— The Endless Summer — That’s A Movie
Posted in Life, Movie Review on August 23rd, 2010 by – Be the first to commentNow, I’m NOT a surfer although if you were to go back 
in time to the late 80’s, you’d see me on a skateboard, and in the early 2000’s, you catch me on a Snowboard.
But this weekend I sat down and watched a historic cult classic that we’ve all heard of and most of us have never actually watched all the way through. Even if we didn’t know where the term came from, we’ve all heard the term… Endless Summer! (I don’t know, unless you’re young or sheltered). The term comes from this movie largely. It was one of the first high quality surf movies. It was filmed documentary style by a guy named Bruce Brown.
The movie itself follows two surfers — Mike Hynson and Robert August — as they travel around the globe surfing following the “Endless Summer”. Their first stops are in Africa to include Senegal and South Africa. They end up in Australia and New Zealand, and of course I’ve left alot out because I’m not going to ruin it for you. The sound is made up of narration. Brown speaks to what’s going on and throws in a good bit of humor to keep you watching. Some of the scenes are pretty interesting as in some of the scenes in Africa where no one has seen a surfer before and you get a sense of the excitement from the locals/natives. You also get a interesting sense of the times the movie was filmed (1966), such as when you see these surfers traveling by aircraft in black suits. That’s what they wore back then because airlines had dress codes. instead of looking as people do now when they fly, back then, they look like MIB (Men In Black).
I understand that Mr. Brown developed his cinematography style by filming and showing his footage to audiences while standing at a microphone and just talking his way through the movie. Obviously back then it was much easier to film the footage by itself than to record good sound (just as it is today). This movie was pivotal to the surf movie genre. Even today in surf, skate, and snowboarding movies, there is still no high quality sound for the same reasons when Endless Summer Was made… Although now, we use music to make the videos more interesting [Ahhh, now you get it].
Endless summer would lead to Endless Summer II nearly 30 years later [which I have not seen]. They actually stopped by some of the same locations again, only to find that they have been covered up or have conditions changed due to human development, including an area in South Africa where a perfect wave traveled for minutes down there beach. Granted, back then, many people surfed areas that were tiny by todays standards due to technology. Surfers no longer use big heavy long-boards as they did back in those days.
Now, I’m not sure I’d dig surfing too much but I know that watching the movie makes me want to try it once before I die. Not on a big wave but maybe one that the little kids can hang with.. Like a 2-footer or something. It seems kinda a’ight.
has had several cases of drugs and alcohol issues including a couple of DUIs. She is a renowned party girl down in Hollywoodland. She is another sad chapter in the book that is the child star.