083 - Big Wednesday

Synopsis: Coming of age of 3 surfing buddies in LA in the 1960's and 1970's

Director: John Milius

Actors: Gary Busey, Jan-Michael Vincent, William Katt, Patti D'Abanville

Date: 1978

How viewed: Lovefilm watch list

Rating: 2/5

David Meyer says:
Sacrificing anything resembling subtext, Milius creates an enduring vision of the surfer-as-samurai and of the surf movie as Western.  

I say:

So, this is a coming of age tale of 3 Californian surfers - looking at their lives and loves around the time of each of 4 big ocean swells, starting in 1962 with The South Swell, then The West Swell 1965. then The North Swell in 1968 and finally the Great Swell of 1974. That must have looked good on the story-board but it's actually all very pedestrian - not much happens - even the diversion of the Vietnam war is not told with any real impact, and indeed a huge amount of time is spent on shots of bare-chested surfers posing with their boards gazing out into the distance. Maybe that echoes surfing - a lot of hanging around waiting for the right wave. Also, off-hand, I don't think I can recall a film where the orchestral theme music has so flattened a movie - it's so ponderous - it should have been Dick Dale!! That said, there's a lot of good music in the first (1962) segment - Green Onions, Lucille, Money, Will you still love me tomorrow, The Locomotion, etc - but then they seem to forget it thereafter. One of thing of note were the station-wagons (with the surf boards on top) they drove - as a big fan of VW vans I was almost won over! But I suppose most noteworthy are the final surfing scene with huge waves - obviously filmed with professional surfers (rather than the actors) which must have looked fantastic in wide-screen cinema.