First Watch: Point Break
Kathryn Bigelow’s 1991 masterpiece — uniquely shot and starring some powerhouse actors — Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, Lori Petty and…the ocean. A crime heist thriller with a difference — as it throws in surfing, spirituality, counter-culture, inter-generational conflict, FBI agents, surfing and sky-diving.
I don’t know how they got some of the shots, I don’t know how they kept the cast alive — given what they’re thrown into and out of. The cinematography itself is extraordinary — during fight sequences, the action often takes place almost off camera, instead we see things almost from the protagonists eyes as punches are exchanged, as they duck and weave away from what’s coming towards them. It’s daring — not to show what you’re expected to see. In chase sequences, we ‘run’ and ‘climb’ with the runners and chasers — all in hot pursuit/escape together.
Then there’s the ocean — the beauty and frustration of surfing, of catching the ultimate wave, the thrill of surviving and working together with its power. But like the ocean, Patrick Swayze’s Bodhi presents as calm on the outside, but may have some dangerous rip tides and treacherous deep waters waiting to catch out Keanu Reeves’s rookie FBI agent Johnny Utah.
New to the neighbourhood, Utah experiences patronising older agents, belittling, snarky peers and departmental eye-rolling apathy at catching a notorious bank robbing gang. Presidents are literally robbing us — or atleast their retired ex-President masked versions are. However, Utah takes it all in his stride — out-smarting, out-sarcasm-ing and turning the tables on those who seek to put him down. He uses data, planning and forensics to blow everyone out of the water and into criminal catching action. Plus, he believes in Pappas’s (Gary Busey) wild theory (crying out for a noticeboard and complicated red tape links) that the gang are local and seasonally motivated. Indeed, they must be surfers stashing stolen cash to tide them over the winter and allowing them to enjoy the summer.
To find the four ex-President impersonators, Utah must become one of them — and almost drowns in his attempt. Saved by the brilliant but brittle Tyler (Lori Petty), Utah starts lessons in surfing with her and in a way of life from Bodhi. Along the way he humourously steals hair samples from passing surfers to find the right beach and uses Tyler as a cover to integrate into the wider surfer community. It’s territorial, it’s tribal, it’s spontaneous, and impedes sleep — for at any time, Bodhi will knock on your door summoning you to surf. There are also levels as Bodhi and his friends form a tight knit clan, which Utah seeks to become a part of. Awkwardly, Tyler was in a relationship with Bodhi.
But is Bodhi really all he seems? Are the group that the agents focus on really the criminal ex-Presidents they’re looking for? Or is the truth hidden in plain sight?
Beautifully portraying the clashes between agents (undercover and uniform); older and younger; locals and out of towners; agents and cops; intuition and data crunchers; the script and the action smartly move along, balancing all of this. There’s a terrific car chase, swerving tightly in and out of lanes of traffic; a car-jacking and a pacey chase through the back yards and houses of the local communities. Will Ronald Reagan live to rob another day?
Just when you think it can’t get any wilder, Utah falls in love, enjoys being in a committed relationship and and gets his real identity rumbled by the ex-Presidents. Never has sky diving been more beautiful and more terrifying as you’re not sure (despite Bodhi’s smiling calm) that they’re all going to make it to the ground alive. Or that all their parachutes really work, with heaps of jokey tension fizzing around. Utah is never quite sure how much they know; whilst as the audience, we have insider knowledge of knowing that we know that they know (and perhaps he knows that they know) and fizzle in the tension of it all.
The ending is deep and dramatic, and tense, as we see the real cost of breaking and keeping the law. Unlike other movies, the violence and pain isn’t gloried in here — the bullets really hurt, maim and kill. There is no unlimited ammo here. Our hero falls in a chase hurting his knee and is still obviously limping days later. People are wounded and die, or pushed roughly to the ground in fear. Whilst the action is thrilling, the movie remains very grounded in real life, using domestic objects such as lawnmowers as objects of threat and terror. The struggle over a strimming lawnmower is excruciating, as tiny bits of Utah’s hair begin to fly off when he’s too close to the blades.
At the same time, this isn’t a hard movie. It celebrates the beauty of the everyday — in the ocean, on the beach, in fire pits, in a football game, in manicure gardens or a loved home, in the freedom of the sky, the wider sense of being with close-knit and loved friends. Time is allowed for us to see the surfers playing football together, how they act and react against each other; in their celebrations of life by sky diving together — and how Utah and Bodhi clash against each other, goading each to be the last one to pull the parachute chord.
In contrast, Bodhi reveals a cruelty and manipulation at the end — not suggested by his cool, charismatic demeanor. Using Tyler as bait, he aims to force Utah to publicly rob alongside them and then shield the gang’s escape. Tension mounts to an almost High Noon conclusion as they free fall into the desert. Where will it all end?
Donald Peterman’s suspenseful, daring cinematography, Kathyrn Bigelow’s impeccable direction and pacing, and W. Peter Iliff’s script take us to a remarkable conclusion. Stand-out features are the way women are portrayed in this movie — Tyler is a uniquely talented, skilled and vulnerable individual. Just when you think she’s just there to provide the love interest — the script turns the tables on our assumptions, making her the catalyst, the focus. We sympathise, connect with her searing horror of being potentially used as a front by an undercover FBI agent; her sense of betrayal and painful shame at being played by a man she’d trusted, hurt where there was love. We empathise deeply with her fury and threatened, endangered state when she’s held as bait, again being used (this time by Bodhi) to lure Utah into getting the gang to freedom — and beyond the reach of the law. However, she isn’t your usual woman in peril in a movie — spitting rage and fury at what’s being done to her, and ready to fight back, as and when she can.
Part bromance, part Western, part mythos, part Lost Boys, this is such a stunningly executed and visually beautiful work. You also, once again, realise how beautiful an actor Patrick Swayze was and what a shame it is that he’s no longer with us. Contrastingly, the movie allows Keanu to play deep — and emotional, as well as the action hero. And who can not love Gary Busey bumbling purposefully around looking for his ‘lost dog?’
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