Alex Moss EditorIt’s easy to overlook how important Kathryn Bigelow’s Point Break is in the action genre. It is a film that has been pastiched (Hot Fuzz), remade (2015’s forgettable cash-in) and overtly ripped-off (The Fast & The Furious simply swaps surfing for street racing but beat for beat it’s almost a direct retread). Furthermore, in an era where we are finally getting to see female directors given big budget Hollywood films, Bigelow has been blazing a trail in this area for decades and Point Break, if anything, should have shown that she wasn’t just up to her male counterparts standards, she’s arguably superior to a lot of them.
Fresh out of Quantico, new FBI Agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) is assigned to work bank robbery in LA with veteran agent Pappas (Gary Busey). On the trail of a gang of bank robbers known as The Ex-Presidents, Utah and Papas follow a lead that they may be surfers. As a result Utah is taught to surf by Tyler (Lori Petty) and befriends local surf god, Bodhi (Patrick Swayze). But with The Ex-Presidents crime spree ongoing without results Utah soon begins to realise the people he is closest to might be the ones committing the crimes.
What is so amazing about Point Break is that it is one of the most macho action films you’ll ever see. Bigelow takes aim at the potential toxic bromance that forms between two men who are determined to outdo each other. But more than anything Point Break is Bigelow’s action opus. A film that grips like a vice in both its exhilaration but also its character investment. Most action films trade the latter for the former and yet Bigelow balances both like Bodhi smoothly cutting through a perfect wave.
Part of the film’s brilliance is the techniques Bigelow deploys to capture the action and colours. The surf scenes are shot with grace, a smooth gliding camera that articulates the precision with which one needs to ride the waves. What cements this further is the unbridled kinetic energy with which the chase and other action sequences are shot. All hand-held and edited in such a way as to have you on the edge of your seat, no matter how many times you may have already seen them. The foot chase in particular is breathtakingly brutal, every footfall and garden gate smashed through blisters through the screen.
This 4K transition really does Bigelow’s visuals justice. The colours of the blue ocean mixed with the oranges of the latter desert scenes are gorgeous. If anything, the visuals are occasionally too crisp with some of the surfing scenes now very apparent we’re not seeing Reeves and Swayze on their boards but rather their stunt doubles. Ironically, if anything, it only heightens the marvel at the film as you realise these stunts are actually being performed rather than CGI-ed. The audio as well is incredible, the waves breaking given organ-shaking base and the gun-fire now screen shakingly visceral.
Given that he went on to be one of the biggest action stars on the planet with The Matrix and John Wick franchises to his name it’s easy to see how Point Break started it all for Keanu Reeves. His Johnny Utah is more multilayered than John Wick could dream of. And Reeves plays the whole film with a sense of dawning realisation – that maybe he is destined for something more than catching bad guys. Swayze on the other hand is one of the most charismatic and likeable antagonists of the genre. What always sets Swayze apart is the way he often played his characters against type. Bodhi is a spiritual “adrenaline junkie” in most hands he’d be annoying but in Swayze’s he’s inspiring, charismatic and conflictingly likeable. It’s only at the very end do you realise that perhaps he was in fact a bit of a psychopath all along having dispatched with many of his allies. Lori Petty should get a special mention as well, while the third act does relegate her to damsel in distress, prior to this she’s able to mix it with the boys and often outdo them in surfing and football stakes. She’s also a very smart script device in reminding us just how messed up the likes of Bodhi and increasingly Utah are in their strange determination to push each other to the limits.
Categorically one of the best action films ever made, Point Break is cool, fun, and packs repeated punches in the final third to leave you reeling. They don’t make them like this anymore and cinema is all the poorer for it.
Point Break is on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, DVD and digital on demand 5 August from Icon Film Distribution
