Rewatching some of gay porn's classics, it always saddens me to realize that many of the people associated with them on both sides of the camera are no longer among us, usually because of the atrocity known more commonly as AIDS. The epidemic was still in its largely ignorant infancy when the late Arthur J. Bressan (who made the exceptional low budget indie BUDDIES about the dreaded disease) presented his magnum opus to appreciative audiences worldwide.
This intentionally naive tale charts the budding relationship between two lifeguards during the last days of summer, one ostensibly straight (Richie Cunningham lookalike Johnny Dawes), the other (muscular Michael Christopher from Tom De Simone's equally brilliant SKIN DEEP) a glad to be gay man eater. True to the genre, this is not so much a two-hander as a flesh-filled tapestry covering college age guys' early explorations of their sexuality.
Save for Dawes, who has to come to terms with his attraction to another man following a far from rosy relationship with a girl, none of these boys seem to experience any anguish over their sexual orientation. Now this would be a given in present day porn, where fantasy tends to overrule reality (we all need to escape sometimes, after all), but as a prime ingredient in a well-developed, down to earth narrative with surprisingly strong characterizations it was and continues to be nothing short of revolutionary. Add to that the most beautiful imagery of the California coastline you'll ever encounter in homo hardcore, save perhaps for William Higgins' PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY, and you have got a true carnal classic for the ages.
