Surf Movie Tonite! Surf Movie Poster Art, 1957-2005
Description
An oversize, full-color celebration of surf movie poster art. Surf Movie Tonite! opens with an essay on the history of surf movies, from Bud Browne to Riding Giants. The featured posters – over 140 total – are divided into four sections: Bombora: First Wave Surf Movies (1955-1967); Expression Session: Second-Wave Surf Movies (1968-1982; Blue Screen; Hollywood Surf Movies (1959-2004); Digitized: Video/DVD Surf Movies (1985-2003).
Movie posters by: John Severson, Greg MacGillivray, Bruce Brown, Taylor Steele, Alby Falzon, Greg Noll, Thomas Campbell, Bud Browne, Jim Freeman, Jack McCoy, Walt Phillips, Hal Jepsen, Grant Rohloff, Bill Delaney, Dale Davis, Bob Evans, Chris Malloy, others
Author's Note
Australian surfing legend Wayne Lynch admitted a few years ago that he’s never actually sat through an entire screening of the 1968 surf movie milestone Evolution, despite the fact that he’s the film’s headliner. No surprise. A few choice minutes of any given surf movie can be thrilling, and the time just before the theater lights go down for the screening of the latest surf flick are probably the only time you feel anything like real esprit de corps among surfers. But artistically speaking the genre is way overrated and, Endless Summer aside, I challenge anyone to name a surf movie that isn’t long, plotless and repetitive.
Surf movie poster art is a different matter. It’s punchy and colorful and attention-grabbing, and delivers in a way that surf movies themselves almost never do. You might say that Five Summer Stories, or something like it, is “good for a surf film,” But the best surf movie posters are just good, period, no qualifier needed, and stack up nicely against movie posters of any kind. Give me John Severson’s original Big Wednesday poster any day of the week over Casablanca or The Godfather.
Surf Movie Tonite! wouldn’t have happened without the help of surf movie poster kingpin Keith Eshelman. I’m also deeply indebted to former Surfer magazine art director Jeff Canham, who did a knockout design job.
Book Excerpt
Excerpt from the Introduction
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Copyright © 2005, Matt Warshaw.
