I remember purchasing this video and just stoked about watching popular surfers such as Kelly Slater to legend Gerry Lopez and also to see singer/surfer Jack Johnson and many others together in a surfing film. Oh, and my favorite surfer Tom Curren also stars in this film and many others who are not mentioned on the back cover.
Granted, you see many surfers from different surfing companies in various films but this one, rarely are you going to see a surfing film with Kelly Slater, Gerry Lopez, Jack Johnson, Rob Machado and a few others together like this.
But what I enjoyed this film is just the incredible videography that I’ve watched it so many times over the years because it’s not so much about watching these legendary surfers surf, it’s about the environment, the life and embracing the location and the people in the area.
Watching the surf team from Jamaica to these kids using broken boards to surf to the Jamaican Surf Team, that was just so cool to see. Overall, this film was truly a cool surfing experience with one of the coolest visual experiences of a surf film that I’ve seen (and I’ve watched many surfing films).
I don’t know if I would call it a classic but I really enjoyed the film, it wasn’t so much in your face but it was about substance and surfing as a way of life and the people who live in South America, Polynesia and Jamaica. So, all in all, I truly digged “A BROKEDOWN MELODY”.
For a surfing film, I felt the video shot on 16mm was just a fantastic way to document this film. The colors looked vibrant and just overall, it had a look that wasn’t to crispy clear, had that edge and noise with some of the dust that you would expect to see. Visually, the colors and overall look were very cool!
Although this film is more of a surfing/documentary style and a lot of dialogue, the focus on audio is primarily the cool music by Jack Johnson, Eddie Vedder and many other talents. Music definitely gave a great ambience throughout the film.
The DVD comes with several special features. Extra surf segments is pretty much nearly 27-minutes worth of extra footage. This extra footage are just in par with the actual film, I’m guessing was cut out for pacing reasons but still watching the cut footage is actually better than a lot of stand-alone DVD’s that are twice as long.
For “Moonshine Videos”, you get the music videos for Ben Harper’s “With My Own Two Hands” and “Diamonds on the Inside” and you get the “Taylor” outtakes which is a short segment featuring actor Ben Stiller pretending to talk surf lingo with two guys.
For “Surf Aid International”, pretty much a five minute segment about what the organization is about and how it helps people in other countries that are less fortunate and how they bring doctors to help people affected by malaria. Pretty much focusing on a guy named Dave who is a doctor who was surfing in another country and went to a nearby village to see how he can help people in the village and learned that they really needed his help. He quit his high paying job, sold his house to help the villagers and use low-cost vaccines and education to help the villages.
“A BROKEDOWN MELODY” is just a fantastic film. Not too long and not boring at all. It’s just visually appealing and the various cuts and editing featuring the beautiful waves, the landscapes and the people from that live near the area just enjoying the surf along with the surfers was just incredible to see.
So, pretty much, I felt that I got more for my money with this surfing DVD.
Surfers looking for aerials or big wave surfing, this is not the video you are looking for. For surfers that just want to enjoy surfers like Kelly Slater, Tom Curren, Gerry Lopez, Jack Johnson and others surfing in South America, Polynesia and Jamaica and just enjoy the overall scenery and to hear not just from the surfers about the experience but also the villagers, you don’t really see that in a surfing film.
Definitely worth owning!
