This week's main film was 1959's "Gidget", directed by Paul Wendkos. "Gidget" focused on Francie Lawrence, a 17 year old girl who developed an interest in surfing. The story line would have been bearable had it not depicted Francie as nothing more than a desperate, ditzy young girl/woman. I understand "Gidget" was supposed to imitate society's treatment/view of women in the 1950s and 60s, but it was really frustrating and sad to watch how Francie's desire to surf eventually became only a way to spend time with and try to woo her love interest, Moondoggie. Also, many of the things she did and endured just to be able to learn how to surf, such as getting food for every single guy in "the crew" really aggravated the feminist spirit within me; thankfully times have changed (at least for the most part). In general, the movie focused more on Francie's love enterprises instead of her relatively breakthrough achievement as a female surfer.
We also watched some scenes from "Blue Crush", a 2001 movie directed by John Stockwell. From what we watched, I understood the plot line of the movie was depicting a female surfer who was trying to overcome her fears/hesitance since a near-death experience while surfing. The movie also briefly showed some conflict/competition between the surfer and some local native Hawaiians.
Laila -
ReplyDeleteWhat did you think of the difference in the endings between the original novel version of Gidget written by Koehner (adapted from his daughter's diary) and the Hollywood version? [Hint - the climax of the novel involves Gidget actually surfing a monster wave, not just blushing over men fighting over her] Re-check the e-mailed readings if you need to - I'm sure you'll enjoy the contrast.
- Trey