Rating: Summary: The Endless Summer Review: This movie really changed my life ...it's so campy and ofcoarse so '60's but it's great fun to watch . It's one of the few movies that I can watch over and over again .
Rating: Summary: Wonderful Gem! Review: This movie takes you far away to another time and place. It truly captures the spirit of surfing. Granted, things have changed considerably since the making and release of this film. However, the common theme that lures us back to the waves prevails through this film. A brilliant and magnificent documentary!
Rating: Summary: The Endless Summer DVD Review: Movie is great, DVD is blah. Review: This was a hard one to review. As a surfer, I could remember growing up and watching this movie hardcore and when I saw it on DVD, I wanted to buy it but lo and behold...I saw the back logo..."Image entertainment" which to DVD collectors know as a company that puts the movie on DVD, no extras, simple scene selections and that's it.I was so upset to find out that there was nothing else. Not even a trailer. Geez... I was hoping that Bruce Brown would have some cool footage...gag reels or something for this DVD release. Of course, I recommend the DVD over the VHS but in this case...the main benefit from buying this DVD over the VHS is that you know it's not going to degrade from watching it many times. I love this movie...I love it! But the DVD should have more... I give the movie an A+ but the DVD a D due to the lack of special features and nothing else but the movie. DVD fans expect more these days but I guess when you get an Image Entertainment DVD, not to have your hopes set so high. If you haven't seen the movie or you are a fan and has a VHS that is degrading due to watching it so many times, check out the DVD version!
Rating: Summary: One of the best Review: Truely one of the best movies I've ever seen
Rating: Summary: Great surfing classic and interesting world view of 1966 Review: Way back in 1966, documentary filmmaker Bruce Brown followed two young surfers around the world in their quest for the perfect wave. It seems as if it were just the three of them - the two surfers and Bruce Brown who filmed that magical year with a hand-held Technicolor camera with no sound. Later, he edited the film and narrated it and his is the only voice we hear in addition to some original music by "The Sandals". There are no sounds of the surf, no remarks from the two surfers and we never hear the voices of all the colorful characters they meet along the way. The concept was to surf on beaches that had never been surfed before. This led them Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti. And, naturally California and Hawaii. Sometimes the surf was to their liking. Sometimes it was not. But always it was an adventure, the kind of adventure that I quickly got caught up in even though it all seemed like a home movie and the camera was old fashioned. I remember one spot where there is a long smooth wave to ride and the narrator notes that the wave was so long that he ran out of film, stopped shooting, changed the film, and was able to continue filming the surfer on the same wave. As the film was made in 1966, it expressed a view of the world that is not politically correct today. For example, there are a lot of little jokes about the "natives" in an African tribe. But in spite of the words, it was obvious that everyone in the tribe enjoyed watching the surfers. Later, with the help of our surfers, these "natives" tried it themselves and soon were improvising their own surfboards. There are a lot of beaches in the world. But the sport was perfected in Hawaii as pure recreation. That's the way the Hawaiians lived for centuries. Our two surfers came from California, a place very much influenced by Hawaiian surfers. Other details about 1966 stood out and made me smile. For example, a luxury hotel in Senegal cost $30 per night, which they thought was outlandishly expensive. Gas cost $1.00 a gallon in Africa, a very high cost. And the hairstyles of the two light-haired and sometimes sunburned surfers were short and slicked back with lots and lots of grease. Also, the bodies of the surfers did not look like the surfers today. The two men had narrow chests and the musculature in their arms and legs was just enough to handle their surfboards. Obviously, they never worked out in a gym. They just rode those waves. And loved every minute of it. This is a film that was made with the pure love of the sport. It is indeed a classic. And a "must" for anyone interested surfing.
Rating: Summary: Great surfing classic and interesting world view of 1966 Review: Way back in 1966, documentary filmmaker Bruce Brown followed two young surfers around the world in their quest for the perfect wave. It seems as if it were just the three of them - the two surfers and Bruce Brown who filmed that magical year with a hand-held Technicolor camera with no sound. Later, he edited the film and narrated it and his is the only voice we hear in addition to some original music by "The Sandals". There are no sounds of the surf, no remarks from the two surfers and we never hear the voices of all the colorful characters they meet along the way. The concept was to surf on beaches that had never been surfed before. This led them Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti. And, naturally California and Hawaii. Sometimes the surf was to their liking. Sometimes it was not. But always it was an adventure, the kind of adventure that I quickly got caught up in even though it all seemed like a home movie and the camera was old fashioned. I remember one spot where there is a long smooth wave to ride and the narrator notes that the wave was so long that he ran out of film, stopped shooting, changed the film, and was able to continue filming the surfer on the same wave. As the film was made in 1966, it expressed a view of the world that is not politically correct today. For example, there are a lot of little jokes about the "natives" in an African tribe. But in spite of the words, it was obvious that everyone in the tribe enjoyed watching the surfers. Later, with the help of our surfers, these "natives" tried it themselves and soon were improvising their own surfboards. There are a lot of beaches in the world. But the sport was perfected in Hawaii as pure recreation. That's the way the Hawaiians lived for centuries. Our two surfers came from California, a place very much influenced by Hawaiian surfers. Other details about 1966 stood out and made me smile. For example, a luxury hotel in Senegal cost $30 per night, which they thought was outlandishly expensive. Gas cost $1.00 a gallon in Africa, a very high cost. And the hairstyles of the two light-haired and sometimes sunburned surfers were short and slicked back with lots and lots of grease. Also, the bodies of the surfers did not look like the surfers today. The two men had narrow chests and the musculature in their arms and legs was just enough to handle their surfboards. Obviously, they never worked out in a gym. They just rode those waves. And loved every minute of it. This is a film that was made with the pure love of the sport. It is indeed a classic. And a "must" for anyone interested surfing.
Rating: Summary: Best Surfing Film Ever Review: What a great film and travelogue. Beautifully filmed and narrated. The dated material is not a problem in fact it is quite entertaining. My favorite sequence is the stuff at Cape Saint Francis, South Africa. What a timeless flick.
Rating: Summary: A perfect surf movie Review: What a great movie. The narration is great, the scenery incredible, and the surfing footage excellent. The scene with the natives surfing in Africa is my favorite. I would recommend this movie to anyone, even if you don't surf.
Rating: Summary: Endless Pleasure Review: Why have I watch this film dozens of times over the years? Why do surfers today, continue to ride the boards of yesterday? Bruce Brown has proven that, there will always be a summer somewhere, always waves to be ridden, and a smile always to be had watching this classic of all travel documentaries. Even if you've never felt the power of the ocean, or the feel of surf wax on your chest.
Rating: Summary: The ultimate surfer movie Review: Wow, this is one of those movies that those of us who watched it in 1966 when it was released are now proud to show to our own children - giving them an example of what a REAL surfing movie should be. Shot as a documentary by Bruce Brown, it follows two surfers as they trek around the world, looking for the perfect wave. Do they find it? Contrary to our love of the ambiguous ending, yes, they do find it, down in South Africa on a beach where the wave starts at the tip and seems to go on and on and on, following the coast long enough that you think, by the time the surfers beach themselves, they'll probably need a taxi or a train to take them back to their point of origin. There's not a huge story line, but that's an advantage. It allows Brown to focus on subtler themes: the sun, the ocean, friendship, travel, and a period of innocence which is gone forever. This is definitely one to buy and to watch over and over and over.
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