Bruce Brown, 1937-2017

December 12, 2017 12:44 PM

Bruce Brown, foundational documentary filmmaker in two sports—surfing and motorcycling—is dead at 80.
posted by Sokka shot first (18 comments total)

The Endless Summer is an all-time classic.
posted by sleeping bear at 12:47 PM on December 12, 2017 [5 favorites]

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posted by Bob Regular at 1:35 PM on December 12, 2017

I grew up in a land-locked rural nowhere town and first saw The Endless Summer on VHS. After that, I rented it so much the cool-as-hell owner of the video store eventually gave me the store's copy of the movie, all, "You've rented it enough times to have bought it. You're the only person who rents this movie anyway." For some reason, I watched it religiously for a while during my late teens, often just having in on muted as background "wallpaper" while I did homework or bugged out over life or whatever. It was soothing and really just a visually beautiful movie - a touchstone I kept coming back to throughout my tumultuous adolescence. Back then, I'd look at California or Hawaii on a map and say to myself "Someday...someday."
posted by Bob Regular at 1:49 PM on December 12, 2017 [7 favorites]

The NPR obit talked about Endless Summer but omitted On Any Sunday. Endless Summer is a great documentary, but where I grew up motocross was much bigger (we are 2 hours from the beach, and not one known for surfing at that). On Any Sunday definitely put motorcycling on the map for a lot of people.

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posted by TedW at 1:51 PM on December 12, 2017 [2 favorites]

Theme from The Endless Summer, by the Sandals.

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posted by Rash at 1:58 PM on December 12, 2017 [1 favorite]

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"On Any Sunday definitely put motorcycling on the map for a lot of people."

Absolutely. I saw it in the theater with my motocross buddies. It was magic.
posted by bz at 2:01 PM on December 12, 2017

Thanks for sharing the all the beauty you saw.
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posted by ApathyGirl at 2:04 PM on December 12, 2017

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posted by cazoo at 2:44 PM on December 12, 2017

"I'd rather live in an extended trailer with no one around than in a mansion in Beverly Hills with 90 servants. That’s the surfer mentality. It’s a question of priorities. A surfer will get some money and go, ‘Now I can take some time off and go surfing.'”

Thank you Bruce Brown. Surfing was fortunate to have you help shape the culture from early on.
posted by ecourbanist at 3:41 PM on December 12, 2017 [1 favorite]

On Any Sunday was a magical movie back in the 70s when I was a kid, For whatever reason, one of the local network affiliates would show that move about once a year kind of out of the blue, it seemed. Motorcycling was what every boy in the neighborhood wanted to be doing after seeing that. Even if there was no way of even dreaming about a motorcycle, that opening sequence with the kids on that dirt lot was us. It was like he made a movie about us!

Thanks, Mr. Brown, for for igniting that spark in so many of us back then.
posted by 2N2222 at 4:14 PM on December 12, 2017 [1 favorite]

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posted by skyscraper at 4:15 PM on December 12, 2017

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posted by condour75 at 4:35 PM on December 12, 2017

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posted by Lyme Drop at 5:05 PM on December 12, 2017

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posted by Purposeful Grimace at 5:47 PM on December 12, 2017

I wish On Any Sunday was as widely seen as like Sons of Anarchy or American Chopper or whatever the tough guy biker bullshit de jour is. I mean, I enjoy that kind of thing too but it's a little toxic in it's one-dimensionality. On Any Sunday is just joyful. And often beautiful.
posted by rodlymight at 6:04 PM on December 12, 2017

There's an anecdote somewhere about someone's dad who would unwind after a long intense party weekend on Sunday Night by flopping on the Lazyboy in the downstairs den and putting on a VHS of 'Endless Summer'. (which I can relate to;)
posted by ovvl at 7:52 PM on December 12, 2017

My father, a child of the 60s, videotaped The Endless Summer (a favorite of his) one mid-80s summer when KPBS broadcast it. (I would have been roughly ten years old.) My younger brother and I watched that recording countless times. We knew large chunks of Bruce Brown's narration by heart. We never tired of it. In my memory, it is a deeply sweet, honest, enjoyable film. I don't think I've seen it in 25 years; I wonder what I would think if I saw it today.

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posted by /\/\/\/ at 8:38 PM on December 12, 2017

The BBC showed Endless Summer in the afternoon around New Year in the mid/late seventies. I can remember being totally transfixed by it. It seemed to represent a kind of ideal way of being for me, and I've occasionally wanted to see it again in hopes of finding out what that was.

A kind of self-indulgent ideal way of being, sure, but I was about twelve.
posted by Grangousier at 1:06 PM on December 13, 2017