The idea of bank heist fiction doesn't move me all that much anymore. I have read/seen so much of it, the act itself has lost its exciting nature to me. It has to be a good story before it's a good heist. POINT BREAK, for example, is a movie that is remembered for pretty much fathering baditude, it's ridiculous infatuation with surfer culture and it's obsession with being cool. It's a bank heist movie, all right, but it is the abslote last thing it is reminded for. POINT BREAK went down in history as a series of horrible decisions that turned into a perfect object. It's naive eagerness is absolutely inimitable.
Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) * is an all-american quarterbak turned FBI Agent. Since his boss frowns upon bros of Olympic quality, he is partnered with old, disgruntled Angelo Pappas (Gary Busey), who's been on the dead end trail of some bank robbers for years. Following an eccentric lead by his partner that these robbers might be surfers, Utah infiltrates a tight knit surfer crew lead by Bodhi (Patrick Swayze), their borderline cultish, yet oh-so-nice spiritual leader. He does so by meeting surfer girl Tyler (Lori Petty) who, you know, just happens to be Bodhi's ex. Surfing, bromance, hilarious, needless acrobatics and bits of violence ensues.
For some reason, maybe it was in his contracts or something, Patrick Swayze always seems to have philosophical high ground in his movies. He has something to teach. Bodhi is a great character in that regards, because he neeeds pupils as much as pupils need him. His zen is tainted by vanity and it leads to great sccenes: an impromptu Swayze martial arts display on the beach, a ridiculously decadent house party and an unforgettable sky surfing session capped by the broest moment in cinema history. Bodhi has a dire need to impress people, to be the coolest, wisest guy in the room. Juxtaposed with his lifelong, transendant dream of riding the perfect wave, you have a guy just out there enough to be fascinating. Bodhi embodies the contradictions that made POINT BREAK fascinating.
Football, bro. On the beach.
I am still unsure about how to explain POINT BREAK's success. Follow my drift : First, it was done by Kathryn Bigelow, who was a doer, back then. It was about a decade before she started putting some thought in her filmmaking. She is shooting a decent story, yet all there is to her direction is to fill every shot with as much surfer culture references as possible. Also, Keanu Reeves is pretty bad. Legacy-building bad. I don't want to bash on the guy too hard, because he seems like a genuinely nice guy, but he sucks so hard he transcends the idea of sucking. He is almost doing bro performance art. He sounds like a 17 year old football jock doing the school play to please his girlfriend. That lead to unbelievable moments, my favorite being the U Mad? scene. Also I don't think this movie would have been so fondly remembered if the idea of cool hadn't changed so much over the last decade. POINT BREAK aged like wine. It got better as it drifted away from any form of realism.
Who would have thought POINT BREAK would influence pop culture the way it did? I don't remember anybody uttering the word ''brah'' before Bodhi and Utah did and if it was invented before, the modern day bro probably picked it up in the movie anyway. U Mad? also became an internet meme (although its origin is still debated). It also spawned hilarious paraphernalia. POINT BREAK is no CITIZEN KANE. It's not particularly well done. It's not slickly shot. But its solid pulp ideas and its ridiculous infatuation with an idea of cool that has drifted so far away secured its place in history. Movies don't age better than this.
* Let that sink in. As if Johnny Utah wasn't already an awesome pulp name, the guy is just about the broest bro that ever lived.
