Tuesday, January 27, 2009
SURFIN'
Today's movie was the surfing documentary
The story arc is how surfing, one of the most un-pro sports, was professionalized.
This involves some pretty amazing surf footage and the story of three or four guys who grew up with the sport and were instrumental in making it a career and a profession.
There are enough serious emotions and enough real danger (not all hard waves) in this story to make it compelling and interesting. The sight of surfer dudes duding it up are pretty thin otherwise.
The thing about surfing as well as some other sports is that you can see that it is difficult but you can't see how it is done.
This film assumes a certain level of fan-i-ness which makes it hard to see what is going on that is all that new or difficult. It is obviously all dangerous when we are at the north shore of Oahu and the waves are 30+ feet high.
But this was not a primer film and I am not the real target audience. I assume that most people will know the kinks and alleys of this sport and what the real deal is.
Nevertheless, as a completely naive viewer, I still enjoyed it.
Edward Norton is the narrator and has an amazingly thin and undistinguished voice. Hardly noticeable in the music of real-life surf talkers.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.
