Product: Point Break [VHS] (1991)
Rating: 5.0
100% Adrenaline With a Touch of Zen
Point Break is not only a truly great action movie, but it is a realisation of everything a truly great movie should be in general. Johnny Utah is a new FBI agent fresh out of Quantico, ready for some action. He's "young, dumb, and full of cum", as his new FBI department chief Harp puts it so elegantly. Utah is teamed up with Agent Angelo Pappas, a genial, no-BS 19-year veteran of the Bureau who knows everything his bosses don't know about doing the job, not by the book, but the best way. Their boss, Agent Harp, doesn't like that, and doesn't much like anything else about Pappas, either, which soon becomes apparent to Utah. On their first case together, Utah and Pappas investigate the most recent bank robbery in L.A. by the notorious "Dead Presidents", a gang of four bank robbers who don masks of Reagan, Carter, Johnson and Nixon during their armed capers. Utah then learns Pappas' theory regarding the Dead Presidents: "The Dead Presidents....are SURFERS." Maybe not a revelation of historic significance at first to Utah, but this small detail is what makes the film so compelling, in the end, the stuff that is the meat of the action; the story revolves around the world of surfing, with all the tremendous beauty and power of the ocean, the concurrent mysticism and physicality of the sport, and the language, culture, and traditions of its adherents. Utah quickly makes friends with a local surfer girl, Tyler (Lori Petty), as a way to gain entry into the surfing clique, who teaches him some of the basics of the sport. It turns out that Tyler is a friend of surfing legend and spiritual guru Bodhi (Patrick Swayze, in a tour de force performance), who not only sees his sport as a pathway to enlightenment, but sees life itself as a higher calling to be experienced to the pinnacle of every activity. Bodhi quickly sees the "kamikaze look" in Utah, who he recognizes as the former All-Big Ten quarterback from Ohio State. They are kindred spirits. Bodhi brings Utah under his wing, initially unaware that Utah is an FBI agent, and they set out as part of Bodhi's surfer-cum-extraordinary gentleman's club on various daredevil adrenaline trips such as skydiving into the sea, surfing at dusk and wild beach parties. All this is great, for sure, except Utah eventually realizes that his new best friend is actually the head of the Dead Presidents. That's when things really heat up. First is a seat-of-your-pants chase through what looks like South Central L.A. after Utah and Pappas break up the Presidents' latest bank heist. As the truth comes out, Bodhi controls Utah by threatening Tyler, who it turns out is Bodhi's former girlfriend, but who Utah is now in love with. When Tyler is kidnapped by Bodhi's gang, Utah is forced to become one of the Dead Presidents. Utah robs a bank with them, bystanders get killed--knocking it up to murder one--and then they end up in Mexico, where Tyler is finally freed--but not before Bodhi makes a dramatic getaway. The only clue Utah still has is that Bodhi must eventually get to Australia's Bell's Beach within a year to fulfill his spiritual destiny and catch the 50-Year Storm, a weather pattern which yields 200-ft high waves and the penultimate challenge for big-wave surfers. It seems that at least one of our two protagonists, Bodhi or Utah, will not survive and walk away from this storm. But that is part of the beauty of it all, is it not? Point Break is just about the most compelling action film you could ever wish for, especially if you are one of those coinosseurs who demands that a movie is both pretty to look at but also philosophically profound. Patrick Swayze's Bodhi brings a new meaning to the concept of hero-villain, by also making him somewhat of a prophet or seer at the same time. There's no doubt that you'll like what you see here. In addition to stunning surfing photography, the film achieves a certain zen flow which builds up to a definite crescendo towards the end. It's not enough for Bodhi to achieve greatness, on the ocean and in the mind, he must transcend our soul-robbing society and the law itself, and ultimately conquer death. He'll either succeed or fail, and obviously perhaps die trying, but either way, Point Break looks really good.