di Erika Scafuro
Whatever your surfing level, Point Break maintains its supremacy as a cult movie for surfing, despite 30 years having passed since its release.
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, with exceptional stars, such as the actors Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves, Point Break is a thriller in which the real protagonist is the surfing.
Keanu Reeves plays the role of Johnny Utah an FBI agent who infiltrates a California surfing community to track down a group of bank robbers wearing masks of former U.S. presidents. They are used to attack banks to pay for their entertainment and when FBI starts to get a number of details as traces of sand and surf wax and that robberies take place from June to October, suspicion falls on a group of surfers.
It is among the waves of Latigo Beach, California, that Johnny Utah will meet the magnetic leader Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) and the ocean will bind them so deeply that Johnny Utah will struggle to choose which side to be on.
Watching the movie again, we took note of the 4 things we learn from Point Break:
1) Bodhi, as a true surfer, wants to share the spirit of surfing, the real essence. Surfing changes your life if you know how to listen to what it causes in your mind. Many dialogues between Bodhi and Johnny Utah gravitate around the philosophical concept of surfing, of seizing the present moment of the wave and letting oneself go to this uncontainable joy.
2) In the movie an epic storm that cyclically occurs is expected: Bodhi then plans to face the legendary waves of Bells Beach in Australia. This kind of events reminds man how powerless we are in the face of nature’s greatness.
3) The value of the group and its integration. In the beginning, as with Johnny Utah, it’s not easy to integrate yourself into a tight-knit community of surfers, but once you are part of the group, the friendship, the sharing of priceless moments in the ocean is something that binds you forever.
4) The concept of freedom. Obviously exaggerated in the movie, but a surfer knows the true meaning of this word. When the waves come, it doesn’t matter what you’re doing, you take your board and run to ride them.
