White Water Summer (1987)

Wonderful character development!

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

This is a response to the reviewers questioning Vick's motives. As a city boy who loves the outdoors, I totally understood where Kevin Bacon's character was coming from, though, he was clearly a nut-job for the most part. In my experience, city boys (i.e. Sean Astin's character) cannot find value in the wilderness for the life of them, and obtaining a cellphone signal is their top priority at all times. This movie is about taking a break from our technology-infused world and getting back to the basics. The wilderness is a wonderful, rugged place that can really broaden anyone's perspective on life. It's about facing fears head-on and living to tell about it -- those are the experiences that you remember in life. I wish everyone would share these sentiments, as Vick probably does in this movie. But Vick's major fault is failing to realize that people cannot be forced to enjoy something that's unfamiliar and frightening to them. He feels he can get through to them but uses some extreme means and acts like a huge ass in the process.

Before Kevin Bacon tackled the wilderness' harsh rivers in "The River Wild (1994)', he played Vic a spiritually in touch hiking guide who takes some city boys in to the mountainous wilds to learn more about themselves and to push the best out them. But his methods come under the eyes of the boys, with his constant testing of the young, inexperienced lad Alan. But soon enough we find the tables are eventually turned around on just who relies on each other.'White Water Summer' is a respectably bold and hearty, if unspectacular presentation that Ernest Kinoy and Manya Starr's actively mediative and theme-grown material feels unsure to what it truly wants to be, as it treads between feel-good adventure, psycho-territory and being morally hounded in finding the mental toughness to go beyond your limitations and fears. Jeff Bleckner's direction is well-measured and slickly handled, as the standouts range from the excellent white water rafting scenes and rock climbing views. The harrowing tension within these passages seem to bubble, but Bleckner also gets a great bunch of performances, especially from his young confident cast (Sean Astin, Jonathan Ward, K.C. Martel and Matt Adler) who show binding chemistry. That when a change in Bacon's character begins to show, the suspense and dangerous air kicks in the adrenaline as the boys begin to feel the circumstances change. Astin is impressive as Alan, as he goes head on with stupendously hard-pressed Kevin Bacon. His way is the right ways… don't question it. As he goes on to test them out individually and as a team to become dependant on one and each other. But does it become beyond breaking point to get these results.What I could have done without was the flash-forward smart-mouth laced narration pockets of an older Sean Astin talking to the screen, while cutting between the central story. They somewhat lessen the impact and became off-putting. Even the soundtrack with its squealing rock tunes became a little overbearing, as it regularly pumped it out. Michael Boddicker's soothing original score does a better job in camouflaging with its surroundings and activities. John Alcott's striking cinematography naturally hovers over the beautiful backdrop getting amongst organic growth and swirling waters to isolate the viewers along with the small party.

When I was watching the credit at the end, I was surprised that this film was also partly filmed in New Zealand just like the movie "without the paddle". I didn't know that they started shooting at NZ so early.Overall, this is a nice movie to watch. The white water scenes were very good. You can hardly tell who is the real actor, and who is the stunt man. Of course, I watched it from a VHS tape, so the picture quality is not very good.I wish that I had a summer trip like this one, that would be so memorable. Fresh air, lots of fun, and personal growth. Movies about Summer camps and trips are always fun to watch.

This movie had potential, but unfortunately director's apathy, a mediocre script, and rushjob editing doomed this weak afterschool drama about boys coming of age in a campers' nightmare. Was it suppose to be funny? Who do we root for...Kevin Bacon as a drifting, needy, sex-deprived Vic, or a bunch of awkward Cub Scout rejects who all took the wrong turn at Albuquerque.Kevin Bacon has produced finer results (Friday the 13th, Footloose, JFK), but every time I see "Hollowman" I'm always reminded of his twisted Vic character in White Water Summer. WWS did a stint on HBO a few years back, and that's where most people probably saw it. But it's usually eroding under a dripping air conditioner at your local flee market rent-a-flix. Did it ever show at a theatre?The film: Vic wants to make men of boys, and yearns to school them the hard way...by assuming he is a higher order, and thinking he knows everything there is about wildlife, camping and adventure. There will be no knives, no radio, no weed and no softcore magazines on this journey. What is Vic's primary objective on this trip? It's clearly obvious that his only ambition is to traumatize the young, feeble minds of four teenage boys...and you can thank the parents for forking over their hard-earned dollars for the abuse.What's so insane about WWS is that you can ALSO get the impression that Vic wants to make a positive impact on these kids' minds and souls. Sean Astin portrays Alan, a quiet, somewhat timid teenager who could've been picking his nose at any middle school in America. He's quite easy to relate to, and you can see clearly why he hates Vic. To Alan Vic is nothing more than your typical 30 year-old lowlife with no direction or purpose. Which is true.If you want to know more about this oddball flick then just read the other comments by other users who cared more about this movie than I did. Oh yea, one more thing - the soundtrack isn't as great as some of you WWS fanatics make it out to be. Just your typical mid/late 80's "American Anthem-like" softrock. Nothing special or unique in there.