According to a blurb on the back of this Blu-ray’s case, 1969’s Last Summer offers “one of the most powerful and daunting and uncompromising American films of its time”. If that doesn’t set high expectations, what does?

On vacation with their families, late teens Sandy (Barbara Hershey), Peter (Richard Thomas), and Dan (Bruce Davison) become close friends. Shy and insecure Rhoda (Cathy Burns) attempts to join this group as well.

This leads down some dark paths. In particular, Rhoda finds herself the victim of peer cruelty.

Don’t expect these creepier elements to emerge quickly, though. The film’s first act progresses like a fairly standard drama about teens who bond.

Of course, we find a sexual undercurrent usually absent from movie’s about youngsters who connect. Both Peter and Dan clearly lust after the gorgeous Sandy, though this provides less of a battle for dominance between the two than one might think.

Honestly, my synopsis aside, we don’t find much of a plot from Summer. This feels more like a loose take on teens who nudge toward adulthood.

Not that every movie requires a tight narrative. However, this one seems pretty meandering a lot of the time.

Which makes it fit into its era. In a period where the episodic Easy Rider became a sensation, Summer tends to follow the same sort of path.

I can see how Summer would seem daring and frank 57 years ago. With a blunt view of teen sexuality and self-absorption, it broke from the sanitized attitudes of most prior flicks in the genre.

However, this doesn’t make Summer especially interesting now. For all its taboo violations, it simply never becomes a particularly interesting character study.

Summer follows fairly standard paths in terms of the dynamics. The involvement of Rhoda throws a wrench into the sexual circumstance, as she offers another “option” for the boys.

Rhoda exists more as a plot device than anything else. She enters the film to stir the pot but she doesn’t really offer much more than that.

We also get the darkness to which I alluded via Rhoda’s presence. Oh, the film alludes to these elements, especially in the way it hints that Sandy might be a sociopath.

However, Summer doesn’t do much with these conceits until its gratuitously violent finale. Though the story nods at the manner in which the boys and Sandy can be sadistic, the events at the climax go beyond the bounds of believability.

This means Summer can feel like a movie with a conclusion around which the filmmakers built the prior 90 minutes or so. Much of the flick just putters around, a factor that also gave it a groundbreaking feel since it seemed more experimental and less traditional than Hollywood efforts.

Unfortunately, since the characters feel one-dimensional and forgettable, this bent doesn’t work. We need to find ourselves intriguing by the Sandy and the rest but we don’t.

Ultimately, Summer comes across as self-indulgent and without much real drive. While I appreciate the manner in which it broke from standard filmmaking of its era, the end product doesn’t hold up as interesting 57 years later.

Last Summer appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. While a product of its era, the image looked good.

Sharpness varied but that usually seemed due to photographic choices, as the flick went with a semi-gauzy feel to suit the “coming of age” tale. Nonetheless, I still found delineation to seem appropriate, even if it did go softer than one would typically anticipate.

Neither jagged edges nor moiré effects manifested, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain seemed positive and I witnessed no print flaws.

To fit the New England beach setting, the film’s palette leaned toward a light sandy tone, with brighter tones as appropriate. The colors looked positive within those parameters.

Blacks appeared deep and dark, while shadows became clear. This wound up as a nice presentation of a late 1960s movie.

Though the Blu-ray’s case billed this as a stereo soundtrack, the DTS-HD MA audio instead provided two-channel mono – and slightly unbalanced mono at that. The material tended to lean to the right and didn’t seem as centered as I would expect.

That minor distraction aside, the track worked fine. The flick came with a lot of looping and the lines didn’t seem particularly natural, but they remained intelligible and without obvious issues,

Effects showed acceptable accuracy and failed to present prominent distortion. Music followed suit, as the score offered adequate range but never came across as particularly dynamic. Given the audio’s age and origins, the soundtrack seemed acceptable even with the odd slant to the right side of the soundfield.

We get a mix of extras here, and these launch with an audio commentary from filmmaker Larry Karaszewski and film historian Justin Bozung. Both sit together for this running, screen-specific look at cast and crew, story and characters, sets and locations, editing, ratings issues, restoring the film and their view of the project.

The vast majority of the production notes heard here come from Bozung, as he does all the heavy lifting. Karaszewski mostly either discusses his love of the film so he adds little. Although Karaszewski’s parts create a drag, Bozung brings enough substance to carry the track.

The disc provides two Post-Screening Q&As. We find one from March 29, 2026 (29:40) with Karaszewski and actors Barbara Hershey and Bruce Davison, while the second took place on May 3, 2026 (34:36) with Karaszewski and actor Richard Thomas.

Both follow similar paths, as the actors discuss their experiences on the film and related topics. Karaszewski fares better here than during the commentary so we get a lot of useful notes about Last Summer from three of its four leads.

One Deleted Scene (3:43) and shows the Peter character as he cares for his alcoholic dad (Ralph Waite). While interesting to see Thomas and Waite as father/son before they took on a similar relationship on The Waltons, the sequence itself becomes a snooze that deserved to get cut.

Along with the movie’s theatrical trailer, we find an Allied Artists Promo Reel (2:56) that touts Summer in pretentious tones.

Trailers from Hell (2:34) brings more from Karaszewski as he offers a short history and appreciation of Summer. It becomes a decent summary, even if it tells us nothing new.

Finally, the set concludes with a leaflet that provides a short essay from Karaszewski. He continues with the same kinds of info he brought up in the commentary.

Groundbreaking in 1969, Last Summer seems tedious in 2026. The movie offers a less sanitized version of teen life than usual back then but it fails to develop intriguing characters or compelling events. The Blu-ray brings generally positive picture and audio as well as a mix of bonus materials. Whatever strengths Last Summer exhibited 57 years ago, it feels tedious now.