Movie Review Short: #5

The Endless Summer (1966)

I’m sure we’ve all seen the pink/orange posters for this at Target these past couple years at back-to-school time, but it wasn’t until I came upon it on Netflix that I decided to give it a watch - and boy am I glad I did. This movie is ridiculous.

The premise it that these two famous (professional?) surfers have decided that once Summer ends in the overly crowded California, they are going to travel around the world following the summer season, hence ‘Endless Summer’. Making stops all over Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii amongst others. But what was really interesting was seeing these two dudes hang ten on waves that had never been surfed before on deserted beaches.

Keep in mind this is 1966, before the surfing craze had really left the US that much. So everywhere they went, people were amazed. It was a welcome change to Cali for them where the waves were so crowded they had to zig-zag around one another…on surfboards.

This whole movie is made documentary style with a hilarious narrator talking over everything, explaining what is going on. I about died laughing on a couple occasions. It’s just pure 60’s, campy fun! The music is great but the cinematography is mind blowing. The silhouette shots are beautiful, as well as all the locations around the world. They even had shots where the camera was on the surfboard checking out their fancy footwork.

This movie is great fun, probably the most entertaining documentary I’ve ever seen.

9/10 (Amazing)