BRA BOYS Premier

[aitch]

I didn't realise Clif was such a film buff, well I suppose I'm a whole lot more aware of it than I was this morning. That said I really have enjoyed this. Not having started too many threads I found it good to get some banter going without it getting outa hand. If you know what I'm saying?

[acecactus]

Is this film going to be Re-named for the the rest of the world market so people don't think its about transvestites.

Whats the sequel Panty Boys?

[greygrom]

It appears that Jack Singleton has the “Bra Boys” nicely shucked in a Paris Hilton doggie bag complete with marketing tie tatts and their very own brand of lap dog piss.

The really sad thing is that the boys appear too "moulded in type" to recognise the dead end track of their "myth" and move on from the legacy they created. They don't seem to recognise that rich patrons are the cyclone swell of friends.

What would be good is for the Abberton clan to rise above themselves and perhaps take a lesson in life from Anthony Mundine and his father.

It would be a great shame if the Abberton boys where to end up like another notorious surfer tough guy, one SBG. They would have fulfilled their own legacy if that where to happen.

The real irony is that the culture the "Bra Boys" worship is the culture that created the bloke they killed.

Nice review Cliff

[Cpt.Caveman]

Great deconstruction and analysis. That would do good to be submitted to a media organisation like SMH or an online news site?

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I could imagine that it would gain insight into how disadvanted people living in a surf culture deal with their circumstances. The problem I think is that it is made by the Bra Boys. If it was a 3rd person perspective on the group then it would be much more critical and wouldn't glorify their ways.

The film will definately sell for people who feel the need to "belong" in some sort of tight knit community with a "cool" culture of surfing and toughness. I really think that the only people that would buy into it are quite nieve and don't understand one of the most important moral rules to live by: never knowingly hurt another. Just because it has been done to you, it doesn't meen that it is right to reciprocate it.

Having said that, I'll still see it to see what their culture is like from their eyes. I've definately caught the wrong end of their culture, such as a few of them blatantly using their power in numbers to hassle unknowns in the surf. Also being at the pub with friends of Bra Boys and them pretty much looking straight through me as if I wasn't there.

[dy_fo_life]

PS.

Thanks Clif. Saved me $20 and an hour or so of my life.

huh??took me an hour or so too read!

[Nick Carroll]

Among other things, it's an almost forensic examination of what happens to energetic young blokes when Daddy goes totally missing. They just kind of stay stuck in early adolescence.

I can't help but relate to this, on a couple of weird levels: one just because an adolescent "stuckness" is a feature of many obsessive surfers' lives, including mine at times; another because of a peculiar reaction I've often felt while spending time with Koby, who despite his ferocious energy and apparent machismo, exudes beneath it a palpable vulnerability (a pretty heady mix for the chicks I would imagine, btw). When Koby and Jai were looking at serious jail time a couple of years ago, I wondered why I felt so worried for them...after all, it seemed as if they'd been involved in a terrible crime and were merely facing the consequences of their actions. I could understand a concern on their behalf, but I felt really worried -- protective, even, somehow. After a bit of thought I traced this feeling back to the fact that I am actually a Dad, that I have a powerful fatherly instinct, and that somehow that side of me was being activated. (Quite inappropriately I might add.)

Sunny has probably played that older-male role to his siblings over the years, I mean for sure he has, but he's their older brother, not their father. Koby tries to shrug off parenthood in the doco when he describes being chased out of home by his eerily passive mother's latest boyfriend, and being told by Sunny that it didn't matter, that their family was their friends. But close as you get to friends, they aren't your family. They can't fully play that role.

I'm not surprised those boys get violent. Imagine the anger at missing Daddy. Talk about f**ken core betrayal.

I remain concerned about 'em, I feel that fellowship with 'em as surfers partly because I felt such a strong fellowship with their Maroubra forebears, but I don't worry so much for 'em anymore, I worry for those who cross their paths at the wrong angle.

[oldman]

A poignant post by Mr Carroll. The lack of surfing has enhanced his writing methinks.

The whole gang thing is basically helpful up to a point of your development, and then it is a hindrance to your further development, in the same way that your parents are essential to your growing up, but you will never grow up if you don't leave home and find your own way in life.

It is the process of extracting yourself from the gang, (and/or your family, religion, sporting club, culture) that develops your true character, and it is both a worthwhile and essential journey, if you are to fully develop as a functional human being.

Not everyone makes the journey, and many of us don't really grow up very much at all, whether we belong to gangs or not.

[Apehammer]

Also being at the pub with friends of Bra Boys and them pretty much looking straight through me as if I wasn't there.

Ouch!

[Damien]

I can sort of understand from what you read of the Abbertons upbringing and background why they have developed into the people they are and have this over the top brotherhood mentality. However, I would imagine that the vast majority of the new generation of bra boys, guys in their teens and early twenties grew up in the yupification era of Maroubra. Consequently, the Maroubra of today is far removed from the Maroubra of the 1970’s (I would imagine there aint too many housing commission slums anymore). So what do these guys have to be angry about? Do most of the new crew slink of to their middle to wealthy class parents houses on the beach after a hard day of playing tough guy and pretending they is bad arses from the wrong side of the track?

I would suggest that it is probably easier to be the intimidators in an environment that has become quite affluent over the years. Who wants to join a gang when you have property and share portfolios to fret about. It would be another thing entirely to be top dog in bankstown or macquarie fields where the abbertons of 20 years ago are growing up today with the same or worse social problems.

[lessormore]

There was a recent news item about police having to escort buses through Eastern Suburbs areas due to youths throwing rocks at them.I wonder who these kids have as role models?

[kreepykrawly]

We're too smart for that aitch .... if we pop a bloke in the back seat we've got more discreet places to dump him than off a local cliff

Like in the front yard of your North Narrabeen house ala Paul Kuhn (1980's).

Spoke to Kuhn in the surf 2 weeks before he was buried in the front yard.
and
Steve Harding recently died in a motorcycle accident.34 years old. R.I.P

[Spoon]

For some reason I can't get West Side Story out of my head with talk of gangs and we know no good came at the end of that. Hopefully some young up and coming Bra Boy doesn't end up as a victim from some outer gang wanting to prove themselves.

[lovenutz]

Steve Harding recently died in a motorcycle accident.34 years old. R.I.P[/quote]


KK is that red headed Steve?

[ether]

Consequently, the Maroubra of today is far removed from the Maroubra of the 1970’s (I would imagine there aint too many housing commission slums anymore). So what do these guys have to be angry about?

Nah, the housing commission places remain, which means a poverty cycle remains in place with its associated social problems. Probably just makes it worse with the recent gentrification of the area, it just expands the gulf between rich and poor.

[kreepykrawly]

Steve Harding recently died in a motorcycle accident.34 years old. R.I.P

KK is that red headed Steve?[/quote]
Nah blond hair

Brett Crealy 32 fell off a 12 story building through a glass celing and landed on a table while a lady was having her lunch. Broken up badly but lived
used to play for the sharks

[aitch]

Nick, you nailed it, it is totally a Dad-Family thing. Those poor bastards have had it tough growing up in those circumstance and apart from films that echo that stance I haven't a clue what it's like. Probably why I quite enjoyed the theatre of it all on the night. Especially their devotion to their Grandma - that I get as my old Nan took in all the rough bastards I used to hang with, filll em full of stew between surfs and send em' out for more. Even locked us out of the house at Conjola once to make sure we picked up at the club that night. (Suffice to say we all ended up sleeping on the verandah)

As for the family unit they've cleverly constructed you can see the dynamics of Sonny, Koby and Jai - hear it their voice when they refer to one another and ultimately through the film - their roles.

Did you catch the film in QLD Nick?

[matt...]

thanks for the review, clif...

at least they are balanced with chips on BOTH their shoulders...

i have NEVER felt threatened in any way when i have surfed maroubra, or got the impression it was a dangerous place...

i found it as the only city beach with a decent bank while i went out with a chick from bondi in 1991 - 1992...

[Nick Carroll]

Nick, you nailed it, it is totally a Dad-Family thing. Those poor bastards have had it tough growing up in those circumstance and apart from films that echo that stance I haven't a clue what it's like. Probably why I quite enjoyed the theatre of it all on the night. Especially their devotion to their Grandma - that I get as my old Nan took in all the rough bastards I used to hang with, filll em full of stew between surfs and send em' out for more. Even locked us out of the house at Conjola once to make sure we picked up at the club that night. (Suffice to say we all ended up sleeping on the verandah)

As for the family unit they've cleverly constructed you can see the dynamics of Sonny, Koby and Jai - hear it their voice when they refer to one another and ultimately through the film - their roles.

Did you catch the film in QLD Nick?

Nah...they were having a premiere up there on Friday but I'd already come back down to Sydney by then. I saw a preview about a month ago.