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White Water Summer

White Water Summer

Adventure · Drama · 1987

When the experienced guide Vic accompanies the city boy Alan and his three friends on their first wilderness experience, he not only hopes to teach the four boys lessons about the wilderness, but about themselves. Vic pushes them to the limit. Soon after alienating the boys, Vic finds himself in desperate need of help and must rely on his students in order to survive.

Movie details

White Water Summer

“Hold on for the wildest ride of your life”

1987 Adventure · Drama 1h 30m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.2 / 10

6.2K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

25 %

Tomatometer

TMDB

6.1 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

When the experienced guide Vic accompanies the city boy Alan and his three friends on their first wilderness experience, he not only hopes to teach the four boys lessons about the wilderness, but about themselves. Vic pushes them to the limit. Soon after alienating the boys, Vic finds himself in desperate need of help and must rely on his students in order to survive.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over White Water Summer?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Jeff Bleckner

Written by

Manya Starr · Ernest Kinoy

Kevin Bacon

Kevin Bacon

Vic

Sean Astin

Sean Astin

Alan

Jonathan Ward

Jonathan Ward

Mitch

K.C. Martel

K.C. Martel

George

Matt Adler

Matt Adler

Chris

Caroline McWilliams

Caroline McWilliams

Virginia Block

Charles Siebert

Charles Siebert

Jerry Block

Court is in session

Put White Water Summer on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.