I have never been on a surfboard in my life, but thanks to surf documentaries like "Endless Summer", I do think the sport of surfing is pretty cool and something I would like to try before I kick the bucket. So I was interested in watching "Bustin' Down the Door" when I found a copy, especially since it promised to discuss something about the sport I didn't know about before - how surfing became a multi-million dollar industry. While I did find the end results sometimes interesting, I don't think the documentary is as strong as it could be. There is some cool surfing footage, but when it comes to the human angle the movie is really lacking. It's mostly a collection of talking heads, and more often what is said by the participants doesn't add much insight or advance things terribly much. It tells the story in a real slow fashion, and once it gets to interesting topics like the resentment of Hawaiian surfers to the outsiders coming in and shaking things up, it doesn't go into great detail and instead speeds towards the end. Another problem is that the movie often seems to be preaching to the choir, assuming its audience knows a lot about the featured surfers and what they experienced. The documentary is not without interest, but I think the only audience that could really appreciate it would be surfing aficionados.
Review of Bustin' Down the Door
