Shakespeare Quote About A Summer’s Day - An Exploration of Summer Movies

It’s summer in Texas, so we all need something to do after we’ve been forced inside by the sun’s ultraviolet laser beams. And I’ll tell you what, if something is going to curb your boredom, it’s the glorious majesty of celluloid. One thing that Hyperreal Film Club can help you with is matching the vibe of the current moment with some really cool flicks. There is a history of films using this exact atmosphere and climate to communicate a story. These films achieve real relatability partly because of their hyper-specific setting and partly because there’s this interesting dialogue between artists about summer being one of the more evocative seasons (I mean there’s only four, I guess they’re all evocative). These artists share the common metaphor of heat being representative of desperation and longing and having that desperation amplified by setting it over a single day, making the hourglass run out on their opportunity to make a change. So, while your skin is getting stuck to your leather couch, you're drinking a warm glass of ginger ale, and eating your favorite five-alarm chili, let me talk to you about my favorite summer flicks that are set over one day.

Dog Day Afternoon, Sidney Lumet’s masterful entry into the heist genre, features Al Pacino and John Cazale as a pair of bank robbers targeting a small New York bank. The robbery quickly goes sideways and these amateur thieves have to navigate a hostage situation and a police siege, all while sweltering in the New York summer heat. It’s a tense story of resistance and desperation, one where you can’t help but root for the ‘bad guys’. A real testament to the power of empathy in film. You’re on Sonny (Pacino) and Sal’s (Cazale) side because Lumet takes the time to emphasize character over plot beats. Absent of glitz and glamour, instead opting for sweat and brow furrowing. The “heist” is essentially over in the first twenty minutes and the rest of the film becomes about survival. It looks at how desperation can filter through our character and force us to do extremely stupid things, and by setting the film over one day we can really feel the clock ticking on this decision. Robbing a bank is probably not something any of us are going to do (unless you’re really rad), however, regardless of this truth, you feel a kinship to Sonny and Sal. Lumet connects you with these characters in a way where you can relate totally to their situation, you understand and empathize.

It taps into that feeling of simply wanting more from your life, expressing your discontent through action. However, of course, there are always repercussions to any decision, especially a decision that will alter things as much as this one. In the film they mention that Sonny is a war vet and he is robbing the bank because he can’t get a job anywhere and he needs money for his partner’s sex change operation. His motivation comes from the end of a rope, and what I’ve found in my hours of research (watching the movie a good couple of times) is just how effective and simple the sweatiness of Al Pacino is for demonstrating that desperation. The day wears him down and we just watch this sweat permeate and perspire on Al Pacino’s character. The glistening sweat on his upper brow culminates in the giant puddles underneath his arms and we can genuinely feel and see the desperation leaking off him. Dude is on his last go around, and we physically see how this day is wearing him down, this dog day, if you will.

Then there’s Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee’s best film, at least according to Eli (me). A monumental movie that feels perpetually relevant and endlessly stylish. Do the Right Thing tells the story of a culturally diverse block in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn on a terribly hot summer day. We meet all of the occupants of this block and see the dynamics of how they all interact with each other. Tension builds by the hour, after Buggin Out (Ginacarlo Esposito), criticizes a pizzeria owner Sal (Danny Aiello) for only having Italian-American celebrities on the wall of his restaurant. His protest causes tension to rise amongst the neighbors until it eventually reaches this dramatic and impactful third act riot. Do the Right Thing is really just an extraordinary picture. I really firmly and staunchly believe that Spike Lee is the ultimate fire extinguisher filmmaker. Not to suggest that he puts out societal fires with his films, but rather that he’s always there whenever things feel like an emergency. It’s getting heavy out here? New Spike Lee melodrama to place some perspective into your life and make every emotion so big you can’t help but feel small and reflective. He possesses this extraordinary ability to boil issues down to singular metaphors or use the images and looks of his film to tell his exact story. Do The Right Thing is his most pristine example of this sentiment. Things were at a boiling point, as it seems they almost always are, and Lee has been quoted as saying that the film was spawned out of the desire to make a response to the Howard Beach Incident. However, it of course feels like a huge response to the general atmosphere of America at the time.

As stated above, the film takes place over the course of one day and on a single block in Brooklyn. Our primary perspective character is Mookie, played by Lee himself, as he travels around the neighborhood delivering pizzas, blowing off work, and interacting with the neighborhood. The pacing of the plot does not matter because they do such a terrific job of making the neighborhood feel lively. Every character intentionally serves a purpose of worldbuilding, and so the runtime is just dedicated to learning the dynamics of these characters and being introduced to their world today. The more we learn, the more we see people are dissatisfied. We meet people who are desperate for change, desperate to create their own change. Desperate for change right now, unwilling to relent till tomorrow, Buggin’ Out starts his protest the very same day he becomes outraged. Again, this is a filmmaker illuminating the necessity for immediate change. He also gives this theme a literal depiction of the temperature rising in conjunction with the racial tension. They both boil and fester until things explode and we get the (literal) third act fire. Another staunch and incredible depiction of how desperation can alter our actions dramatically, and how that desperation boils over to the point where it no longer becomes viable to stand the heat. 

It would be really hard to discuss single day movies without talking about Richard Linklater, and it would be impossible to talk about single day movies set during the summer from the year 1993 that are written and directed by Richard Linklater without talking about Dazed and Confused. A movie that is famously about almost nothing, or rather is devoid of traditionally paced plot. Dazed and Confused tells the story of various high schoolers as they celebrate the first day of summer. It jumps from group to group, each conversation ranging from philosophical and reflective to nostalgic and tubular. The players of the picture spend their time both reminiscing and looking toward the future. It taps into this sense of nostalgia so effortlessly, and I think part of the reason for this is because all of the characters are talking about and thinking about the future. It’s a stroke of genius from Linklater. It helps to add to relatability by not only looking back with fond or shitty memories of high school, but it places you in a high schoolers world. There’s just this constant worry about the future. Worry about hitting all of the milestones of an adult, figuring out who you want to be, wondering how much your life will change. Again, this film leans into the desperation of life, however it does so by acknowledging the desperation that comes with being a teenager. This aching desire to move on with life and get to the good part, this alluring idea that a better life awaits you after these four years.

However, as we’ve been talking about, the only way to spur a change is to make a decision. In the case of Dazed and Confused, our character of action (which is a funny thing to say about any Linklater flick) is Pink, who is given an ultimatum at the beginning of the movie. He must choose to either adhere to a “no drugs” pledge to continue playing football or keep getting blazed and forget about football all together, and I’ll tell you one thing, I don’t think they played football at Aerosmith concerts in the 70s. Here he has just been gifted the ultimate freedom for a teenager and he can’t help but continually worry about what decision to make at the end of the day. I wanted to use Dazed and Confused as the opportunity to talk about the impact of setting a movie over a single day, whether that’s this film or the two others that we already spoke about just a few scrolls ago. There is a power in working within constraints as a filmmaker. Taking this boundless art form and forcing it into a box of your own design. Such is the case as writing a film that is supposed to be set over one day. It’s a difficult thing to pull off, but it’s so effective because it places the struggle of the situation in the present tense. All of these movies possess a sense of presentness and timelessness. The topics that are being discussed are things that will seemingly be discussed forever and they are spoken about in a way where they feel very reflective of any given moment. Dazed and Confused is always going to resonate with people because it’s either going to whisk people back to that moment where their decisions felt impactful and altering or it’s going to reflect the loop that is life decisions. 

There’s always going to be time for the future, but these films really take a moment to help establish the importance of right now. Desperation boils over in ways we can’t always anticipate. The urgency that comes from wanting to desperately alter your life, to take control of your destiny and change the future as a result of your actions. Once that apathy for your situation meets the heavy load of passing time, then you can’t help but wear your desperation. You end up like Sonny, a gay veteran who is essentially forced to rob a bank because he sees it as the last possible outlet for opportunity. You end up like Buggin’ Out or Mookie, taking a stand against your own neighborhood in the hopes of inciting change. You’re in highschool and completely abandon the thing you’ve done your entire life because you realize you may not like it anymore. Life is all about getting to the point where you realize it’s time to change, and movies are great conduits for communicating that sentiment. These filmmakers used a hyper specific setting for a reason. They all wanted to key in on a very specific emotion and speak to the audience very directly about that emotion. Time’s running out for you to make a change. The temperature is rising, reaching that critical boiling point, and eventually something’s gotta give. These films encourage the act of making a choice that makes tomorrow better than today.

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