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Rating: Today, everything is made epic in an indecent and blasphemous way. Degenerate clones of Homer crowd the editorial offices of all journalistic outlets, as well as advertising agencies, and television even before print has become the principal medium of this neo-epicism. Just watch "Sfide" to realize that the epic narrative could adapt to Coppi, Bartali, or Binda, while for the likes of Maradona, Comaneci, Spitz, or worse, the Italian national team of the 2006 World Cup, it’s not worth even removing the cap from the pen to write about them.
As for cinema, it's another matter. It is the most important means today for trying to tell an epic story. Yes indeed. Because, to think about it, cinema today has the same role that public declamation had centuries ago when bards recited in the square glorifying various Ulysses, Jason, Orlando, Aeneas. Epic doesn’t suffice with print, that's clear; it needs something that stimulates both the senses and the imagination: what better, then, than the big screen of a movie theater? However, there's a long way from merely possessing the instrument to the finished product, and indeed the results are often either trivial or unintentionally comedic. On the other hand, when the director hits the mark, with a measured and decisive stroke, then the film turns out splendid and assumes a meaning that transcends its simple technical nature. This is the case with "Big Wednesday" the acknowledged masterpiece of John Milius, a generational film, a western with an unusual setting where waves are ridden instead of horses, but which remains a western in how it confidentially treats themes of male friendship, in how little space it leaves to women, in the profoundly light way it dedicates itself to the exposition of its underlying philosophy, and also because Milius has never hidden the influence authors like Leone and especially Peckinpah have had on him.
Those who have seen "The Wild Bunch" will notice how the spirit of that film reemerges several times in this movie and in the previous one, "The Wind and the Lion." Returning to the topic, "Big Wednesday" is the story of a generation told through the adventures of three surfer friends and marked by the succession of four wave swells that symbolically remind us of the terrible events that swept Americans between the sixties and seventies: the assassinations of Kennedy and Luther King, the youth protests, Watergate, and above all, the Vietnam War. Milius seems to claim for his generation the right to live a peaceful life, and so consequently, the four waves that the three protagonists find themselves riding don't leave marks on them. Theirs is a challenging survival, crushed and surpassed by a new aggressive and revolutionary generation, whereas they are through and through people of the fifties. The perspective with which the director captures the most important passages of the three friends’ lives is humanistic: the war, even if it is an ominous presence, is not seen but described through images of recruitment with our very human heroes feigning madness (Leroy), a bad knee (Matt), or an exhibited homosexuality (Waxer). But there is also someone like Jack who consciously accepts going to Vietnam. After all, he is the conscience of the group, has a girl he wants to marry (the mythical Lady (Patti) D'Arbanville, though perhaps Yusuf has renounced even the memory of her) and is quickly hired as a lifeguard while the others remain the irreducible slackers. Matt, who is already a surfing legend, seems particularly unsuited to fit into civilian life, despite already having a wife and a child. Leroy, for his part, is so immersed in his quirky behavior that he's unshakable, whatever he does, and with the perseverance of his boldness, he seems to manage something. Waxer is the most unfortunate. His performances at the recruitment office were useless, he's sent to the front, and gets killed. Despite small everyday problems and major world events, the three, true survivors, will always find each other, every time the sea decides to sweep the coast. Until the last great wave of 1974, when Jack, Matt, and Leroy meet perhaps for the last time and together, ignoring the warnings of the coast guard and to the delight of fans who have come to admire, join the new surfing stars in the sea. In
the last scene, the epic narrative reaches its emotional peak, glorifying an entire youth and a way of life that just refuses to give victory to death. And so, among miraculous "aquatic" shots, Mexican bathing in violence, friendly scuffles, and the intense soundtrack by Basil Poledouris, we reach the bittersweet epilogue. Yet it returns to us the serenity that we must preserve in the face of everything, in exchange for the illusions that have nourished us until adulthood. "Big Wednesday" qualitatively surpasses the other alleged masterpiece on American youth, "American Graffiti," but it lacks one crucial detail: it doesn’t appear in the "top 100" list of Poletti.
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