The Endless Summer - DVD

Film: The mother of all surfing documentaries finally arrives in digitally remastered form on DVD. Bruce Brown's 1966 The Endless Summer not only captures the surfer culture of the '60s in images that were magnificent by the standards of the time, his film is also an entertaining testament to the attitude toward life of an entire generation. The documentary focuses on two surfers, Mike Hynson and Robert August. As the summer of 1963 in California slowly draws to a close, the two men have an idea: they want to travel after the summer and discover exciting surf spots all over the world. Accompanied by Bruce Brown and equipped with a high-quality emergency kit consisting of a sticking plaster, Hynson and August first make their way to Africa, where they have exciting and also unexpected experiences in Dakar, Nigeria, Cape Town or Durban, before continuing on to Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti.

The surfing often takes place in places where no surfboard has ever been launched before. People usually react curiously and enthusiastically to the surfers and everywhere one thing is clearly in the foreground: fun! Just like surfing itself, the film is primarily meant to be fun and spread a lot of joie de vivre. And Bruce Brown succeeds wonderfully. Sometimes in a very explicit way, for example when the two US boys slip off the surfboard at the sight of an attractive Australian woman in a skimpy bikini, or when he has a couple of sleeping lions comment on the men's enthusiasm with the words Big Deal. In addition to such obvious gags, the film also exudes a great deal of joie de vivre on a more subliminal level, a kind of naive innocence and enthusiasm that simply wouldn't be possible today.

Somewhat unusual from today's point of view is that Brown completely dispenses with original sounds, and instead of ocean noise and the voices of the participations, the only sounds are music and Brown's often ironic off-camera commentary. This takes some getting used to at first, but when Brown tells you that as a surfer you first have to find out if there are nasty fish in the water, or when he affectionately refers to a green bikini top as a breastplate, you quickly become infected by his easy-going, relaxed manner. It's not so much about the depth of the content, but about conveying the surfer's attitude to life in an authentic, relaxed way, with a lot of self-irony and sometimes quite black humour. And it is precisely in this way that the film still manages perfectly to make the summer endless almost half a century after it was made - at least for the 90 minutes that the film runs. A classic that can be recommended not only, but of course especially to all surf enthusiasts!

Picture + Sound: That the documentary was shot almost fifty years ago is of course still noticeable in the technical realization despite digital reworking. But even if there are blurs and minor dirt here and there, the picture looks more than convincing with its rich colors and decent overall sharpness. The audio, which is only in the original English (with optional German subtitles), is primarily dominated by the music and Brown's off-camera commentary. As such, don't expect any great surround effects here from the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, such as ocean surf or similar ambient sounds. Good!

Extras: As a bonus, the DVD has a very nice documentary to offer (about 40 min.), which offers not only a good review of the making of the film, but of the entire career of Bruce Brown and also offers some nice insights into the life of the documentary filmmaker. The documentary is joined by a shorter featurette (approx. 6 min.), in which the viewer is offered a look at the film The Endless Summer Revisited, in which Dana Brown examined the impact of his father's film on surfer culture. Other programming tips from the provider round out the bonus package. Good!

Conclusion: The Endless Summer is a very amusing documentary that has permanently revolutionized the surfing documentary subgenre. With beautiful pictures and partly very humorous comments, the cult documentary revives a time in which surfing has been a symbol of an attitude to life, which today has been almost completely displaced by commercialism, performance and success pressure. The new edition of the DVD presents the classic in a digitally reworked form and also has bonus material worth seeing. For passionate surf fans and lovers of entertaining sports and travel documentaries absolutely recommended!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp