I registered, I posted, and then I fell off the face of the earth! Let's try this hhw newbie thing again, shall we?
I went to a camp (The site of the "Sound of Music" fiaso!) very similar to the one that "Camp" is based on, which had an enormous influence on my reception of the film. When I was a camper at Usdan, I often had a tendency to step outside of the silly fun that we were all having in order to just take in my surroundings and think about the incredible potential that all these kids had. I was the philosophical kid at the picnic table, perpetually singing "Our Time" instead of just looking at the damn satellite. Seeing as I was nostalgic for camp while I was still there, seeing "Camp" just turned me into a blubbering, emotional mess! I was so moved by how accurately they captured what happens at a performing arts camp. Theatre kids go off to summer camp in order to escape from the cliques of high school (Where they are generally made fun of and excluded), but as soon as they get there, they seize the opportunity to create new cliques where they can make fun of and exclude other people. I think that someone seeing "Camp" could easily tell that these kids have very different lives when they're back home, going to school. "Camp" captures the talent and potential (That, for many kids, will probably go unfulfilled) of theatre kids while also showing that they're pompous, narcisistic, over-achievers. I found the "Follies" sequence absolutely hilarious because a few summers ago, I was a part of an equally absurd teenage production of "Anyone Can Whistle" at my own performing arts camp. The "Dreamgirls" situation is sort of similar to what happened when I did "Sound Of Music". I think that "Camp" is mainly for the people who experienced it. It depicts us really honestly and, since according to "Camp" we're all horribly self-absorbed (And we are!), we like that.
