I first read the short 1959 novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, which unfortunately was spoiled by reading a overly helpful review here, but still I was in quite a blue funk afterwards. It is that intense of a story, one of those rare ones that really can affect me long after putting it down. I found the VHS tape of the 1972 cinematic version (where’s the DVD?) and watched it with a gentleman of about 65 that I know who greatly enjoyed it, perhaps even more than I did. The WWII story, all boys school setting and appropriate 40s’ music brought a smile to his face.

The 104-minute movie, filmed at John Knowles’ own Phillips Exeter Academy (lovely New Hampshire) and with mostly inexperienced actors who were students there, changes only a little from the novel and sincerely captures its essence. If you want to hear what Gene, the main character and narrator, is thinking, like after the following quote by his best friend while on the beach, read Knowles’ exceptional novel.

Finny: "I hope you're having a pretty good time here. I know I kind of dragged you away at the point of a gun, but, after all, you can't come to the shore with just anybody, and you can't come by yourself, and at this teen-age period in life, the proper person is your best pal." He hesitated and then added, "Which is what you are," and there was silence on his dune.

Gene, a bookish sixteen-year-old, says nothing in the movie and novel, but in the latter we know how shocked he was on hearing this and that he couldn’t bring himself to get emotionally involved. In the movie with some concern Gene asks athletic, sixteen-year-old Finny later in their dorm room why he said that. Some people have seen this story as one of boys unable to express their homoerotic love and they could be right, although my friend pegged Finny as a smooth manipulator instead. I think we see what we want to see in this coming-of-age story.

This is what I saw. I saw a beautiful depiction of real life in the summer of 1942 at a real boys’ academy until a couple of years later. I saw awkward, confused boys trying to be brave, to enjoy their boyhood dreams, to feel like they matter and are appreciated; trying desperately to keep from going mad and breaking down.

I saw a boy (Gene) wonder what kind of person he was after causing another boy (Finny) have a terrible fall and injury. Had it been deliberate and why? He has a battle throughout the rest of the movie with his feelings for Finny, trying to confess to him, the invalid then cripple. The boys have been intimately bound together by the accident, with Gene dressing in Finny’s clothes while Finny is home and Finny obsessed with Gene becoming more athletic like he had been.

This kind of behavior seems to me to be pretty typical of boys that age during the 40s. Don’t kids still want to be like their best friend and envy them for their gifts? I think so. A Separate Peace, both novel and the 1972 movie, admirably illustrates this truth.

Parker Stevenson (The Hardy Boys) auspiciously made his film debut here as Gene and John Heyl is every bit Finny. A 2004 remake used actors in their mid to late twenties and ripped off Dead Poets’ Society, but the boy actors in the 1972 movie were still wonderfully in their teens. Peter Brush and Victor Bevine intensely played crucial, very different roles. Larry Preece as director, Fred Segal for his powerful adaptation, Charles Fox with fitting music and Frank Stanley with stunning cinematography polish off the reasons to enjoy this movie.

A Separate Peace is rated PG and highly recommended for young and old not looking for big-budget Hollywood experiences. It helps if you're introverted like Gene and it isn’t a very happy ending, but more of a realistic, meaningful one . All children have to grow up and live with who they are for good or bad. It’s probably not going to be easy.

This is an entry for member pearannoyed's Then and Again write-off. See details here: http://www.epinions.com/content_4483031172

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS