Los Angeles. Four men, disguised in masks of ex-US Presidents, keep robbing banks, and then escaping in a car. FBI agent Johnny Utah is sent on the case, and his more experienced colleague Angelo Pappas has a theory that the four robbers might be surfers. Johnny thus decides to take on surfing lessons from Tyler, falls in love with her, and gets befriended with many surfers, including the unusual Bodhi. When it turns out Bodhi is indeed the boss of the gang, he kidnaps Tyler, and thus blackmails Johnny into robbing a bank with them - but without a mask. When the gang wants to break into the safe, a security guard and police officer shoot some of them. Bodhi escapes, Johnny follows him, they both enter a plane, but Bodhi escapes by jumping from the plane in a parachute. Years later, Johnny finds Bodhi somewhere in Australia. Bodhi goes to surf on a wave during a huge storm, and disappears in the ocean.
"Point Break" is the darnedest thing: its aesthetic and style is a 10/10, but its story and characters are a 4/10. It is thus difficult to rate this film as a whole, since the viewers more inclined towards the former will like it more, while the viewers more inclined towards the latter will like it less. The most unusual ingredient in the rather standard action story is its villain, Bodhi (Patrick Swayze), who does not rob banks for selfishness—rather, the perplexing thing is that he robs to be able to live out his spiritual lifestyle, surfing, without having to be part of the capitalist lifestyle. This makes him different from other villains, but, alas, the movie really needed better character development and more philosophy. And some plot holes bother (for example, why does Bodhi take his mask off during the bank robbery at 93 minutes into the film? It makes no sense, since the cameras are recording the entire room). Nonetheless, the director Kathryn Bigelow and cinematographer Donald Peterman take a step towards advancing the new cinematic aesthetics established since the 80s, which have not been improved in the decades after "Point Break", meaning they have reached the optimum of cinematographic aesthetics. Four moments are outstanding, two of which are "impossible" scenes, yet they filmed them anyway—these are the intense 5-minute long chase sequence across the streets, gardens and houses of Santa Monica, as Johnny is running after the robber wearing a mask of Ronald Reagan; and the scene where a character goes to surf into a giant wave during a storm. But the two "impossible" scenes are unforgettable: both involve the protagonists jumping from a plane, "gliding" during skydive, while the camera follows them and observes the coastline below them. One of these "impossible" scenes is even more "impossible", as Johnny is left alone in the airplane after Bodhi escaped, but he still takes a gun and jumps out, without a parachute (!), falling until he reaches and grabs Bodhi skydiving, in a scene that is of such perfection, such passion and untrammeled imagination that it sends shivers down your spine, something modern Hollywood rarely reached, and thus this unbelievable highlight overshadows any flaws, sweeping all omissions away with its majestic momentum.
Grade:+++
No comments:
Post a Comment