Big Wednesday (1978)

Undescribable Perfection

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The lives of some California surfers from the early '60s to the '70s.Who should have been cast: Jan-Michael Vincent or Jeff Bridges? Well, in retrospect, Bridges might have drawn more acclaim to this picture. But Vincent nails the role, and although not as big of a name, he was the man for the job.John Milius is known for his conservative, manly films. This does not really mesh with the idea of the surfer, at least until you see this film. Then you understand that the surfer - to Milius - is a libertarian at heart, fighting against the "lifeguard state".The film features great music, great fights, and a nice cameo from a then-unknown Robert Englund. And heck, this is Gary Busey in his prime.Interestingly, because the film takes place during the Vietnam War, this acts like something as a counterpoint to "Apocalypse Now", another Milius film. What message are we to get from the two combined?

Many other viewers have said how much they loved this movie. I don't have the words it seems. I can say I agree. I have several favorite movies, this is another. How could I have never seen the movie? It was made in 1978 but the action is the mid sixties till the later seventies. I was a surfer in the mid sixties. I love surfer movies, OK, this is more of a growing up movie but it's about surfers. Well I wanted to pass along the one thing that caught me about watching this movie. Not all of the rides are the best rides of all time. Some are pretty good but the surfing is more good surfer as opposed to champion surfing. It's real. And another thing, the boards, those are the long boards we used in the sixties and the seventies. Just great. Walking the Board and Hanging Five were the Cat's Meow. They hit it big time on the nail head with Big Wednesday.

I first saw this when it came out. As a surfer, I looked forward to it, and was disappointed. I just watched it today on Netflix and was even more disappointed! The unbelievable house party scene was probably what really highlighted how Hollywood fantasizes too much about how they think either the world is, was, or should be. It was kind of funny to see Gary Bussey play essentially himself in this movie, after rewinding in my head the news stories of the past 30 years about him. The Endless Summer movies still are the best at depicting what surfing is about, despite the many corny scenes thrown into them. The attempts of Big Wednesday to depict teens maturing into adults just fell flat. I wish I hadn't wasted another 2 hours watching this movie again.

Big Wednesday has major weaknesses as a coming of age film which are made up for by some excellent surfing scenes, particularly towards the end. The plot, or whatever passes for a plot is trite and contrived - quite direction-less. Ideas and coming of age memories of the script writers seem to have been banded together with poor sense of characterization. The idea of showing a character aging by having a ridiculous mustache doesn't show a lot of maturity.However, surfing is at the soul of this film. The last 20 minutes are so good that even those not familiar with the sport would be intrigued. I can understand this being a cult favorite for surfers. The Vietnam drafting section was also something I hadn't seen in a film before and I found it educational.