Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Overlooked Movies: The Endless Summer

This is another one that's really not overlooked.  I'm only mentioning it because there's a story behind my seeing it.

Once upon a time, long ago, in a town called Austin, Judy and I were a couple of young whippersnappers.  I'd read about this movie and wanted to see it.  We lived near the campus of The University of Texas, where I was a grad student and where Judy worked in the Computations Center.  The movie was showing in a new theater in what we thought of as far south Austin on a street called Ben White Boulevard.  We had no idea where that even was.  We had to get out a city map (in those ancient days, maps were on fiendlishly folded paper; they were easy to unfold but not so easy to refold).  We located the theater and planned our trip as if we were going to another planet.

We found the theater in a little shopping mall and saw the film.  I loved the idea of the movie, that if you had enough money, you could travel around the world and follow the summer.  That way the summer would never end.  I thought the movie was beautifully shot and some of the surfing sequences were really exciting.  Judy, on the other hand, hated the movie and was bored stiff.  She referred to it as "the endless movie."  If you mention it to her now, she'd probably say the same thing.  One thing's for sure, though.  She's never forgotten it.  I'm not sure if she's ever forgiven me for taking her to see it.

Now, Ben White Boulevard is a major highway.  The theater closed long ago.  The last time I checked, it was a place where people could go and play laser tag.  


6 comments:

Todd Mason said...

Perhaps it's time for you two to finally settle this ENDLESS score...

Even though I have been a body surfer (even before moving to Hawaii, one of the reasons I looked forward to moving there), I was disappointed when I finally caught up with this film...but I'd seen its children in the interim...and there's something about board surfing, as, say, BLUE CRUSH also demonstrated, that helps bring out the goof in filmmakers.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I have never seen this for reasons similar to Judy's I am sure. In January though I will go to California and sit on a beach and watch the surfers for hours. Something about seeing it in person changes everything.

James Reasoner said...

I remember liking it a lot, the one time I saw it.

Anonymous said...

Isn't Texas living the "endless summer" these days? I saw it a long long time ago and liked it.


Jeff

Rick Robinson said...

I saw this at a premiere showing at Laguna Beach High School when Bruce Brown brought it to show. He lived nearby. Very cool, I wouldn't mind seeing the film again. I think it was the first big surf film.

Mark Troy said...

I loved the film when I saw it. It really fired up my imagination. Follow the summer around the world. I gave my kids the dvd when they were old enough to appreciate it.