Surfing, tattooing, fighting and Old English fonts… This film is already off to a good start. Narrated by Russell Crowe (who is a perfect fit by the way); Bra Boys is a documentary by a first-time director, writer and producer named Sunny Abberton. He’s one of 4 Australian brothers that grew up in Maroubra, a city suburb in East Sydney. This documentary tells their story.
Bra Boys is a true tale that blends harsh reality with surreal surfing. It covers the struggle of the Abberton brothers and their family of friends. From start to present, the Bra Boys have gone through a remarkable journey. Starting off as a surf tribe “Ma’s Boys” the grommets of Maroubra wreaked havoc amongst the community. “Ma”, the Abberton brothers’ grandmother, took them in along with the other kids around town. She took care of them and made sure they had enough food and shelter. These kids pretty much did what they wanted… and that was to surf and have fun.
Gangs started coming down to the beaches and beating up on the local surfers. Because of this, everyone needed to watch each others’ backs and stick together. That’s when the surf tribe Bra Boys got strong. I don’t want to get into too much detail of the story of the film, so, to make a long story short; this film shows the struggles and triumphs of the Bra Boys. These include death, fights, Australia’s Race Riots, jail time, partying, finding Cyclops, great surfing, and much more.
Besides the story in the documentary, there is much more to this film. It takes viewers on an emotional ride that covers sorrow and empathy to adrenaline and hysterical laughter and everything in between. One of my favorite scenes in the documentary involves a handful of guys just straight up dancing in the middle of the street holding up traffic. Right in front is a bus with an elderly man driving with this look on his face like… “Damn hooligans!” Then, to top it all off, one of the guys decides to climb up to the top of the bus and dance on the roof as it drives away. I still watch it every now and then for a good laugh.
The cinematography is excellent. It ranges from old still shots to home video to high end, high resolution clips. The combination of different quality clips brings a more real life feeling to the viewer. A documentary can’t have all high end filming, it’s not real life. Real life is dirty, poor, and unclear. It brings truth to the film. The range in cinematography also shows the kind of influence this tribe has had on the surfing community. Film equipment is expensive. If this tribe and the Abberton brothers were not a huge part of the surfing community, they would not have access to such good equipment and be able to produce such a good film. That’s the way I see it anyway.
The surfing footage makes this film worth the purchase. The footage contains a few different waves all over Australia, secret spots to the well known Cyclops. But, the footage that definitely stands out is the footage from the claimed heaviest, most dangerous spot in Australia, Cyclops. Ruled by Great White sharks the wave at Cyclops is formed by a deep water swell surged up and out by… well, pretty much dry reef. Some of the footage shows the intensity of the wave sucking water off ledges of dry reef. My eyes hurt from watching this footage over and over again. My throat hurts from yelling “OOOOOOOOOH!” even though I’ve seen it before. My wife is sick of hearing me talk about it. It’s a must see.
When I first heard about this movie, I had to see it. I had to see it so much that I got the DVD shipped from Australia because it hadn’t been released in the states yet. In fact, I think right now it’s still in theatres. Anyway, I had to change the region code on my DVD player to allow me to watch the DVD I got on eBay. Well worth it though. In fact, I think I might get a few friends and a couple 12 packs together to see it on the big screen (beers snuck in obviously).
