Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Summertree Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson May 11, 2021

Summertree (1971) is being released exclusively as part of Mill Creek Entertainment's two-disc, Scars of War: Vietnam 4-Movie Collection.

Summertree was Michael Douglas's third feature film and third leading role, which ocurred thanks largely to his father, Kirk. The movie is based on the eponymous play by Ron Cowen, who wrote the work when he as 20. Biographer Andy Dougan writes in Michael Douglas: Out of the Shadows that Douglas played the part of Jerry at the O'Neill Theatre. Dougan's fellow biographer John Parker chronicles in his book, Michael Douglas: Acting on Instinct, that Douglas and Cowen roomed together in Waterford, Connecticut where the two artists attended the National Playwrights’ Conference during the summer of 1967. Douglas was a member of the resident troupe at Waterford where Cowen and he became friends. Random House published Cowen's Summertree a year later. In 1969, the play had performances in New York at the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center. According to Dougan, Douglas read for the same role. He thought he had it but was called back for a second reading and then lost it! Evidently, Kirk wanted his son to garner the role so badly that he snagged the rights to the play. Columbia agreed to distribute Summertree.

Summertree opens in a suburban California neighborhood where Jerry (Michael Douglas) is arriving home to visit his parents, Herb (Jack Warden) and Ruth (Barbara Bel Geddes). (The picture was filmed at Occidental College in Los Angeles.) Jerry has decided to drop out of college because his major of Sociology isn't taking him where he truly wants to go, which is to enroll in a music conservatory. Second-time director Anthony Newley rolls the main titles amidst Super 8mm home movies, which depict young Jerry in the backyard strumming his guitar in a little tree house. That's exactly what Jerry does upon his return after he sneaks into his old abode. He's greeted while playing the guitar on the tree by his crusty father and later by his levelheaded mother. The film shows the generational divide but is imperceptive about the era's social realities. For example, Tony (Bill Vint), the husband of Jerry's girlfriend, Vanetta (Brenda Vaccaro), returns home from Vietnam an experienced solider but not psychologically or physically afflicted like so many veterans. The movie treats Vietnam as the "television war" but doesn't engage in any of the topical issues that were debated on the home front. Kate Cameron of The Daily (NY) News was spot-on when describing Summertree and Hail, Hero! (1969), which also starred Douglas: "[T]hese movies seem to be hopelessly naive in their treatment of this painful subject, so much so that they never convey any real sense of pain."

Another quibble I have is that Douglas was 27 when he made the picture and looks a little too old to portray a college dropout. Additionally, Jerry's romance with Vanetta is a plot contrivance that unnaturally takes place in the school nurse's office where he takes an immediate liking to her. According to Dougan, Douglas became amorously linked to divorcée Vaccaro during filming and one he had a semi-long partnership with. The "cause" of Jerry's visit to the nurse's office is some scrapes suffered by the boy Marvis (Kirk Callaway), who he's a big brother to. This also doesn't work. Jerry chases the imp around so much that they never really settle in to develop enough chemistry together.

Summertree received middling reviews and didn't stay in theaters long. The Boston Globe's Kevin Kelly called it "a trite and ter­rible adaptation" of Cowen's play which he says graced the stage with "a quiet kind of eloquence...persuasive and occasionally profound" when it was performed at the Forum in Lincoln Center. According to Kelly, every­thing in Cowen’s play "has been either eliminated or ex­aggerated, much to the dis­service of his script." Fellow film critic Bernard Drew also made this observation. On the other hand, Dick Banks of The Charlotte Observer was a little more enthusiastic about the film. He described Douglas as "magnetic" and "may be better than pop....potentially a better actor than his old man."

Summertree Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Summertree makes its debut on Blu-ray worldwide courtesy of Mill Creek Entertainment. The film is stored on a BD-50 (39 GB), which it shares with Alamo Bay. The 1.85:1 transfer seems to be the same print that appeared on Sony's 2009 DVD under the studio's Martini Movies line. It benefits from the higher resolution as you'll notice in the outdoor scenes (see Screenshot #19). There's fine detail on Douglas in a medium close-up (#5). However, other shots look overexposed with glistening white. But as one critic observed, Summertree is a bright-looking film. The major deterrent from keeping this from being a clean transfer is the white artifacts and speckles that pop up time and again. You'll spot one on Vaccaro's lab coat in #20. Mill Creek has given the MPEG-4 AVC-encoded disc an average video bitrate of 24896 kbps.

Mill provides thirteen chapter selections for the 88-minute feature.

Summertree Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mill Creek has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono (1560 kbps, 24-bit) as the only sound mix. Dialogue is rendered generally intelligible while focalized through the center channel. Composer David Shire delivers breezy music that serves as nice underscore. Shire co-wrote the song, "Having the Time of Our Lives," which plays over the main titles. The track is clean but it's very limited.

Optional English can be selected through the main menu (split with Alamo Bay) or through your remote.

Summertree Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Sony SD disc included the film's original theatrical trailer. The Mill Creek has nil.

Summertree Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Summertree definitely shows its stage roots through its placing of scenes. It's not at all adventurous in externalizing the conscience of a draft resister. How ironic that Mill Creek would place it in collection labeled "Scars of War." A much more effective work that explores some of the same themes that's also written by a playwright is 1969 (1988), Ernest Thompson's underrated war-at-home drama. This is the first time Summertree has been released on high-def so fans of Michael Douglas may want to add it to complete their collections. MCE hasn't done any additional restoration work on the ca. 2009 transfer, though it's superior to SD. The set is currently only $14.99 so it may be worth picking up if you're seeking this one.