30 classic movies about summer

This ain’t no family road trip, it’s a cross-country summer tour with a rock ‘n’ roll band – the ultimate dream for any kid, especially the 15-year aspiring music journalist at the center of this Cameron Crowe flick. Plus, how can you beat the star-studded cast that includes Kate Hudson, Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Jason Lee, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Zooey Deschanel, as well as almost-forgotten appearances by Jimmy Fallon, Eric Stonestreet, Rainn Wilson, Marc Maron, Jay Baruchel and Mitch Hedberg.

Four years before “Star Wars,” George Lucas was still looking for his first big hit after his directorial debut, 1971’s “THX 1138,” was a financial flop. He found it with “American Graffiti,” a story set in the last days of the summer of 1962 that aimed to recapture the cruising and rock ‘n’ roll culture of a young generation of baby boomers. In addition to starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, and Charles Martin Smith, the film also earned five Oscar nods, two Golden Globe wins, some $140 million at the worldwide box office, and a selection into the National Film Registry.

For a movie that sold California waves and sun to the rest of the country, "Beach Blanket Bingo" certainly has a lot of plot points that involve skydiving. Nonetheless, it's the movie that singers Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello are best known for in an era when teenage rebellion was still considered innocent and sweet. 

Caddyshack isn’t really a movie about golf. There’s plenty of golf in it, of course, but the Harold Ramis-directed comedy is really about having to work for the summer while chasing love and dealing with the shenanigans of funnymen Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase, and Bill Murray. If recalling the movie makes you mostly think of Murray’s famous scenes, just remember that almost all of the comedic legend’s lines were improvised.

Growing up, the first day of summer unofficially began on the last day of school. And no director can recreate the experiences of growing up better than Richard Linklater. Even if you weren’t in high school in 1976, you’ll find something to relate to in this coming-of-age film that stars Jason London, Wiley Wiggins, a paddle-toting Ben Affleck, and Matthew McConaughey playing... well, basically exactly what we think of when we picture Matthew McConaughey. Alright alright alright.

Nobody puts Baby in a corner, but almost everyone would put her into a list of classic summer movies. After all, when you’re coming of age, every summer romance seems like it will last forever, even if it’s only for a week or two. “Dirty Dancing” encapsulates these feelings perfectly, it’s probably Patrick Swayze’s most iconic film, and it earned an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a Grammy, in addition to producing a multi-platinum soundtrack.

Spike Lee’s 1989 dramedy “Do the Right Thing” more or less takes place over the course of 24 hours on a hot summer day in Brooklyn. As the temperatures rise, so do tempers, which boil over into a race-fueled brawl between an Italian-American family (Danny Aiello, John Turturro, and Richard Edson) who own a local pizza shop and their black customers and neighbors (including Lee, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, Martin Lawrence, and Samuel L. Jackson). Not without its controversies, “Do the Right Thing” opened the door to a much-needed dialogue on race and was seen as significant enough to be included in the National Film Registry.

Sidney Lumet’s “Dog Day Afternoon” is a painfully relatable movie, even if you’ve never robbed a bank with your odd friend in order to pay for your transgender partner’s sex reassignment surgery even though you already have a wife and kids. (Plus, who doesn’t dream of one day leaving the country to finally see Wyoming?) If this sounds too outlandish, just remember that the film (which stars Al Pacino and John Cazale) is actually based on the true story of John Wojtowicz’s attempt to rob a Chase Manhattan bank in Brooklyn back in 1972.

When it comes to sports, the summer belongs to baseball. And when it comes to baseball movies, “Field of Dreams” is the Great Bambino. Starring Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Amy Madigan, Ray Liotta, and Burt Lancaster, the film (based on the novel “Shoeless Joe” by W.P. Kinsella) starts as a sports film, but soon transforms into something deeper that deals with life, dreams, magic, and rural life in middle America.

There are plenty of summer camp films that should evoke familiar feelings of youthful nostalgia among audiences, but let’s hope Friday the 13th isn’t one of them. This classic Camp Crystal Lake slasher flick eventually spawned some 11 sequels, but we’ll always go back to the Sean Cunningham-directed original, even though it doesn’t actually include franchise villain Jason Voorhees (at least as an adult). Oh well, at least “Friday the 13th” still features plenty of scares, as well as a young Kevin Bacon as one of the camp counselor victims.

Sure, “Heavyweights” is a PG-rated Disney movie, but it sure featured some heavyweight talent - both in front of and behind the camera. The fat camp comedy was directed and co-written by Steven Brill (“Walk of Shame,” “Mr. Deeds,” and the Mighty Ducks franchise), co-written by Judd Apatow, and stars Ben Stiller, Jerry Stiller, Jeffrey Tambor, Kenan Thompson, Tim Blake Nelson, and Paul Feig. Although critics weren’t kind and it wasn’t too successful at the box office, the nostalgic comedy has since garnered a cult following.

Since we were on the topic of slasher films a couple of slides ago, why not throw in another? If you wanted to find a ‘90s parallel to the Friday the 13th franchise, it would probably be the Scream films... but “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and its two sequels would be a close second place. Sure, none of them were praised by critics, but plenty of the best horror films weren’t. Plus, three-name stars Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sarah Michelle Gellar both won Blockbuster Entertainment Awards for the film, and you can’t take that away from them... even if Blockbuster went out of business years ago.

“Independence Day” celebrates the best of summer traditions: celebrating the Fourth of July, grilling at outdoor barbecues, and defending the Earth from evil alien invaders and their impossibly large spacecrafts. We don’t know how leaders around the world would actually handle the situation, but President Bill Pullman pulled it off like a true boss, with some help from Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, and Randy Quaid. You know, back in the day when we still thought Quaid was just pretending to be crazy.

Summer is the perfect time to hit the beach, but you might want to avoid watching “Jaws” before wading into the water. Often referred to as one of the greatest films ever made, this Steven Spielberg shark-attack thriller defined what a summer blockbuster is for the very first time, and thanks to excellent direction and strong performances by Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss, the film will be forever immortalized in the National Film Registry.

The 1979 summer camp comedy “Meatballs” wasn’t just the first successful film directed by Ivan Reitman, it was also the first movie to star Bill Murray. The recipe worked, and the duo would later team up again for “Stripes” (1981), “Ghostbusters” (1984), and “Ghostbusters II” (1989). Interestingly, Bill Murray actually signed onto the film at the last minute, due to his ongoing commitment to “Saturday Night Live.” The scene set on the first day of camp was his first day of shooting, and his outfit – a Hawaiian shirt and red shorts – were the clothes he was actually wearing when he showed up.

There have been numerous National Lampoon Vacation movies, but none can compare to the original, which was written by John Hughes and directed by Harold Ramis. Starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Anthony Michael Hall, Dana Barron, and Randy Quaid, this hilarious family road trip movie proves the old adage that the journey is the real destination - even if the actual destination is an fun amusement park like Wally World. Since the first time we watched this film back in the day, we’ve never looked at a station wagon or heard the song “Holiday Road” the same way.

"The Parent Trap" set up the expectation that one summer we'd leave for summer camp one year, discover a long-lost twin, and find out our real parents were fantastically wealthy with a California ranch (or a city brownstone) and we wouldn't have to return to our boring life at the end of the season. Alas. Still, we still love "The Parent Trap (including the remake with Lindsay Lohan in 1998) for the truth it exposes: summer camp is brutal. 

A heat wave strikes New York City, but instead of going out for ice cream, sitting in an air-conditioned theatre, or cooling off at the local pool or beach, professional photographer L. B. "Jeff" Jefferies (James Stewart) finds himself relegated to a wheelchair thanks to a recently broken leg. Armed with a telescope, Jefferies passes the time by snooping on his neighbors and later thinks he has witnessed a murder. With a limited cast (which also includes Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr, and Thelma Ritter) and a limited setting, Alfred Hitchcock created one of the most suspenseful and engrossing thrillers of all time, evidenced by the fact that it’s still considered one of the greatest films of all time after 63 years.

Gail (Meryl Streep) only wants to have a special whitewater rafting trip with her family when two bank robbers (played by Kevin Bacon and John C. Reilly) decide the skilled rafter Gail is their only chance for escape out of the wilderness in which they are now lost. While not the lightest of fare, it's good to see mom come out the hero in this one.

While we’ve had a few movies already that celebrate the start of summer, “Stand by Me” focuses on Labor Day Weekend, the end. Of course, we wouldn’t call really call it a celebration. It may be an ode to how the strong bonds of friendship can help kids cope with life’s obstacles, but it’s still a film about a bunch of boys looking a dead body. So there’s that. Still, the film remains one of director Rob Reiner’s best of all time, it was praised by Stephen King (“Stand by Me” is based on King’s novella “The Body”), and it included a star-studded cast of future stars Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell, and Kiefer Sutherland. 

Growing up means having to say goodbye (even temporarily) to friends who have been there through every trial and tribulation and learning to survive without them being there, but knowing they still support you from a thousand miles away — through sharing a magical pair of pants that manages to fit four wildly different bodies and are there for the friends through soccer camp, a family reunion in Greece, meeting a new family or just being stuck in town through another summer.    

John Candy captured every dad forced into making the best of what is obviously a terrible summer vacation. Crowded beaches, over-priced seafood joints, a rental home heavy on the "charm" and light on the "functional." Candy alone makes this summer movie worthwhile (plus he's a little less smug than Chevy Chase in the "Vacation" series of films). 

A criminally underrated summer movie, “Summer School” has everything one could possibly ask for in a light-hearted comedy: star power (the leads and his love interest are played by Mark Harmon and Kirstie Alley, respectively), direction (Carl Reiner helmed the film), music (Danny Elfman did the score), and a whole lot of laughs. Although it’s somewhat of a cult comedy now, “Summer School” still holds a respectable 61 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and actually raked in $35 million at the domestic box office. Sure, Roger Ebert only gave the screwball comedy a half-star out of four and called it “listless, leisurely and unspirited,” but he was probably just having a bad day. Or a bad summer.

The first (and only) documentary in this slideshow, “The Endless Summer” chronicles the lives of surfers Mike Hynson and Robert August as they search for the perfect waves off the coasts of Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii, Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa. The film’s title is based on the idea that one could live almost entirely in the summer season if they spent each year traveling between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Often credited with introducing surfing to mainstream audiences, this beautifully shot documentary was written, produced, narrated, and directed by Bruce Brown.

We want to say one word to you: plastics. Wait, we meant to say “classic.” As in “The Graduate,” starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, is a classic film about an aimless college graduate who is seduced by an older woman during his first summer of freedom. In addition to being one of the highest-grossing films of all time, the Mike Nichols film was also selected for preservation in the National Film Registry and earned the director an Academy Award.

We knew at least one John Candy film would make this list, we just weren’t sure if it would be “The Great Outdoors” or “Summer Rental.” As you can see, we went with the former, mostly due to the combined star power of Candy, Dan Aykroyd, and Annette Bening, as well as the snappy script by funnyman John Hughes (who seems to have had a knack for writing summer-related movies). If you happen to be a fan of the film, you’ll likely be excited by the news that a reboot starring Kevin Hart is reportedly in the works.

It doesn’t matter how old we get, we’re going to love “The Sandlot” forever. (For-ev-er… For-ev-er…) Although most of us weren’t coming of age in 1962 (when the movie was set), it doesn’t matter, because this is a timeless film for anyone who spent their summers playing baseball, going to the local pool, fearing giant neighborhood dogs, or just trying to fit in. Not a fan of the film? You’re killin’ us, Smalls!

For fans of classic films (especially the kind starring Marilyn Monroe), there are few comedies funnier than Billy Wilder’s “The Seven Year Itch.” It tells the tale of a faithful middle-aged man (played by Tom Ewell) who sends his family away to Maine for the summer and begins falling for his attractive upstairs neighbor. She appears to succumb to his charms, but really it’s just his imagination, which predictably leads to a slew of hilarious scenarios – including the now-iconic subway grate scene.

Some people will let nothing stop them from enjoying their summer vacation, even discovering a dead body. At least that was the case with party-seeking pals Larry Wilson (Andrew McCarthy) and Richard Parker (Jonathan Silverman) in the 1989 comedy “Weekend at Bernie’s.” Critics were divided on the film, but like the protagonists, audiences didn’t let that ruin their good time. The film’s success also inspired a 1993 sequel, “Weekend at Bernie’s II,” but it was dead on arrival.

Like summer itself, a lot of people found watching the David Wain-directed “Wet Hot American Summer” to be a fun, silly, and carefree experience. To others, it was an annoying, agonizing, and unbearable. Haters gonna hate, but perhaps some folks just wished their own childhood summer camps had been a bit more enjoyable...and that their counselors and fellow campers were the all-star lineup of Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Molly Shannon, Paul Rudd, Christopher Meloni, Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Joe Lo Truglio, Judah Friedlander, and H. Jon Benjamin.