By Brendan Nagle
For this video I decided to use a more poetic style to focus on one component taken from my broader written essay, the queer space of the ocean, and the way the film eroticizes water.
Excerpt from essay:
Describing its phallic penetration and sensuality, April Wolfe, in a Rolling Stone retrospective of the film, writes: “there is, arguably, no sport that is more overtly sexual than surfing” (np). Certainly this film leans into that sensuality; rarely, if ever, has the art of surfing been captured with the elegance––and eroticism––of Bigelow and DP Donald Peterman. Much can be made of the way Johnny gapes at Bodhi as he watches him surf for the first time (this is further eroticized by a shot where Bodhi’s penetrating of a barrel wave might be described as “making love to the ocean” (Wolfe, np)), and further the game of football they play on the beach shortly after being introduced. Inexplicably (on the surface) desperate to take him down, Johnny plows through a near endless horde of muscular surfers, chasing Bodhi far beyond the bounds of the game, and finally tackling him into the ocean. This brings our attention to one potential queer reading of the film (there are many), which sees Bodhi, and by extension surfing, as representing the tantalizing world of homosexuality, seducing Johnny despite his resistance. In an early scene Johnny uses an FBI database to find information on Tyler (Lori Petty), a local surfer and his heterosexual love interest. (She will be discussed in greater depth later.) Learning that her parents are both dead, and attempting to force a connection with her, he lies, telling her that he, too, lost his parents. He gives Tyler a speech about how his whole life he has done what his parents wanted him to do (including pursuing football, and law school, two things we know Johnny did, indeed, do) and now that they are gone, he feels like he has not lived his own life. So he has come from Ohio to the coast, and finds himself drawn to the ocean, and to surfing. We understand that Johnny is trying to manipulate Tyler into helping him, and we know for a fact that he made up the death of his parents. Watching the film without the knowledge of what comes after might further lead us to presume that this entire monologue is false as well––and likely, in Johnny’s mind, at this point, it is. But in fact, whether he realizes it or not, this moment holds a lot more truth than it initially suggests. Johnny's attraction to Bodhi and the surfing lifestyle suggest that the FBI, law school, college football, etc, may not be the life he truly desires to live. We know nothing definitive about his parents (except that they are alive), and we cannot say for sure that they did indeed influence Johnny’s life path in such a way, but it is certainly more than likely that Johnny’s “lie” is based at least in a modicum of truth. This scene indicates Johnny’s uncertainty of his status within the world of the FBI (which in this reading we understand to be representative of heterosexuality/heteronormativity, the enforcers of law, i.e. convention, in opposition to the free-spirited, criminals, i.e. queer, surfers), and a feeling of being drawn, a desire toward the transgressions of Bodhi and his crew. Crucial to this understanding of Bodhi’s lifestyle is the orgasmic delight that Johnny experiences as he learns to surf, and similarly as he accompanies Bodhi on more adrenaline-chasing expeditions, like skydiving.
full essay: letterboxd.com/bnagle17/film/point-break/3/