Ride the Wild Surf

Holy cow that was a good movie! I always wondered what would happen if they took all the singing out of the beach party movies - since the singing always irked me the most. The result, it turns out, is more realism, drama, and adventure at the expense of comedy. Ride the Wild Surf basically replaced all the musical numbers of the Funicello-Avalon flicks with actual real-life North Shore surf footage. You'd think that would be all pro and no con - like trading in garbage for steak - but for me the jury is still out. The question is: is it possible to have a thrill-centric surf movie that is light-hearted and funny without the musicals? Or is the musical part more than a mere accident to the comedy? It's true that Ride the Wild Surf seemed purposeful in its aim for depth and psychological realism...but, on the other hand, there were decidedly fewer beach PARTIES taking up the screen, which had inevitable consequences.

So the comedy was missing, but I nevertheless enjoyed that movie a whole lot. Not least because there was no singing. But also because of the spectacular big wave surfing. I couldn't believe it, it was all done on longboards. I also liked the fact that the teenagers interacted with each other like real people, and not the 12-year-old types we usually get in the Funicello-Avalon classics.