Quote: (05-27-2015 05:29 PM)rpg Wrote:
Ahem. Point Break is a cornerstone movie for us Gen Xers. This movie challenged a generation to use worldly wealth to break the mold and follow our dreams, skills, talents and abilities. Not the other way around. Hence, the rob banks to follow the endless summer storyline.
From being there at the time, as a fellow Gen X'er:
Point Break came out July 12, 1991. I watched and cynically-recognised it as Aging Boomers trying to sell Hippie Ideals to the kids as being cool by overlaying what they thought was currently popular with them through market research.
There was a lot of this thing at the turn of the 90's as aging writers and directors realised they were no longer 'edgy' or 'revolutionary', but simply the status quo.
Throw in the rise of psychedelics in the Madchester and Rave scenes, throw in the seeming rise of hippie ideals and positivity in bands like Deee-lite and De La Soul, and it seemed like kids were going to be receptive to Hippie 2.0.
Enter aging boomers James Cameron (1954) and Katheryn Bigalow (1951). The shooting script was rejected, and heavily-written by both of them:
Cameron:
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I was executive producer of Point Break. I did a considerable amount of writing on the shooting draft of the script with [director Kathryn Bigelow], even thought we haven't received credit which is an issue that I have with the Writers Guild
So I always viewed 'Point Break' as basically this:
My reaction being: "Oh, fuck off Grandpa."
The upside is it's a true relic of 90's 'extreme' corporate marketing: they know
something is happening with the kids, but had no idea
what.
Of course, a few months later, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" drops, and they've missed to boat on what the kids are actually into.
REM making fun of this sort of corporate and media cluelessness in 1994:
The Simpsons, in 1997, having the ultimate word on it, with Poochie D, the rapping dog:
He looks familiar.
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For Hollywood to take a cheap scotch and seafood explosive shit all over our fondest memories is an act of war of sorts.
Dude, it's
Point Break. I spent the first half of the 90's hearing sociology and film lecturers use the fact it was made by a woman as evidence that it was the Ultimate Gay Subtext Film.
A quick search later, here's the kind of thing I mean from 2008, titled "What Makes A Gay Classic?"
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The ultimate gay subtext film is Point Break, in which Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze conduct a full-blown mutual love affair right before our eyes. After the initial coup de foudre they (a) chase each other up and down the beach during a midnight soccer game, (b) trade body-conscious stares after Patrick saves Keanu from being beaten up in the shower, © skydive entwined around each other, twice, (d) repeatedly refrain from exposing each other's secret identities and (e) wind up fighting in the sea while handcuffed to each other. Lori Petty's also around, but she doesn't do anything*. The final scene is a moving elegy to the central romance: Keanu uncuffs free-spirited bank robber Patrick and lets him kill himself by surfing in dangerous weather, rather than taking the glory of locking him up humiliatingly in prison. Thus he vindicates the romantic adage: "If you love him, let him go."
Anything is an improvement.
I wouldn't stress about this: Hollywood is simply cynically-overlaying what they now think is currently hip and edgy with the kids, and a year from now you'll see just how off the mark - as always - they were.
* Lori Petty today: