Drifting Breathless
The following article was written by blindboy:
For a long time I avoided representations of surfing in the wider culture. I did, once, watch Big Wednesday but that was about it. I'm not going to attempt to justify this or explain why, though I'm guessing some of you will understand anyway. Nor will I try to explain why, this year, I changed that policy. I'm human, therefore I'm fickle. Enough said.
In fairly quick succession then I read Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice, Tim Winton's Breath and watched the movie Drift. Thinking about the writers first, Thomas Pynchon is a major literary heavyweight and has been a significant influence on several generations of younger writers including the likes of David Foster Wallace, while Tim Winton is the most successful Australian author of literary fiction. Whatever these two write will be widely read and studied, both now and into the future. When the last fifty years of surfing magazines are stacked in the attic and all the current web sites exist only in some, almost impossible to access, digital archive, it is likely that these books will still be read.
The cover illustration of Inherent Vice suggests something of what we can expect. It shows an old fashioned woody with a stack of surfboards on top. Anything more than a casual glance reveals that the boards, while they resemble thrusters, have the single fin set in front of the rail fins. The immediate reaction is "How the fuck could they get through the whole publishing process without someone picking that up?" But the question won't go away and, before long the possibility that it is deliberate starts to seem more likely. After all, Pynchon deals in alternative realities, worlds just screwed off enough from our own to echo and mock it.
This is Pynchon at his most playful. The scene is Southern California in that brief sixties moment when surfing was dominated by psychedelic imagery and pseudo mystical mutterings. So, while he has glanced at some recent surfing magazines, at least enough to know of the existence of the Cortes Bank, his take on surfing is somewhere out there beyond Timothy Leary, looking for lost continents and magical waves. This is a fantasy based on a brief, historical moment that always existed more in the imaginations of creative types than amongst those actually doing the surfing. And here it is, preserved as literature, slightly out of focus and more than slightly distorted, but how else could it be?
If Pynchon is playful, Winton is not. He is a great story teller with a deceptively simple style but in this case the story he chooses to tell is dark and disturbing. Its portrayal of surfing is elegant, the characters are rounded and it is so cleverly constructed with such strong, well developed themes that it demands serious consideration. Yet given the necessary thought what emerged for me was the notion of victimhood.
It tells of the life of a man distorted by the events of his adolescence. We hear of the adolescent and the middle aged man but, ultimately, not how one became the other. How was it that these events which another, more resilient character might easily have put behind them, came to distort a whole life? The role of surfing in this is to introduce the boy to risk taking behaviour and so, presumably, to make him more susceptible to the behaviour that ultimately damages him.
Of course Winton writes a great wave and for that alone I suppose we should be grateful since, with no disrespect to generations of surf journos, someone needed to do it at that high literary level. It is interesting that in Winton's novel, Sando, the guru type character, is running away from publicity and the business of surfing while in Drift, set at around the same time in a nearby location, the main characters are desperate to establish themselves in that same business. In many ways that difference establishes their points of view. Breath is written from a perspective totally outside the surfing culture of the time, Drift is absolutely embedded in it and, for those who didn't have the experience, it is as good an insight as you are likely to get.
It also happens to be a fine movie. Unlike Breath, it makes no pretence to navigate the depths of the human psyche but instead it adroitly picks its way through the minefield of caricature and cliche which bring so many movies of this type undone. It also manages to capture much more of the genuine feeling of riding a wave than might have been expected as well as the passion which characterised the era. At the showing I saw the audience gave it a round of applause, so while it probably won't take out the Palme d'Or, it is well worth seeing.
Despite the obvious differences, the vision of surfing offered by all three shares some significant features. All are set in the late sixties or early seventies and all, in their different ways, are deeply romantic. In many ways the vision of surfing in Breath is the most romantic of all: the figure of Sando, fleeing the acclaim his surfing attracts to hide out in the bush, Pikelet surfing giant waves at Old Smokey alone, the whole notion of surfing as an initiation rite. Pynchon might be thought to go even further with the surfing as a mystic experience but the element of absurdity undercuts the romance. Drift while having its own version of Sando, never falls for the surfing as transformative experience cliche. It balances its romanticism with the tougher aspects of both surf culture itself and the wider culture it was embedded in.
In the end though the questions have to be asked. Why then? What is it about that period of surfing history that draws so much attention? Why all this romanticisation of what, these days, is a far from novel experience? Surfing is too trivial a subject of itself, to support serious artistic intent, but it is a potentially rich setting that no-one yet has fully exploited. The romantic view of surfing is something that was imposed largely from the outside and then seized on as a powerful marketing tool. By way of contrast David Foster Wallace's masterpiece Infinite Jest is set in a tennis school and hasn't a single romantic syllable. It bites so hard because, for all its Pynchonesque tricks, it is unrelentingly real. If only he had been a surfer! //blindboy
Comments
What about Kem Nunn? Three very good books with surfing central to the plots. Lots of other stuff going on too drug running, heaps of violence etc. With big wave surfing and searching for new spots so in vogue his book The Dogs of Winter [search for mysto secret spot, find it , piss off very bad locals, shit goes down] would be a cracking movie.
A few thoughts: Surfing is something that, for the greater part, doesn't sit well within classic Hollywood-style story telling. For the large majority of surfers there are no big wave finales, no showdowns, no warrior's journey, there are just surfers getting on with humdrum lives and escaping for the odd surf every now and again. As surf writer, Matt Warshaw, once said, "Surfing is like a parasite that attaches itself to a host." Try fitting that into a traditional narrative arc.
For that reason I admire films such as 'Drift', and even the earlier 'Caught Inside', for seeking out story lines within surfing as there aren't many of them. I also wonder just how many non-surfers who saw 'Drift' twigged to the poignancy and factual nature of the themes. The nascent surf industry was unique in that surfing was easily dismissed by serious business people, it also featured contradictory dispositions: 'soul' vs capitalism. The filmmakers tried to capture that while also making a movie that appealed to a mainstream audience. Not an easy task.
Thanks for the suggestion scotth. I will get around to Kem Nunn and (thanks stu!) I should probably get Caught Inside on DVD too.
Coincidence! I just read a short article in The Surfers Journal on the reviews given to recent Hollywood surf film 'Chasing Mavericks'. The author, Kyle DeNuccio, rails against the damning criticism of the film, his thesis being that the vast majority of films - on any subject, not just surfing - flop. Therefore there's no reason why surfing can't, at some stage, be given the good celluloid treatment.
"To say that surfing," DeNuccio writes, "is the problem is akin to claiming that movies on higher math or driving around in a taxi, too, can't be great films due to their lack of a hook. Yet Good Will Hunting and Taxi Driver are perfectly great films, critically speaking."
It seems to me that any time surfing is introduced into a film it's for a reason. It's supposed to say something about a character. They're sporty, adventurous, risk taking, drug taking etc etc. Surfing can never seem to be some neutral pastime in the way that, say, taxi driving is for Robert de Niro.
Maybe when surfing becomes more popular and humdrum the public might have less expectation about surfing and we'll see more realistic interpretations.
I agree with Stunet that surfing in films is nearly always loaded. Introduce a surfer and the filmmakers are introducing danger or risk-taking or whatever stereotype fits. How many surfers really fit the stereotype? No wonder Hollywood hasn't made a good surf film yet, they haven't got a clue just how mundane surfing and surfers can be.
I don't know stu, it's not that surfing needs to become completely neutral so much as it needs to be more than the usual stereotypes. There are so many aspects of surfing that never seem to be represented but are just as integral to it. Did anyone ever get to surf well without some long apprenticeship in ordinary waves? Well maybe a few Hawaiians but the great majority of surfers have done hard yards. Similarly with the sheer physical effort of surfing many hours a day, day after day. There is a magic in the mundane. Joyce and Proust proved this over a hundred years ago in literature. I'm not a great movie goer but I am sure there are parallels there too.
Great article! It frustrates me that so much of the surf literature that comes out is nostalgic in tone. How many times do we need to hear about brooding outsiders chasing big waves in the golden era of the 1970s. What has that got to do with surfing today? That said, have you read Malcolm Knox's The Life? Now that's an awesome book.
Thanks Daniel I will check it out.
Does it matter if filmakers get surfing wrong in books and film? It's hardly surfing's fault, but the fault of the makers. I've never seen a good film about Aussie rules or cricket either.
Cricket: 'Beyond a Boundary' by CLR James and anything by Gideon Haigh.
Aussie Rules: 'The Club' by David Williamson.
I can't think of anything involving League or Union.
One of the more difficult issues for anyone writing or making a movie about high profile team sports is the competition with reality. There's a new story in the headlines everyday. Surfing at least avoids that problem.
I really enjoyed Drift too, for lots of the same reasons as blindboy.
I don't think it matters if the film-makers get the specifics wrong - they're not making a doco, nor trying to reveal the historical 'truth'. instead they're trying to tell a story or evoke a feeling. I didn't really like Breath, because I hate how Winton wrote the women in it (of course), so it's hard for me to find a point of connection within the story. It's the same in many surf films about the past. It's always refreshing when you see, hear or read a story that takes a different approach to how it tells the surfing past.
Nostalgia can be tough to leave behind though, huh. Especially when the agendas of so many of the established and powerful voices from surfing's cultural past depend on it!
Another great article Blindboy. Love your work. Just my thought on the question you raise at the end (forgive my horrible spelling as I'm just a Dutch immigrant stealing your waves and jobs and have no clue what cricket is about).
IMHO it's not only the surfing culture from that late 60-early 70 period that's been idealized. It's the whole of cultural and political configuration from that era that's been idealized by writers, film makers and today's youth on retro boards (don't forget the Sailor Jerry like tattoos) driving their Volkswagon vans along the Great Ocean Road while listening to the Stones, joking about smoking a spliff. The endless re-interpretation of this era is a great vehicle for projecting lsd kind of adventures that never happened in the first place, but people would have liked to happen (most likely in their won life). Surfing offers easy access for the imagination to work with things like being free, drifting, wondering, connecting with the earth etc (try selling that to the the guys in the line up of my local...) Many of those kids driving the VW Vans on the GOR don't even surf, they're comfortable in their projection of what surfing is about. Side note on the connecting with the earth: didn't you guys enjoy that moment in the movie Morning of the Earth where I believe it's Fitzgerald shaping a board outside... yeah for the environment!
I was reading this article about the first surfers moving to Byron Bay area. What dawned on me was that these guys had to put a fair bit of effort in to making a living. In a movie we would chop those moments up in a 2 minute montage which ends with guys looking over the bay drinking a Corona (a nice anachronism to confirm we believe our own shit and product placement off course). The reality is that many of these guys didn't make it through that "montage" and now live in suburbs lying awake at night because of their mortgage or third divorce.
Not a nice story to sell, ey. To sum it up: idealization is escaping reality. And what better way to do that then by imagining getting barreled riding a single fin all by your self.
Gotta stop eating those weird tasting cookies my mate gave me...
You gotta read Kem Nunn's 'dogs of winter'!
... I'd be lying if that book wasn't my inspiration for my move to Tassie last year. Just don't tell my wife ;)
rebecca I was tempted to go into the portrayal of Eva and the way she was portrayed as sexually manipulative but there was a whole other article in that. I can recognise Winton's ability and appreciate a lot of what he wrote but, on quite a few levels, I didn't really like the book. I actually looked up a lot of reviews of it as I was writing and I was surprised that no-one called him out on his portrayal of her.
nebasha, those of us who were actually there tend to have a less idealised view of those times. If you had long hair you were a target not only for yobbos but often for the police as well. There were no warnings for possession of pot either. It was serious stuff, ask Maurice Cole! By way of compensation surfers had higher status in youth culture than they have ever had since.....and there were a lot of uncrowded waves to be had! Oh and I could be wrong but I think it was David "baddy" Treloar who was shaping the board. He could never live up to that nickname, he was always a really nice guy.
And that gap between reality of those days and the idealization if those days is what sells. Thanks for putting the right name to the Mornign of the Earth scene. Can't keep those blokes apart as they look like long haired thugs ;)
Thugs? We were all nice people. It was those highly respected footballers who were the thugs! But yes, there seems to be a dollar in romanticising that era at the moment.
An interesting conversation I thought I'd get amongst, have a quick paddle, snag a couple. Anyways, straight off gotta say I'm well acquainted with all the artefacts discussed here...engaged with some more than others (not a Pynchon fan...though Foster Wallace, I like...vagaries. As for DRIFT, hmmmm...)
I think some Hemingway could come in handy here as a jumping-off point so to speak, for further enquiry. If considered that, in the Western Lit canon, DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON has been a sort of 'how to' guide for existential investigations into sport-art, I put it out there, how many bullfighters would have been uneasy about ol' Papa's interpretations of and musings on their pursuit? Or on a different but similar tack, how boxers may think of Mailer's THE FIGHT? & I'm here probably only referring to the nuts n bolts stuff the insider/participant/grunt would/could know?
I know this is a SURFING forum by surfers etc etc...know the feeling?... but really, will any work ABOUT surfing ever measure up in that department?
TAXI DRIVER ain't about taxi driving...BEAU TRAVAIL ain't about the particulars of the French Foreign Legion. BREATH isn't about surfing in and of itself. DRIFT is another kettle of lime-scale altogether, as is film generally, and Australian film in particular (Economic reasons to the fore). It has a red-hot go at being all things to all (surfing/non-surfing) people...the approach practical/historical/mystical/philosophical/dramatical...all ABOUT surfing...and fails...for all audiences.
I believe PUBERTY BLUES may be the great Australian surfing film narrative for surfer/non-surfer alike...it works in the departments it maps out!
Wow, like the Big Lebowski's narrator (or Frank Costanza) I've kinda lost my train of thought here...happy festivus!
estuspirkle, you are kidding about Puberty Blues aren't you?
I think Puberty Blues is a good film and paints a fairly faithful picture of surfers during that era. Don't know about 'great'.
Estuspirkle: That a Pettibon piece in your avatar?
Hmmm was there a remake somewhere along the line are or we talking the original?
I think there may have been a television remake - maybe? But I'm talking the original film, produced by Bruce Beresford from the book by Kathy Lette and her friend (can't remember her name) that was written when they were teenagers. It doesn't have great surfing action but, like I said, it's a fairly accurate portrayal of the times, including the misogyny in the culture.
Mark Occhilupo is even in it! He was walking along the beach as a mini grom and yelled out "Chicks can't surf!" at the actors and Beresford got him to repeat the line in front of the camera. An authentic piece of sexism, by a future surf star no less, was written into the film
Puberty Blues is great. (Written by Kathy Lette and Gabriel Carey, Stu.)
It's great because it actually says something other than surfing is fun and wonderful. It makes that point, but it talks about all the other shit that goes on around it, for young people in particular. Sure, this stuff happens in lots of subcultures (SLSC anyone? League?), but we don't like to talk about it much.
The remake is where the nostalgia kicked in. I stopped watching it after a couple of episodes. it fell into all those romantic and nostalgic cliches that are talked about above. I guess it was made by a Free To Air TV channel though.
Blindboy, I'm not kidding...I am referring to the original film as Stunet explains...not the soap opera. It's a social-realist snapshot of a culture in time filtered through a feminist lens. It does what it says on the tin. It definitely isn't 'great' film art but in the Australian surfing context I believe it is successful. Keeping things Aussie, it is reminiscent of another cultural time-piece, FJ HOLDEN. Though, with it's weird Bresson-ian bits n bobs, I think this film transcends the time and place capsule.
(White) Australian culture, love it!
And yes, Stunet, that is a Pettibon piece...his art is my kind of (surf) cultural expression. Is the surf-noir of Nunn a kind of equivalency? Paddling in the same circles, perhaps, though not the same quality of expression for me...
Fair enough but it was focused on 15 year olds which made it hard to take seriously. At the time it came over as a bit of a joke, I mean who cared what the groms got up to? It's a long time ago so I might be under estimating them, but both the book and the film seemed slight and inconsequential. Yes it nailed misogyny amongst a "surfie gang" and perhaps that was supposed to illuminate the way that same misogyny penetrated right through the culture of the day but, if that was the intention, it was a stretch too far.
'Get me a Chiko roll and don't take any bites on the way back'.
I'll never forget that line. As a young fella I felt very sad when those blokes used the local bike in the back of the panel van. I really felt for that girl and at the time I wished I could reach in to the screen and just hug her.
Relevent soundtrack to mark the period too, Split Enz etc.
Definitely not a particularly great movie but I believe it marked a place in time where Australia was at culturally and in film-making.
'Get me a Chiko roll and don't take any bites on the way back'.
I'll never forget that line. As a young fella I felt very sad when those blokes used the local bike in the back of the panel van. I really felt for that girl and at the time I wished I could reach in to the screen and just hug her.
Relevent soundtrack to mark the period too, Split Enz etc.
Definitely not a particularly great movie but I believe it marked a place in time where Australia was at culturally and in film-making.
PS Blindboy, I enjoy your writing.
"Why then? What is it about that period of surfing history that draws so much attention?"
Simple answer - baby boomers.
.....and their children, which is the bit I don't get.
No decent surf, thought i'd join in.
looking forward to seeing drift for what it might offer !
SURFING
every person who lives the "lifestyle" has a story, (some probably interesting, some sad, some mundane)
The culture of today is what it is because of those times 60's - 70's etc
Those who chose to try and make a dollar from it (surfing lifestyle) are ultimately the cause.
- be it taking surfing into the supposed professional category (they can't deal with a call in regards to priority, that is so unprofessinal)
- The making of a dollar from the products that surfers required and desired (boardshorts are a fashion statement! really)
- And the literature articulate ability to attract a dollar, mag's & books (how many mag's are there! will we see more biographies? probably)
TIME has and is showing it is all an evolutionary process.
"there seems to be a dollar in romanticising that era at the moment"
"baby boomers"
"änd their children, which is the bit i don't get."
Blindboy
you had better get it blindboy, because that is your direction and choice.
A good book to ground yourself in is the 'Bible', has it all, your creator/God, Purpose, a connection to creation through literature that surpasses all the would be literature want to be's.
You grow in Patience, understand selfishness, and learn the meaning of Love, and learn how to Love. "do to others as you would have them do to you"
brathy has a top shelf bloggie!...
check it.
http://bybraithy.wordpress.com/
Agreed, well worth a read.
That blog is over a year old!
It was for a semester of creative writing at Uni ... But I didn't like the wordpress backend mechanics so I switched to old faithful blogger.
Hangabout! Did someone a few comments back call the Bible surf literature?
Guess it's all in the interpretation, eh?
Well Jesus was a surfer when he walked upon the sea, to misquote Time Square's favorite bard. And then there's that stunt Moses pulled parting the Red Sea I mean shit organising a perfect day at your local would have to be a piece of cake after that. Yep the bible is the go to text when it comes to surfing. Also handy if you need to sacrifice a goat or commit genocide on a nearby tribe!
Poor Jebus. Just because someone has something to do with the sea, doesn't mean they want to be called surfers. It's not always a compliment, you know.
I think Jesus invented the pigdog.
I think you'll find that was Juan Kempes...Jesus built my hot-rod.
Anyways, back to the surfie flicks.
Anyone seen SUMMER CITY (of late)? Howsabout BLACKROCK (great play, film...meh)? Surf films??
Newcastle?
"bible, surf literature"
God did create the earth/waves.
"organising a perfect day at your local"
that happens/and that feels good.
"just because someone has something to do with the sea, doesn't mean they want to be called sufers"
if only we could stop the people who want to make a dollar from surfing! then we might have less people who want to be called surfers.
"invented the pigdog"
probably someone who watched all the films like 'puberty blues'etc.
depravity is for those who are morally inept!
'Bible'= eternity, will there be waves?
no Jesus = no eternity with God = no waves.
there should be a wave today :)
Huh? Without Jesus there wouldn't be any waves?
Good waves :)
Glad you ask.
Jesus yes&no part of our triune God (father/son/spirit), effectively all are one.
God is the reason why we have waves!
all be it that they are/can be fickle.
this is a corrupted version of the original version, just imagine the coming recreated version?
I'm hoping waves are part of it, if not so be it!
Jesus is the reason and way of finding out.
The truth can hurt just like a good thrashing from a set.
cheers
A while back I mentioned a surf novel called The Life by Malcolm Knox. It's loosely based on the life of MP and seriously one of the best surf novels I've read (up there with Tim Winton and Kem Nunn's work, for sure). I ended up reviewing it for THE BIG ISSUE shortly after it was released in 2011. For anyone who is interested, here's the review:
Malcolm Knox’s The Life
The BIG Issue
I’ve been surfing for over twenty years and, in my opinion, most writers who take on the topic of surfing – especially literary writers – don’t quite get it right. Tim Winton’s Breath was the first Australian surf novel I’d read that nailed it. So when I heard there was a new surf novel coming out to rival Breath, I jumped at the opportunity to review it. Malcolm Knox’s brilliant fourth novel, The Life, zeroes-in on one of the most tumultuous periods of Australia’s near 100-year surfing history – the early 1970s. This was a time when surfing came of age in Australia; huge longboards were being cut down to smaller and more radical shapes, a profitable surf industry was starting to boom, and a new aggressive breed of surfer was emerging from the increasingly crowded urban environment.
Told from the point of view of Dennis Keith (DK), an ageing, overweight, obsessive-compulsive surfer, The Life recounts his rough upbringing and rise to fame on the Gold Coast, and the events surrounding his downfall. “DK sees himself as the first man of the new era,†says Knox, who has postponed going for a surf to make time for our interview. “He’s going to be the guy who takes advantage of it all, the guy who turns himself into a businessman and surfer, and leads the new wave. The tragedy of his story is that he’s not the first man of the new era; he’s the last man of the old era.â€
It’s a story as much about the denaturing effects of fame as it is about surfing. Written in riffing, looping surf-slang, Knox has created a compelling portrait of a creative genius obsessed with the power of his own myth. In his youth, DK’s unpredictable and aggressive approach to surfing quickly earns him cult-like respect at his local break. In the water, he is a god, articulating everything he needs to say in the lines he draws on a wave. On land, however, he is a dysfunctional misfit; his thoughts churning in relentless cycles, often fixating on the surf, the lack of surf, other surfers wasting waves and the whereabouts of his girlfriend. When DK opens his mouth to speak, the words tend to come out in jumbled contradictions, so for the most part he prefers to remain silent. And it’s around this silence (and the white noise in his head) that the myth of ‘DK the legend’ begins to grow. Knox cleverly manipulates the narrative to reflect DK’s growing self-obsession, so that DK, in his rambling thoughts, sometimes addresses himself as I, sometimes you, sometimes he. At the onset of fame, DK says to himself: “1969 … That year you became DK, you became he. DK stories in Tracks, in Surfer, in Surfing. Pictures, loads of pictures. You couldn’t take your eyes off DK.â€
In the years to come, DK becomes trapped in a room full of mirrors. And it’s only when fame turns on him and he tries to smash his way out, that much of the psychological damage is done. “Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face,†says Knox, quoting American writer John Updike.
When I ask Knox his opinion of Breath, he says he greatly admires Winton’s achievement. In writing The Life, however, he wanted to come at the surf novel from a completely different angle, not locking the reader outside, but burying the reader deep within the mind of his enigmatic protagonist. And this is the very thing that makes The Life work.
Some readers familiar with Australian surfing history will pick-up on similarities between Knox’s fictional Dennis Keith (DK) and underground Gold Coast legend Michael Peterson (MP) – the revered surfer who lost his career to drugs and mental illness, quit surfing and who, to this day, lives in an apartment with his mum on the Gold Coast. Knox acknowledges the similarities between his character and Peterson, but hastens to add that he didn’t want his character to be based on any one surfer. As such, he’s also drawn inspiration from other well-known surfers including Miki Dora, Eddy Aikau, Nat Young, Wayne “Rabbit†Bartholemew and Mark “Occy†Occhilupo. Mashing these characters together into DK, Knox has created a fictional repository for surfing folklore, the sum of which, in my opinion, proves to be greater than the parts. Knox’s real achievement though, is the language, the eccentric narrative voice of DK, which repeats itself like waves breaking in an ocean that can never quite be still.
So, I ask Knox, were any unusual research methods you used in writing the book? “I got to do a lot of surfing,†Knox replies with a mischievous chuckle – but also, I note, the hint of something else in his voice. After a moment I realise what it is: impatience. There’s so much more I want to talk to him about – DK’s relationship with folk/rock singer Lisa Exmire and the mystery surrounding her disappearance, and DK’s relationship with the young surf journalist, who has more than a feature article on the great legend in mind – but I don’t want to hold him back any longer. Waves are going to waste. I wish him a fun surf and wind up the call, wondering what the surf conditions are like on Sydney’s north shore, and hoping that I’m not missing out on anything.
- Daniel Ducrou
Author of THE BYRON JOURNALS
Excellent review Daniel. More than a surfing story I considered 'The Life' to be a parable about the destructive power of fame. Something you really honed in on in but also something surprisingly overlooked in many other reviews that concerned themselves with the surfing parallels.
Nick Carroll wrote a good piece about 'The Life' in the Australian Financial Review. Not so much a review as a serious enquiry about the line between fiction and non-fiction. I think Carroll felt Knox overstepped the mark in co-opting MP's story. Some may pass it off with the old adage 'there's no rules in fiction' but Carroll questioned where fiction stopped and real life documentary began. If you can get your hands on it it's worth a read.
Also, you aware of Knox' cricketing background? He writes for the Herald and has written a few books on cricket. Think D. K. Lillee might be one of his favourite cricketers?
I wondered if it was the same bloke as the cricket journo. Sounds like a great read. Cheers for posting the review.
Thanks benski. And thanks for the tip stunet; I'll chase up Nick Carroll's piece - sounds great. I interviewed Malcolm Knox at the Melbourne Writers' Festival a couple of years ago and he told a story about having MP's mum in the audience at another writers festival. He said he'd realised she was there halfway through the session and started absolutely shitting himself about what she might say or do... After the session, she came and told him that she'd really enjoyed the book.
Yep, an awesome article by Nick Carroll in the Financial Review. Contrary to what Knox told me (in my last post), Carroll's article finishes with MP's mum (Joan) saying she thought the book was 'crap'. People can be fickle though, so perhaps she told Knox one thing and Carroll another. Who knows. For those, who want to check out the Carroll's article (it's a great read), you can find it here:
http://www.afr.com/p/lifestyle/review/collision_of_myths_p1DALVcG7gQIg1k...
Hi Stu;
The idea behind the story for "Drift" started in 1998 when Tim Duffy [an eventual co-producer] sat down with Mark Zagar [eventual 2nd unit and helicopter camera operator] and myself [film nobody], to give some feedback on his idea about a coming of age/surfing film.
The corporate surf industry was, at that time, going through the roof. People were selling their wax or sunglasses companies to the big boys for millions, enabling them to fund a lifetime of travel and waves. The boom was on and it would be endless.
So we [mainly Tim] came up with the idea of two brothers growing up surfing with one pursuing the 'soul' path, the other the 'corporate' path, but both with the aim of pursuing their love of riding waves unfettered by the petty demands of ekeing out a living.
Of course, we drew on those brief formative years that we all have as surfers, and now being in our late 40's and just 50's, those years were our teens, ie the 70's.
We remembered those 'legendary' local characters who had "surfed Sunset" and "been to Indonesia" and drove battered Kombis, as an affordable and practical mode of transport rather than a fashion statement.
Thus the characters and basic plot were created from the rosy recall of our grommethood, and our then-current-day fantasies as 30 somethings working our arses off in our respective day jobs, dreaming as we all do of the big break that would allow us to surf and travel forever.
Most people don't realise how long it takes to get a film onto the screen. In the case of "Drift" it was about 15 years. Thus making a film about 'surfing today' is pretty well impossible, particularly on no budget.
That is why "Drift", and I suspect most surf films, are steeped in nostalgia. A combination of the age of the writer at the conception of the film, and the inertia of the film making process.
As an aside, I was out at "Shallows" [Yallingup] last summer, eavesdropping on a group of kids in their mid teens who were bemoaning how Dunsborough had "changed" over the last 5 years and "lost it's soul". Perhaps these kids will write a film one day harking back to the 'legendary late 2000's' and the South West as it "was". Can't wait to see it through my cataracts in 20 years time.
Cheers
Todd
..sorry, "Dear Blindboy";
Ha ha...yeah, I was just about to correct you. But while I'm here, thanks for taking the time to comment and say g'day to Myles if you see him around.
Fantastic insight.. thanks Todd.
Thanks Todd I take your point about film making.