An Invincible Summer

Newsweek said The Endless Summer was “not very well made,” and that filmmaker Bruce Brown “knew little about the niceties of shooting a documentary.” Then the magazine went ahead and named it one of the 10 best films of 1966 anyway. That's the kind of roll Brown and his movie were on.

Nothing better encapsulated the 1960s surf boom, nor more clearly marked its end, than The Endless Summer, Bruce Brown’s cheerful monster-sized crossover documentary hit. Filmed in 1963 at the very height of the boom, Endless Summer wasn’t released to general audiences until fall 1966, at which point the movie played like a coda for a era of the sport that, rather than being endless, vanished almo...

Subscribe or Login

Plans start at $5, cancel anytimeTrouble logging-in? Contact us.