Late Bloomer

“Bustin’ Down the Door,” a documentary about the rise of professional surfing, hits all the standard notes of the awestruck historical sports saga. There is the golden age of the scene, rhapsodized as a countercultural paradise on the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii, blessed with an endless supply of good vibes and huge waves.
Enter, in the mid-1970s, the Rebels, a clutch of daredevil super-dudes from Australia and South Africa who shake things up with their suicidal bravado and gnarly attitude. Obstacles are overcome (turf wars, condescension, spectacular wipeouts), triumphs are relished, credibility is established, pockets fill with cash. Cue peppy montage and halcyon commentary (by the narrator, Edward Norton).
Happily, the filmmaker, Jeremy Gosch, puts his wide-eyed narrative together with an easy touch. With its amazing wall-to-wall footage of oceanic derring-do “Bustin’ Down the Door” plays like visual air-conditioning. A rather warmer sensation is in store for admirers of half-naked young men with zero percent body fat, sun-bright smiles and faces so dashing they could turn Apollo green with envy.
The darker side of the story — how the advent of pro surfing was taken as an act of cultural colonialism by some of the locals — adds gravity to this otherwise lightweight, if amiable summer diversion.
Da The New York Times, 25 luglio 2008