Adam at Six A.M.

Given its 1970 release, this film unsuccessully attempted to cash in onthe box-office success of The Graduate and Easy Rider. While there arerelated themes it is considerably less imaginative and much moreconventional in tone and production technique.

As the vaguely disgusted Adam drives east into the unknown his energylevel increases with his forward motion. The awkward and uncomfortablemoments at the funeral and the reception are the most authentic scenesin the film. A highlight is a discussion of the movie "Blow-up" with adisgusted relative who went to the film thinking from its title that itwas a war picture.

Adam is about to move on when he is introduced to Jerri Jo (LeePurcell). They go to a drive-in movie (see The Reivers comment above)and soon fall in love. Unfortunately the Douglas/Purcell romanticscenes are weak and only the hormonal aspect of their relationship isbelievable. Douglas decides to spend the summer in Missouri and gets ajob clearing brush for the local power company. The work crew certainlylooks authentic; since they only have a couple lines of dialogue theymay have actually been some local hicks.

He thrives in his new job and sincerely enjoys the change of pace andthe lack of complications. He becomes friends with Joe Don Baker(apparently the only other professional actor on the crew) and sees howhis marriage and kids keep him trapped in a going nowhere life. Forsome reason this depressing situation inspires him to propose to JerriJo, who has a very different idea of what their marriage will be like.There was a little foreshadowing about this back when Adam wasexplaining his academic specialty (semantics) to one of his relatives;he cited the communication problems that occur between two people whenthey have different meanings for the same word. Adam’s idea of marriageis traveling around together having adventures. Jerri Jo’s idea ofmarriage is setting up house in her hometown with her husband teachingsemantics at the local college.

It slowly dawns on Adam that he and his prospective bride do not sharethe same vision of marriage. This is done through a wonderfulsemi-montage sequence of engagement party decorations, father-in-lawdressed in an apron, hair curlers, laughing relative, domesticdiscussions with Jerri Jo’s girlfriends, and the ice cream fetchingerrand. Adam leaves the party and drives to the A&P for ice cream. Yoususpect that he is going to bail out on the whole Missouri thing sohaving him actually buy the ice cream was a stroke of genius. He couldhave just left town immediately but this builds suspense, puts a morepositive slant on his decision to leave (i.e. it is not just animpulsive irresponsible act-he gives it careful consideration), and itprovides a prop for a great final image.

What Adam is saying is that he does not want to be like most people, hedoes not want to construct a small world for himself where he can keepeverything orderly. He does not know exactly what he wants but he doesknow for certain that he does not want the average. Although this is alow budget production with some major flaws, it is a very solid effort.The theme is compelling, the score communicates as much as thedialogue, Douglas and Baker do a good job, and Purcell is very pretty.

2) Idealistic college professor decides to find himself by spending a summerinthe midwest as a laborer. He meets and falls in love with a beautiful younglady who, to his regret, cannot share his same vision. Biggest differancehere is that the other laborers aren’t potrayed as ignorant, suspicious,bigots. Instead we see them as friendly, helpful, and interesting people.Does degenerate into the perverbial bar fight, but mostly this is asubdued,almost loving look at Americas’ heartland. Great chance to see MichaelDouglas in a very early dramatic role. (He did this even before STREETS OFSAN FRANCISCO). Lee Purcell is also quite good becoming easily identifiableof most young ladies of that era (and even today). She willingly takes onthe more ‘liberated’ values of the younger generation when it is conveniantand fun, but is unable (and unwilling) to break from the mores of theenviroment from which she was raised. Has a good finalshot.

3) Douglas stars as a big city California college professor who realizeshis life is pretty unfulfilled. His cushy college job is pretty boringand he’s tired of waking up Monday with what’s her name Sunday. He’slived a very pampered life from rich parents as everything in his lifecame on a silver platter and he’s taken far too many things forgranted. While visiting his parents he overhears his mother on thetelephone ordering flowers to be sent to a recently deceased relative’sfuneral in a small Missouri town. It dawns on him to get away from itall, drive across the country and get to know his virtually unknownrelatives.

As soon as he goes to the funeral he’s touched even though the localstreat him like he just stepped off the mother ship. Feeling like he’sfinally home he gets a logging job and despite being over educated andunderpaid his life is new again. At the funeral he meets a popularlocal girl (played by Lee Purcell) who immediately sets her sights onDouglas; she wants a husband and her parents are ready for ason-in-law. The two fall in love but he soon discovers someone elseonce again controls his life, this time by his soon to be in-laws allneatly packaged and planned. Even though he truly loves his girl hedecides he isn’t sure if he’s ready to settle down or be rooted inanother town just yet.

If the movie were made today it would probably be made into a comedywith Ice Cube so I’m very happy that it was made during the time itwas. The plot tackled important issues and it was meant to be a drama.

The movie includes a wonderful cast, including Michael Douglas ofcourse. Other standouts include Joe Don Baker as Douglas’ loggerco-worker whose big dream is becoming a TV repairman or the meddlingfuture in-laws played by Louise Latham and Charles Aidman.

Also check out the really good song “Elijah Rise Up” by Danny O’Keefe.

I was only able to find this title on VHS about 10 years ago as anout-of-print special order. It would be very nice having it on DVD, asit’s a great collection to any fan of Michael Douglas, the 70’s or justgreat acting. Interestingly in this movie Douglas plays a professor wasreleased in 1970 and the other Douglas’ movie “Summertree” in 1971 inwhich he played a college student, one year later.

4) Call it sentiments of generation X before generation X. This movie wasfantastic. It asks the sincere question: do you see yourself assuccessful,or do others see it in you? And what would happen if you and society foundyour success in different places? The last scene captures the outcomevisually with great symbolism.

5) This film is the latest acquisition to my collection of Michael Douglasvideos and DVD’s, and the IMDb user reviews prepared me for what toexpect from the film. The main interest for me was to see Douglas inone of his first films – and to see just the same mannerisms, facialexpressions and voice intonations as in his most recent films! Thestory itself I found mainly improbable – what was the point of the longand irrelevant intro? We needed to see more at that stage of just whyAdam was dissatisfied with his life. I also couldn’t for the life of mesee what Adam found attractive in Jerri-Jo – she was so shallow, surelyhe could see that from when he first met her?? OK for a summer flingmaybe, but getting engaged to her?? Give me a break! The best scenes ofthe film were those with the labourers – you could understand why heenjoyed being with them – and they were the only scenes that rang truefor me. Plus the ice cream tub at the end – nice one! But where didAdam go? Back to his unsatisfying life again? How sad!

6) Michael Douglas plays a young semantics professor who has several closeladyfriends. I believe the film takes place in California. It has a definitehippie-era vibe. The soundtrack is kind of country-sounding, and it makesyou wish they’d spent a little cash on getting some popular rock musiciansto do the score. No real original music to keep the film "fresh-feeling".I’ve seen a dozen better films from this era about similar subject matter.Nicholson was in about five or so of them. Douglas always has a p***edofflook on his face in this movie. But I still enjoy almost every MD film Iwatch. He’s just not Jack Nicholson. Then again, who is? ExceptMr.Ray-Banshimself.

7) The person who made the comment that the title of this film makes nosense is incorrect. Of course, the title makes sense. The maincharacter, Adam, is a young college professor who spends the summerworking at a blue collar job. Thus, he gets up at 6 a.m. to go to work.The entire movie is about the summer that he spends working at thisjob. I first saw this film when I was about twelve or thirteen, and Iabsolutely loved it. It's now a period piece, but it's an excellentperiod piece. The last shot of this film–which I won't reveal here–iswonderful. I've described it to many, many people over the years asbeing one of the funniest things that I've ever seen in a movie. I canstill remember watching this on television with my brother and myfather, and we all laughed hysterically at that final shot.

That would be the only reason why I would watch it again. I was 3 yearsold when it was made, but I remember my parents talking about howexciting it was to have Michael Douglas staying in our little 'ol townand how everyone in town were extras in the movie. I've seen it as anadult and the only thing I enjoyed about it was looking for familiarfaces and familiar places in my hometown. I would imagine anyone notfrom my hometown wouldn't enjoy this movie as much as I did.

It is kind of an interesting movie to watch, early in the career ofMichael Douglas. I believe this movie was made before he did Streets ofSan Francisco which by the way I absolutely loved!

9) This is an unusual film for Michael Douglas, and kind of "lost". Iwonder if it was ever even released? I rather doubt it’s even availableon video or DVD today: your only shot at seeing it is late at night onsame cable station. Which is how I saw it, many years ago.

Adam is a late 20s college professor having a sort of early mid-lifecrisis when he decides to spontaneously attend a family funeral in theMidwest. Away from his intellectual/liberal environment and hedonisticlifestyle, he finds life in the small town surprisingly warm andembracing. In time, he has a working class job (light years from hiscushy teaching job), friends (Joe Don Baker) and a cute girlfriend forwhom he has the major hots, but who is "saving herself for marriage."Adam becomes, for this one summer anyhow, so immersed in this simpledown-to-earth lifestyle that he decides to marry the girlfriend and buya house.

At this point, the film takes a sharp detour…as if ashamed suddenlyof the idea that simple hard work, good friends and a loving marriagemight be exactly what spoiled pretentious Adam needed all along. So heabruptly decides to "chuck it all" when sent on a mission to buyvanilla ice cream for his fiancé’s bridal shower…and skedaddles outof town in his sports car, presumably never to be seen again. (Or maybeto return to his unhappy life as a swinging college teacher.) Noclosure on the presumably broken-hearted fiancé, who had to behumiliated by his disappearance, or his confused and hurt friends.

For some reason this film has stuck in my mind all these years. I thinkbecause up until the final couple of minutes, it almost seems like apre-Reagan paean to family values…which would have made "Adam" a realoddity in 1970. Some good supporting work from supporting actors. Thisfilm also foreshadows the 80s film, "Amber Waves of Grain" with KurtRussell and Mare Winningham, about a spoiled actor who becomes a farmworker.

If you are up late at night and this comes on…watch it. Somethingdifferent, and you get to see a very young Michael Douglas.

(BTW: No, the title makes no sense at all.)

10) A minor cult classic for fans of 70s films. Joe Don Baker isoutstanding. I highly recommend it, if you see it in the late-night TV listing.