Matt Johnson, Jack Barlow, and Leroy Smith are three young California surfers in the 1960s. At first reveling in the carefree life of beaches, girls, and waves, they eventually must face the fact that the world is changing, becoming more complex, less answerable by simple solutions. Ultimately the Vietnam war interrupts their idyll, leaving them to wonder if they will survive until "Big Wednesday," the mythical day when the greatest, cleanest, most transcendent wave of all wi... (Full plot summary below)
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Matt Johnson, Jack Barlow, and Leroy Smith are three young California surfers in the 1960s. At first reveling in the carefree life of beaches, girls, and waves, they eventually must face the fact that the world is changing, becoming more complex, less answerable by simple solutions. Ultimately the Vietnam war interrupts their idyll, leaving them to wonder if they will survive until "Big Wednesday," the mythical day when the greatest, cleanest, most transcendent wave of all will come.
Leave your thoughts about Big Wednesday.
| ColeSmithey.comCole Smithey[VIDEO ESSAY] Milius constantly revisits the ocean's churning surf as a literal and metaphoric yardstick to underscore the movie's themes of personal responsibility, loyalty, and the pressures of unpredictable social change. |
| EmpireColin KennedyA key film from the movie brats-era, and quite possibly Milius best. |
| The GuardianMaxton WalkerMaybe in the end it's just an exuberant collection of great scenes – but what Big Wednesday has is heart. |
| ChristyLemire.comChristy LemireLooking back at the strong, young cast, the evocative sense of time and place and the thrilling ocean imagery, Big Wednesday certainly deserves a spot among the pantheon of classic surfing films. |
| EmanuelLevy.ComEmanuel LevyAmbitious in goal, John Millius' tale suffers from an inconsistent tone, trying to be elegiac, nostalgic, and mythical in depicting the impact of Vietnam and aging on a clique of three surfers between 1962 and 1974 but the acting and imagery are good. |
| The DissolveSam AdamsThere are moments when Big Wednesday strains under the weight of Milius’ ambition, but they’re balanced with lively authenticity and a brisk lack of sentiment. |
| Chicago ReaderDave KehrMilius can be faulted for reviving a number of ostensibly dead macho myths, but in the context of the subculture his film deftly re-creates, they take on the aura of eternal values. The breathtaking surfing footage, rather than the slightly stunted characters, makes his most eloquent argument. |
| The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Robert MartinThe movie often seems even more uneventful than material like this need make it, and Mr. Milius's attention to his actors focuses more closely on their pectorals than on their performances. |
| NewsweekDavid AnsenAlthough Brown (Endless Summer) captured the beauty and fun of his favorite sport in his "surfumentaries," Milius, whose work always seems underlain with weighty symbolic intent, infuses Big Wednesday with heavy-handed philosophy and all-around stupidity. |
| User ReviewMichael KMasterful drama from the incomparable John Milius. The three leads are excellent and the sheer force of the films' cinematic storytelling marks it out as an unparallelled achievement. One of the finest films of the 1970s. |
