From a summer film perspective, it appears that the season officially ends with the July 18 release of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. And why not? Can you name another movie opening in late July (or the entirety of August) that you’re dying to see? There’s a second X-Files, a new Will Ferrell comedy (that looks like every other Ferrell comedy), a third Mummy and a slew of films that could be good but don’t generate watercooler conversation.

Time to start the Back to School sales …

I just had a long chat with a friend about the “summer movies” of our youth, and as soon as I got home, I dove into my voluminous archives to check my increasingly moldy old journals. In the summer of 1979 I was 15 years old and eager to spend my lawn mowing money at any of the four movie theaters just off Main Street in my hometown. (They’re all gone now, long since supplanted by a megaplex one town over.) 1979 was the first year I wrote down the name of every movie I saw along with a pithy review. I guess I really was destined to be a movie critic. Here’s what I saw. Compare and contrast with the summer movies of today.

• July 11, Rocky II, “Not as good as the first one but wow.”
• August 2, Moonraker, “Hilarious.”
• August 7, Meatballs, “Funny.”
• August 18, The Amityville Horror, “Total scare. Wow.”
• August 30, The Muppet Movie, “Cute. Funny.”
• September 8, Breaking Away, “Very good, thanks.”

How strange to realize that at the time I sort of dismissed Breaking Away, a movie that in retrospect had a really profound impact on my high school and college outlook. And wow, I just took a peek at my summer of 1980 list. Now that was a summer for great movies. If you want to hear my two-word review of The Shining, just let me know.