Establishing Shots
The first six minutes or so of the film are literally a montage comprised of a series of shots each lasting no more than ten or fifteen seconds at most. While this would not seem anything out of the ordinary to the viewer raised on post-MTV editing style in modern Hollywood, it would have been a shock to the system for views settled in for the evening in the early 1970’s. No contextual clues are provided as to the timing of these shots though some are clearly flashbacks—to a period also devoid of context. Are the flashbacks to the winter before the spring or do they extend further back? The visual imagery is the cinematic equivalent of stream-of-consciousness writing in which the past and the present blur into each other. The purpose is the same: to create the sense that while it may be spring and the runaway has returned as almost-promised, this is social problem that is not simply going to end cleanly and according to a timeline.
The Exterminator Truck Heist
The runaway-who-runs-back protagonist’s boyfriend is painted in mostly stereotypical mainstream anti-counterculture strokes: long hair, beard, unemployed, drug abuser and small-time criminal. He’s also none-too-bright in his decision to steal an exterminator company’s service truck. Even for exterminator companies, this truck stands out in a crowd which is, let’s face it, absolutely the last thing you want in a vehicle you just stole. But criminal logic is not the point here. The point is that the mainstream anti-counterculture folks had better give up on their dream of simply exterminating the hippies and the druggies and the longhairs because they aren’t going anywhere any time soon.
The Ice Cream Truck Heist
With the boyfriend’s second truck heist it becomes clear why he is painted as being just a really stupid criminal. The second time around it is yet another quite conspicuous type of service vehicle: a refrigerated ice cream truck. He is first shown handing out ice cream treats to a mob of very excited kids. And why not? He’s simply giving the dairy desserts away. Free! It is made very clear that he does this before he actually steals the truck in imagery that reveals his true danger to society. Not unkempt hair or sleeping with underage girls or even dealing drugs. No, his real threat to society is that he is actually stupid enough to think giving things away for free to kids instead of charging them for the privilege is a good idea! He’s a lousy pinko commie!
The Vacuum Cleaner
Near the end, the boyfriend shows up and tries to get the runaway to run away with him again, this time to Canada. He’s pressing her to break free of the establishment while mom and dad are working the other end of the deal just as hard. He encapsulates the life she has waiting for her if she stays by asking her not to settle for a swimming pool and vacuum cleaner. The film concludes with her younger sister now becoming the runaway and the singularly chilling image of recently returned Big Sis pushing a vacuum cleaner back and forth over what doesn’t appear to be a particularly dirty section of carpet with all the lust for life of a Stepford Wife.
