Point Break Deserved an Oscar

<i>Point Break</i> Deserved an Oscar thumbnail
By
Published: January 1, 2009

The one thing that’s on every American’s mind right now is the poor choice of a winner for Best Picture at the 1992 Academy Awards. Instead of Point Break, an insightful, deeply moving picture about the extremes that surfers have to go to in a poor economy to support their spiritual journeys, the Academy chose The Silence of the Lambs, some movie about farming. The only reason I can think of for this outrageous oversight is that the American people weren’t prepared for such a controversial critique of American politics. And they certainly weren’t ready to handle the intense relationship of the two central characters played by Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves.

Patrick Swayze plays a surfer named Bodhi, short for Bodhisattva. He’s on a spiritual journey to achieve enlightenment by catching the ultimate wave. His nemesis is Johnny Utah, played by Keanu Reeves. Johnny, an FBI agent who is a former college football star, represents the establishment. He goes undercover to investigate a group of surfer bank robbers who wear ex-president masks, a subtle dig at the moral bankruptcy of the American political system. At first Johnny is dubious about Bodhi’s philosophy, but over time, he becomes a convert and joins Bodhi on his quest for nirvana.

Johnny’s emotional conflict is most evident during a chase scene through a suburban neighborhood. The scene where Bodhi chucks a dog at Johnny is most telling: Bodhi, wearing a Reagan mask, represents the American middle class; in an interesting role-reversal, Johnny, who gets knocked over by the dog, experiences what it feels like to be on the other side; and the dog, fruitlessly chomping at nothing as it flies through the air, represents the futility of the American dream. This scene brought tears to my eyes.

In the end, Johnny Utah acts like a patsy of the American government and arrests Bodhi. But Bodhi persuades Johnny to allow him to surf in the biggest storm in fifty years. In the last scene, which was so powerful it was seared onto my brain for days, Johnny lets Bodhi go and Bodhi surfs a gigantic wave until he disappears into the ocean, finally reaching nirvana and being stamped out of existence forever. I challenge anyone to watch Point Break and not be convinced that it deserved the Oscar more than any other movie of the 20th century.