Ah ha! All Summer in a Day. The last time I saw this was in 1983 or ’84, when I was about 10. I remember watching it at the house of a friend who had cable, and I think it was on Nickelodeon, before that channel became all-cartoon.
At various times since the Google age dawned, I’ve attempted searches to try to suss out the name of this bleak sci-fi movie I’d seen all those years ago. The vision of children taking in artificial sunlight in a gray, oppressive compound on a planet where it always rains has remained with me all these years. The last time I searched for it was after watching an episode of Doctor Who called “The Empty Child,” in which a ghostly kid in a gas mask terrorizes citizens of WWII-era London.
Last night, while talking on the phone with Claire, she was like, “There’s this movie that, I swear, only three other people I know have ever seen. It’s based on a Ray Bradbury short story and it’s called All Summer in a Day.” So, of course, I looked on YouTube to see if it was there. I found it in three parts, which I DLed and stitched together, reuploading it to Google Video.
It’s funny because I had thought that this was actually a series, because I don’t know if I ever saw this film all the way through—I’d seen only bits and pieces at my friend’s house. Taking it all in at once, it’s much more moving and sad than I ever remember.
And if you think you recognize the bully, William, he’s played by Keith Coogan, the brother in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead.