When it comes to summer movies, especially movies that suggest end of summer feelings to me, the cult classic movie Point Break (1991) comes to mind. A crime story featuring theft, surfing and two federal agencies of the United States government in pursuit. The movie directed by Kathryn Bigelow loudly and proudly proclaims summer for me.
The story of Point Break begins the theory of FBI agent Angelo Pappas that a series of quick hitting bank robberies across the coast of the Pacific Ocean in the United States are being performed by surfers. Pappas brings rookie agent Johnny Utah, a former quarterback for the Ohio State University football team, to infiltrate the surfing scene to reveal and arrest the criminals. Gary Busey portrayed Pappas as Keanu Reeves portrayed Utah.
The first task for Johnny Utah was to introduce a believable story to gain acceptance within the surfing scene. Using information available to the FBI, Utah introduces himself to Tyler Endicott. Endicott, as portrayed by Lori Petty, has no living parents, works as a waitress and agrees to teach him to surf following an instance where Utah nearly drowns in learning how.
Through Endicott, Johnny Utah meets Bodhi, the charismatic leader of a gang of surfers consisting of Roach, Grommet, and Nathanial. Utah finds the gaining of acceptance within this group initially difficult, at least until Bodhi recognizes him as the former college football star who quit the sport due to a knee injury. It is through the mastering of surfing that Utah finds is drawn to Tyler, Bodhi’s philosophies, and the adrenaline-based lifestyle of this community. Patrick Swayze, James Le Gros, Bojesse Christopher and John Philbin portray Bodhi, Roach, Grommet and Nathaniel, respectively.
With one of bank robberies that occur regularly during Utah’s infiltration period, diagnosis of some hair from one of the robberies points to a different set of surfers as the criminals perpetrating the crimes. A raid of those surfers leads to some really nasty consequences that puts the FBI along with director Ben Harp, as portrayed by John C. McGinley, into conflict with Drug Enforcement Administration and DEA agent Deets, as portrayed by Tom Sizemore.
A significant degree of consequential story grows from this point. Trust, love and loyalty to people, work and many of life itself are raised. How these are developed with the information already shared, and furthered with the pressures of how to choose within these spaces take many escalating turns through the story that remains.
Distinctly quality storytelling with satisfying accomplishments for deciding where you, as an audience member, should land with regards to the questions raised lead to valid reasons for a cult appreciation for the movie Point Break. It is with this resonance in mind that I offer the Kathryn Bigelow movie Point Break 4-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
Matt – Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Matt Lynn Digital 