The Young Graduates (1971)

Director:  Robert Anderson

Writers:  Robert Anderson, Terry Anderson, Dave Dixon

Composer:  Ray Martin

Starring:  Patricia Wymer, Steven Stewart, Gary Rist, Bruno Kirby, Jennifer Ritt, Dennis Christopher, Marly Holiday

More info:  IMDb

Tagline:  The Hot Pants Generation is Loose!

Plot:  Spunky and precocious high school senior Mindy Evans spurns her decent, but frustrated boyfriend Bill and has a fling with hunky married nice guy teacher Jack Thompson. Midy finds out that she might be pregnant. While waiting for the results of her pregnancy test, Mindy decides to alleviate the tension by embarking on an impromptu road trip to Big Sur, California with her loyal best gal pal Sandy.

My rating:  4/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

This coming of age-ish picture feels like it's happening in real time.  That is, IT'S WAY TO FUCKING LONG!  Take a high school teenage drama, add some sex & nudity, students banging teachers and each other, drugs, road trips, bad news bikers, hippies and a shitload of car/bike traveling and montages and you'd think you'd have a fun exploitation flick.  Nope.  It's a light drama that dips its toe into exploitation but it ends up being plain ole boring.  About halfway through the picture, Mindy decides to take a road trip now that she's just turned 18 and thinks she's pregnant with her teacher's baby.

So she and her friend take off in a dune buggy, pick up a hitchhiker Mindy recognizes, run out of gas, get picked up by some no good bikers and get mixed up in lots of nasty things.  So halfway through the drama it wants to be something different.  The problem is, the movie just got a lot bigger and longer.  Add in A LOT of montages, many of them traveling, and some bad pop music.  The only reason I gave this a shot is because it's Bruno Kirby's first moveie.

He's fun and he has a decent sized role being a first timer and all.  I can't believe this movie is almost an hour and forty minutes long.  It should've ended much sooner.  It wouldn't have been difficult to have made this into two movies.  There was probably enough footage to do it.  And to make sure that everyone who stuck it out until the end knew they were still watching the same movie, writer/director bookends the film as it started, with a groovy school dance.  OK, it's not exactly a horrible movie but it's just overlong by a lot and it's heavily padded.  Your mileage may vary.