gbill-74877

"With enough time and enough money, you could spend the rest of your life following the summer around the world."

The pinnacle of Bruce Brown's surfing films and a cult classic, The Endless Summer has a couple of things which distinguish it from his others, which are all a celebration of the emerging surf lifestyle and a window into an era. For one thing, it follows two surfers, 21-year-old Mike Hynson and 18-year-old Robert August as they travel around the world in search of untouched surfing spots and the "perfect wave." That alone gives it the feel of a travelogue as they visit Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii, and California. While a lot of that was incredibly cool, like their discovery of extraordinary waves at Cape St. Francis in South Africa after trekking three miles over sand dunes, there is also some unfortunate bits of casual racism in Brown's narration, e.g. When he condescendingly refers to a village in Ghana as being primitive, so beware of that.

The other thing which makes this film so unique is the idea of remaining in an "endless summer" by traveling the world from one hemisphere to another, which Brown admits would take a great deal of privilege. There is an aspect of this idea that seems like it's cheating Time, or defying the natural way of things, and when you combine that with the degree of nostalgia in the film for youth, it's irresistible.

There's a nice enough opening scene to this British noir, with a murder played to high pitched music, and with a cast that featured Michael Redgrave, Ann Todd and Peter Cushing, I was quite hopeful. As a bonus you even get the film debut of Joan Plowright as a cheeky chorus girl as well as Lois Maxwell (Moneypenny) in small parts. Unfortunately, you also get several incredibly hammy performances, the worst of which was from Leo McKern. The scene where he screams "Why are you doing this to me!" is pretty comical, and it's not the only time he clutches his face with both hands in anguish.

There is tension in the story but it's also mighty contrived. The father arrives after his son is convicted of murder and has already lost two appeals, and then on the day of the execution tries to play detective and uncover the truth. He's also alcoholic and bizarrely able to get things sorted after taking the time to hit the bottle a couple of times, an odd message. Clearer is the film's firm anti-death penalty stance, though it's delivered in a rather preachy way. And while it's easy to see who the suspect should be (which is of course emphasized by the viewer having seen him in the opening scene, both mistakes if you ask me), oddly it doesn't occur to anyone else. Along the way, the motivations of the wife are suspect, giving an alibi for her husband but then working against him. It's a mess of a story that the twist at the end can't quite save. It's not terrible if you're looking for something over-the-top, or are interested in the cast though.

A reminder of how important it is for gay marriage to be legal, as well as for people to have a will, ensuring that life partners are provided for after one passes away. Touching performances all around, and it's a film that exercises restraint, knowing that the viewer will undoubtedly feel plenty of outrage. That's balanced a bit by wonderful moments with a group of lesbian friends, and I liked how thoughtful this was. It's notable that while it was permitted in Hong Kong, it's not shown in mainland China.