become not only cultural reflections of the time were made, but reflections of how the movies themselves were made at the time. There was nothing fancy about this film. The pace was slow, and the camerawork unobtrusive and simple. The soundtrack wasn’t chock full of late ‘70s hits (it consisted of 6 songs, two of which have subsequently been cut, probably for rights issues. However, “Let Your Love Flow” played over the end credits). It was just a little movie about two little girls and one big issue, and all of the awkwardness and discomfort that surrounds it. The fact that Angel and Randy even had sex is only implied by the post coital jeans buttoning and the bewildered look on their faces. Angel’s disappointment that it wasn’t what she thought it would be only reiterates how little we knew back then, when the only authority we could trust for all things sexual was Judy Blume. Today's parents are much more open and honest with their kids about sex than ours were with us. As standards and taboos have changed, 15 year olds have been exposed to way more sexualized content than we ever were. It takes a lot more work to surprise them. At the same time, there’s something to be said for seriousness of sexual contact. Because for as glib as we all like to be about it now, we sure as hell weren’t then.
IMDB currently lists a Little Darlings 2011 in preproduction with JJ Abrams as the producer. I don’t know why Hollywood feels compelled to remake so many films when there are so many original works being ignored. Well, of course I do, they have a built in audience of GenXers taking their kids to see the films that defined our own teenage years. Double dip admission. If it does get made, I sincerely hope he can capture the true confusion and consequences of losing your virginity before you're emotionally ready to handle it. Since it’s listed as a comedy, I doubt it.
I imagine they’ll cut the smoking, though. You know, to keep it PG-13.
