Movie Review: Big Wednesday (1978)

A story of friendship among a group of surfers, Big Wednesday carries natural appeal to surfing fans, but is less successful in capturing coming-of-age dynamics.

Starting in the early 1960s, the lives of three California surfer friends intertwine. Matt Johnson (Jan-Michael Vincent) is the most talented, but drinks heavily. Leroy "The Masochist" Smith (Gary Busey) is the wild one, while Jack Barlow (William Katt) is the steadiest. Life consists of surfing, partying, and trips to Mexico, and all the surfers in this community look up to Bear (Sam Melville), a surfboard designer and permanent fixture on the pier. 

Jack finds a girlfriend in Sally (Patti D'Arbanville), while Matt's girlfriend Peggy (Lee Purcell) announces an unexpected pregnancy. As the years pass Matt and Peggy stay together and raise their daughter, but he struggles with his drinking and fading legacy. The guys try to finagle a way to avoid the military draft by faking various physical and mental conditions, except for Jack, who willingly signs up and serves in Vietnam. The lives of the friends drift apart, but just as Bear predicted, an epic day of huge waves in the early 1970s has the potential to bring them back together.

If Big Wednesday was as profound as it wanted to be, it may have been excellent. Unfortunately, the film's opening 30 minutes reduces male friendship to brawling together, limiting the depth of meaningful brotherhood. The first act reveals director and co-writer John Milius' love of surfing (the film is semi-autobiographical), but stumbles on a foodfight and two back-to-back fistfights, one on each side of the US/Mexico border. Little beyond the obvious is ever revealed about Matt, Leroy, and Jack, the dialogue is often obscured by the sound of roaring waves or speeding traffic, and an unidentified narrator drowns in platitudinal waves.

The second and third acts are better but still disjointed. The draft-dodging sequence showcases ingenuity and is funny, but seems to drop in from another movie. Once the trio is separated, Milius starts to find some eloquent tones. Nostalgia and a pining for the old days kick-in, and an effective Jan-Michael Vincent takes over at the heart of the story. The finale is epic in both emotion and wave size, cinematographer Bruce Surtees along with a special water unit and stunt doubles capturing magnificent surfing action.

Bear experiences his own dryland success and failure, and provides good mystical glue connecting the past, present, and future through omnipresence, prophetic prose, and the one-of-a-kind board for the day-that-shall-come. Big Wednesday rides the waves, and finds as many bombs as wipeouts.

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Movie Review: Carrie (1976)

A chilling horror film that is both a psychological and physical terror ride, Carrie combines the worst nightmares of any young girl: awkward puberty, bullying by the meanest of classmates, parental religious terrorism, and prom night turning into torment. That Carrie White discovers a way to extract a brutal revenge on all who abuse her through telekinesis just makes Brian De Palma's task of creating a frightfest so much more fun.

Based on the Stephen King novel, the movie opens with withdrawn and friendless high schooler Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) discovering her first period in the gym shower, and being traumatized when her mean classmates, including Chris (Nancy Allen) and Sue (Amy Irving) throw tampons at her. As the gym teacher Miss Collins (Betty Buckley) tries to make amends and help Carrie out of her shell, Carrie begins to discover that she has the telekinetic power to physically move objects through mind control. Carrie's real problem is her uncompromisingly stern mother Margaret (Piper Laurie), a sexually repressed religious zealot who abuses her daughter.

Sue feels some regret at the mistreatment of Carrie, and to make amends, convinces her popular boyfriend Tommy (William Katt) to ask Carrie out to the prom. But Chris is much more intent to continue the bullying, and plots with her boyfriend Billy (John Travolta) a most humiliating climax to Carrie's prom night. Carrie enjoys most of her evening with Tommy, the one and only successful social event in her life, but when Chris turns the prom from dream to nightmare, Carrie unleashes her telekinetic power to extract a most violent revenge.

Sissy Spacek was 26 years old when she portrayed high school student Carrie White, and her performance is unforgettably disturbing. Acting with haunted eyes, a frail physique, and long, uncared-for hair, Spacek's sheer presence foretells disturbing obscurity and impending doom in equal measures. Spacek is matched by an unhinged, over-the-top performance from Piper Laurie as Carrie's mother Margaret, a religious fundamentalist who embraces all the most twisted interpretations of sin and guilt associated with sexuality and dumps them on her daughter. The scenes of Margaret terrorizing Carrie with her religious dogma are more disturbing than all the blood that De Palma throws onto the screen.

And De Palma is the third star of the movie, using slow motion, camera rotation, and point-of-view shots to great effect. He boosts the impact of the horror sequences by juxtaposing them with tranquil scenes, or by deliciously prolonging the set-up prior to unleashing the inevitable shocks.

Carrie's secondary characters are brought to life by a lively group of actors, many of whom achieved varying degrees of fame. This was John Travolta's last film prior to shooting into superstardom with Saturday Night Fever, while Nancy Allen, Amy Irving , P.J. Soles and William Katt would go to on build modestly interesting movie profiles. Betty Buckley had an excellent stage, screen and television career, and Priscilla Pointer (Irving's real-life mother) was most famous for a role on TV's Dallas.

Many hidden meanings can be layered into Carrie's story, from her entire experience being a metaphor for the sacrifices of womanhood, to the societal damage caused by religious extremism and the equating of sexuality with sin. The hints of subtext bubbling below the surface provide an added edge of enjoyment to the unfolding tragedy.

Carrie is a classic horror film, compact, on-target, unsettling and unforgettable.

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