July 28, 2009

Bruce Brown Bonanza



A while ago a good friend told me I had to see a movie called On Any Sunday. Confusing it with that late '90s Al Pacino/Jamie Foxx movie about football, Any Given Sunday, I was forced to reevaluate my friend's taste in film...and then I forgot all about it. Recently, I was indulging in a little Steve McQueen movie marathon on Netflix's "Watch Instantly" (which has an awesome amount of his films available...Bullitt, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Great Escape...) and came across On Any Sunday. Remembering what my friend had said, and that he actually has wonderful taste in everything—including film—I thought I'd give it a shot. You can get a little taste of it from the trailer above, but basically it's about the culture of motorcycling circa 1971. The cinematography is stunning (gorgeous light, lots of slo-mo) as is the cast of amazing characters who rule the scene (including Mr. McQueen).



As I was watching On Any Sunday, I kept thinking about the films of one of our favorite artists Thomas Campbell. And it wasn't until I finished watching it and looked up the director that it all made sense. Before Any Given Sunday, Bruce Brown had directed The Endless Summer, which was obviously a major influence on Thomas's fantastic surf films, The Seedling, Sprout, and the Present.

Great movies, all of them...I recommend you carve out a good 8-10 hours and have a little marathon of your own.

1 comment:

House Dreams said...

What a movie that was!