Surfwise
(2007/MagNet/Magnolia DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C Extras: C+ Documentary: C+
The image
of the perfect family is perpetuated at such an extreme that anything too
perfect (The Cowsills, Bing Crosby’s children) can only be hiding misery and
abuse. The Paskowitz Family was also
such a family, living in one 24-foot trailer and becoming the subject of many
an article as the father Doc led the
troop in surfing all the time, exercise and supposedly on the natural fun edge
of like. Doug Pray’s documentary Surfwise (2007) shows the dark side of
that nightmare.
Instead,
we get the portrait of innocence distorted, a father who could care less how
unhappy the children were, a father who wore out his wife with so many
childbirths and in outright sex abuse had sex every night in front of all of
them, a father who had demons of his own to deal with going back to the
Holocaust and a family that is lucky none of them self-destructed.
Fortunately,
the children grew up and things worked out for them, though there are missed
opportunities thanks to the father (one wanted to go into medical school and
Doc (as usual) refused) but others moved into surfing and made their own mark,
even when the hype was happier than the truth.
It is sad to watch and Pray does not go far enough in the potential
psychological, personal and factual examination he could have here. Then this ends with a phony “happy”
conclusion that feels like it is out of a bad reality TV show. It is still worth a look, though.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is as soft as such a documentary would be,
though I was amused by the older stock film and video footage of which we
cannot see enough. The Dolby Digital 5.1
mix is stretching out the obviously limited soundtrack, while the 2.0 Stereo is
no better and dialogue and sound are lower in volume than they should be. Extras include outtakes & breaks,
cinematography featurette, two more behind the scenes featurette and audio
commentary track by Pray, Producer Matt Weaver and Salvador Paskowitz.
- Nicholas Sheffo
