Blue Crush Film Review

Striving for Respect

"These waves are for the big boys"

My film review is on the movie Blue Crush for my topic "Women competing with the men." The movie is directed by John Stockwell and is written by Lizzy Weiss. The basic for the movie is that the main character Anne Marie is a surfer trying to make it big and become sponsored. She has to earn the respect of her friends, herself and the respect of the men surfers who ride the pipeline. She has to overcome her fears and conquer her own limits.

Anne Marie's goal is to become a big wave surfer and to do that she needs to conquer her fears and overcome the critics who say a girl can't ride the big waves like the boys. Anne Marie has many obstacles to overcome through the movie. First she has to take care of her little sister Penny, second she has to make money to pay rent, and third then she has to work and train for the Pipe Masters surf competition. Besides her obvious goals she has to earn the respect of herself to surf with the guys. A quote from the movie is when a guy surfer Eden says to Anne Marie:

"These waves are for the big boys." (Blue Crush 2002)

This shows that the men don't think she can compete on the same big waves as they do. At one point in the movie when she goes out to try and prove herself to the guys, they clear the wave so that she can take it. She hesitates and doesn't take the first couple waves. Her fear overcomes her and she looks weak in the eyes of the guys. The fear of failure is the driving force in what holds her back in become a great surfer period. It's not holding her back just in the female surfing world but the male and female surfing world as a whole.

A strong moment in the film is where she gets the nerve to test the big waves with the guys and before she goes out to the beach she runs into her ex-boyfriend. He obviously doesn't think she can hang with the guys and questions her:

Drew: You really think you can surf it for real out there?

Anne Marie: Well, Drew, I dated you, I guess I can do anything. (Blue Crush 2002)

This shows how she rises to the occasion in face of the guy telling her she can't do it. This relates to the point that when a women athlete is told she can't compete with the men, she then in turn goes out and tries to prove that she can. Which can be the sole driving force for a women athlete to try to compete with the men. Almost making it the main reason for her willing to go up against the daunted male athlete. The basis for the gender wars aspect of sports is that the women always want to prove to the men that they are just as good. It eats at the women athlete the most when she is told otherwise.

In the movie Anne Marie has a lot to deal with and she sums it up this way:

What do I want? Oh my god, I want Penny to quit smoking and go to college. I want, I want to be able to pay the phone, electric and rent in the same month. I want a girl to be on the cover of surf magazine. It would be great if that girl were me, but any girl would do. I want...

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