Although directed by a female, Kathryn Bigelow, the film ôPoint Breakö is pure male fantasy that provides male viewers with a concept of masculinity that is frozen in adolescence. It is unlikely female viewers would wish to forge a serious relationship with protagonist Johnny Utah, a former Rose Bowl star who now works for the FBI and needs to prove himself. For the film projects a juvenile version of manhood, in which both Utah and Bodhi, the villain, appear trapped in a never-never land-like existence of fund and games that never ends.
In ôPoint Break,ö Utah is on a case of a string of bank robberies carried out by four surfers who disguise themselves with masks of U.S. presidents. Utah must go undercover as a surfer to help nab the ring of bank robbers whose crimes subsidize their lives devoted to following the surf. The film is appealing to males because it presents a free-falling, surfing, bank-robbing reality, where everything is about catching the wave and looking for an endless ride. Instead of being mature males women could relate to, both Bodhi and Utah are stuck in adolescence with heavy doses of machismo. After Bodhi and Utah severely beat four surfers, Bodhi maintains, ôThis is stimulating, but weÆre out of hereö (Bigelow 1991).
Instead of portraying Utah as a mature male with a career in criminal justice, the film presents him as a youth who must prove himself but lives for surviving, male bonding, and is the product of a jock past. Even more mature males in the film, like Agent Angelo Pappas, who mentors Utah, are portrayed as adolescent in their references to women. Explaining how the bank robbers operate to Utah, Pappas maintains, ôWhen they run they dump the vehicle and they vanishàlike a virgin on prom nightö (Bigelow 1991). When FBI Agent Ben Harper asks Utah is he thinks taxpayers would mind paying an agent to surf and pick up girls, Utah replies, ôBabesàthe correct tern is ba
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