Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Gidget


We have been talking a lot about movies and how they portray surf culture and beach boys. Professor Wilson has mentioned the movie “Gidget” but we never saw any clips. I decided to watch this movie (and a lot of others) to get a better idea of this. Gidget depicts beach boy culture as carefree, romantic and simultaneously lazy and socially unacceptable. 
Moondoggy, a young rich disillusioned boy has spent the summer surfing with Kahuna. He has decided to follow Kahuna on an “endless summer” working on a boat so they can get a ride to Peru in order to surf. However, Gidget is constantly reminding Kahuna and Moondoggy about the unrealistic expectations they have. She asks them how they are going to make money and where they are going to live and how they will ever settle down. Kahuna is in his 30’s and Gidget’s attitude toward his desire to live a life of surfing makes an impact on him. Made in 1959, this movie established the California beach bum surfer image. Gidget becomes a surfer but never gets caught up in the lifestyle. The movie ends with Moondoggy staying in California and going to school and giving his class pin to Gidget, solidifying their relationship and validating his decision to stay in California. Kahuna also gives up his dream of the “endless summer” and takes a job as a commercial pilot- becoming the adult society expects him to be.
Towards the end of “Gidget” all the teenagers have a luau on the beach. There are kids drinking and dancing. There are sexual encounters in huts, even one which made me suspicious that there was an orgy going on. Boys are chasing girls and girls are trying to get the boys to chase them. Keep in mind this film was made in 1959, this was very “unacceptable” and it was happening on a public beach. So, while on one hand surfing is shown as an exciting new sport. On the other, it is dangerous and distracts one from their responsibilities. “Gidget” established what could be called the surf movie formula and stereotypes of the beach boy as a lazy womanizer who only cares about surfing when in fact surfing is a sport which takes skill. For Native Hawaiians, surfing was a religious experience and established power for leaders. To depict surfing as a past time for lazy teenagers degrades the true spirit of surfing. This image reflects the missionary attitude toward surfing that we read about in Pacific Passages. I would also like to add that just the fact that they name one of the main characters "Kahuna" is insulting to Hawaiians. A kahuna was a religious leader as that is an aspect of surfing for Hawaiians. However, this Kahuna is "old" and ends up giving up surfing to be a pilot- flying though the air- about as far from the ocean as one can be. There does not seem to be a balance for these men, they are either surfer beach bums or productive members of society who do not surf. 

~Matina Tryforos

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