Shag

source: Shag

Phoebe Cates is about to get married to her boy friend, so she, Annabeth Gish and Bridget Fonda cut loose on a trip to Myrtle Beach in the summer of '63. Everyone is beautiful in Zelda Barron's movie, everyone is well dressed and dances to Pre-British-Invasion Rock & Roll. The houses are well-maintained and decorated, the Detroit Iron is waxed. It's America at its zenith Looking back, we know that the world was cracking, but that was obvious. Now was a joyous moment, and darn it, it looks good to have been young, white and well to do in this flick.

`This was our last weekend together, and we didn't feel like going to Ft. Sumter and touring goddamn colonial homes! We wanted to go to the beach! And meet boys! And go to wild parties! And dance!' One of the most overlooked but greatest girl-movies all time, *Shag* is a meticulously crafted period piece that takes a look back at the summer of '63 - a hallowed summer cinematically, supposedly representing an innocent America untouched by the coming traumas of the Sixties. It is the story of four girls who have just graduated from high school who hightail it to Myrtle Beach - the forbidden zone of boys and booze. As they whoop it up, each of them has their eyes opened to a reality that is not part of the world their parents laid out for them. `Y'all, I'm *wild*,' Cates' character tells her friends towards the end of the movie, `I guess I always have been - I just didn't know it,' and Cates' youthful beauty and innocence make it completely believable. Hannah seems to not take herself as seriously as her more famous sister does - and her hilarious portrayal of the tight-assed Luanne morphs from rigid propriety to semi-unbridled lust. Pudge finally meets a boy who loves her for everything she is, and Gish has a field day with the character. But it is Fonda's portrayal of the bad-girl preacher's daughter who steals the show. Described by one reviewer as `*Dirty Dancing* meets *Mystic Pizza* meets *American Graffiti*,' as a coming-of-age film, *Shag* is nothing less than enchanting.

Four friends head to Myrtle Beach, SC after high school graduation. There they meet boys, have a party (hellacious for 1963), and enter a fabulous dancing contest. This movie is fun, keeps your attention, and is wonderful to be able to see the period (early 1960s) cars, hotels, dancing pavilion, etc. in Myrtle Beach. I would recommend this movie for a nice evening to just feel good. The only bit of concern is that the original VHS that was released in 1989 and the DVD versions are fine-- but somewhere in between there was a version released on VHS for about $10 that was a disappointment-- it had deleted/changes music. Beware of this version. The new DVD version is intact. The original music is nice and adds to the era in which this movie takes place. Young and old alike will like this movie.

It's the summer of 63 South Carolina. Carson (Phoebe Cates) is soon to be married. Her friends wild girl Melaina (Bridget Fonda), formerly chubby Pudge (Annabeth Gish) and senator's daughter Luanne (Page Hannah) trick her into going to Myrtle Beach for one last fun time. Carson is unsure about marrying rich Harley and spends time with townie Buzz Ravenel. Awkward Chip Guillyard takes a liking to Pudge. Melaina is desperate to go to Hollywood. It's a wild weekend culminating in a Shag Contest or dance contest. This has three 80s sweethearts in Phoebe Cates, Bridget Fonda and Annabeth Gish. I love the girls and Scott Coffey. Robert Rusler is not charismatic enough to be a leading man although he has become a good toughie. Frankly, his character is the main deficiency of this movie. Carson has a big character development arch and she needs Buzz to be much better.

Two of my friends informed me I absolutely had to see this movie and they were right. I just moved to the South, and it gave me a whole new understanding of Southern life. The movie is set in South Carolina in the 1960s. Four funny, funny girls take a road trip to Myrtle Beach and spend half the movie making sure their families don't find out. Phoebe Cates steals the show and teaches the audience a valuable lesson: You shouldn't marry if you're in your teens!

A slow moving film about 4 friends: "Carson" (Phoebe Cates), "Pudge" (Annabeth Gish), "Melaina" (Bridget Fonda) and "Luanne" (Page Hannah) who decide to take one last fling in Myrtle Beach, SC before going their separate ways. Although the music was standard for the year it was supposed to represent (1963), for some reason this film failed to capture the right feel for this particular time period. Perhaps it was the crude and vulgar manner in which the young adults carried themselves or the bikinis that some of the ladies wore. But something didn't seem right to me. I could maybe visualize some of this wild and ill-mannered behavior on the West Coast--but not in Dixie during this particular period. Also, the Southern accents were a bit too thick and heavy which made everything seem a bit phony. Even so, Annabeth Gish and Scott Coffey (as "Chip") turned in good performances as did Bridget Fonda to a lesser degree. But other than that the acting was mediocre. All things considered then, it was a decent film worth watching if you're a fan of the early-60's or if you enjoy beach movies.

Why do all the incredible movie have no awards whatsoever? I swear the crappy movie Capote got more Oscars and awards than Star Wars (exaggeration). This movie contains all of the basic necessities that made Godfather, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones great. It gave an experience. It gave a feeling so emotional that an audience could sit back, eat popcorn, and look at their watch 2 minutes later and realize two hours had already gone by. All of the characters had versatile, inspiring personalities.Pudge was innocent but outgoing. Carson, strict on her parents' and societies' rules but nonetheless up for a risk when it came by her way. Luanne, strict at rules but more apt for adventure than Carson. Finally, Melaina, an obvious go flirting, drinking, sucking up to people, but to the boys' dismay: no bedding. This 80s movie had no computer graphics, no detailed special effects, . It had only the necessities: acting, experience, camera angles, and emotional, rather than physical love.

I was born and raised in South Carolina. My aunt had a beach house in Isle of Palms, SC and we spent each and every summer there with my entire family; aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents included. My family is the definition of a classy, South Carolinian family; not trashy or redneck (like some of the girls in the film as you know.) My aunts and uncles competed in the most well known of shag competitions at the beaches in South Carolina and were very well known within that circuit. I can proudly say they won first place in many, many competitions. Anyway, that is all besides the point! My grandmother and Aunt would put this movie on every single night at our beach house for my sister and I before we went to sleep in my Aunt's bed while all of the adults were downstairs shagging and having "the most fun". My aunt was diagnosed with cancer and died when I was 8 so, needless to say, due to medical bills, we lost the beach house and all of the memories that went along with it. This film is the epitome of my childhood. It is EXTREMELY truthful to how South Carolina was back in the day and for anyone that is curious, Shag was filmed in Myrtle Beach as well as Isle of Palms, SPARTANBURG not SPARTENBURG, Greenville, Anderson, Columbia, Orangeburg, Edisto Island, and Georgetown, all in South Carolina. I actually live down the street to one of the houses filmed in the beginning at home with the girls. One of the things I treasure most from my childhood is this film :) I know it line for line and will never forget that people like my family made it possible for nostalgia such as the scenes displayed in Shag to have even taken place. Now if only the Yankees would leave and never come back... and STOP wearing your shoes on our beaches!

Like all nostalgia movies, Shag is dull, self-indulgent m@sturb@tion filmed off a script cobbled from a college freshman's diary. I mean, Terry Sweeney, come on now. Doesn't he/she/it always rank at the bottom of those ''SNL Cast Members: First to Worst" lists? It's like watching a boring family's home movies, but the movies are all about the parents when they were teenagers 30+ years ago. Characters so obxnoxiously smug, white and upper middle class it makes you cheer for the Vietnam draft. Or at least some bl#ck kids to come along and introduce some rock and roll music. Well, OK, there's some of that super-safe 50s and 60s MOR garbage from bl#ck artists in the soundtrack, but all it does is serve to accentuate how dull and white the characters are. There's nothing funny here. Nothing dramatic. No discernible plot. And considering how much sorta-making out they imply is going on, it has about as much s3x appeal as a weekday morning mass. When the four girls are singing acapella on the front of the fancy house I nearly barfed. And then, wammo, a bl#ck singer appears on the screen. Just in time for the credits to roll and for his band - or were those waiters - to sing and dance toward the camera in a way that is reminiscent of Stepnfetchit shtick from 40s movies. I'm white and I was mortified.