Filming took place in Hawaii in early 2010, with additional filming taking place in Tahiti in August 2010. Soul Surfer was released in theaters on April 8, 2011 in the United States and Canada by a partnership between FilmDistrict and TriStar Pictures, and was a commercial success, earning $47.1 million[1] on a $18 million budget, but received mixed reviews from critics. It has a soundtrack that was released with it.
Plot
In the year 2003, 13-year-old Bethany Hamilton lives in Kauai, Hawaii with her parents Tom and Cheri, and two older brothers, Noah and Timmy. All are surfers, but she and her best friend, Alana Blanchard, have grown up with a passion for the sport and have competed together most of their childhood.
When Bethany and Alana place first and third respectively at a competition; they become sponsored by Rip Curl who offers them a photo shoot. Both drop out of a church mission trip to Mexico in order to train for the next contest, much to the dismay of their youth leader Sarah Hill. On Halloween, Tom goes to the hospital for a knee surgery, while the girls go surfing with Alana's father Holt and brother Byron. As Bethany dangles her left arm in the water while she is talking to Alana, a tiger shark unexpectedly attacks and bites off her left arm just below the shoulder. Holt, Alana, and Byron get her out of the water where Holt makes a tourniquet out of his swimshirt to put on her while Byron calls 911 and her mother Cheri. An ambulance meets them on the way to the hospital. Just before starting Tom's knee surgery, Dr. David Rovinsky is called to the emergency room to treat Bethany. She replaces her father in the operating room. Besides losing her left arm, she also lost over 60% of her blood and Dr. Rovinsky calls her survival a miracle.
The onslaught of paparazzi also proves to be a great strain on the Hamilton family and their privacy. The family is deeply grateful to Holt for his quick thinking and decisive action that saved Bethany's life. Her injury prevents her from participating in the Rip Curl photo shoots, but she wishes Alana well.
Local fisherman eventually catches and kills the same shark that bit Bethany's arm off, much to Tom's satisfaction when he tests the size of its mouth with the bite size on Bethany's surfboard.
Bethany perseveres and after a recuperation period, gets back in the water, and learns to surf with one arm. Inside Edition offers to provide a prosthetic one that is cosmetically perfect and has bendable joints, in exchange for an interview. She rejects it when she learns it will not help her surf as it is not weight bearing, as a result of the size of her arm stump.
Bethany eventually re-enters the competition and angrily rejects a five-minute head start offered by the judges. She does not perform well because she cannot stay on the board long enough to go out and catch a competitive wave so Malina wins. Disappointed at this loss, she decides to not go surfing again and her friendship with Alana is strained, causing an argument.
Bethany decides to surprise Sarah by joining the youth group on another mission trip to help the people of Phuket, Thailand who were devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. She joins her youth group to help the Thai children get over their fear of the ocean. They are understandably afraid of the water, including a little boy. She decides to go into it with a surfboard, hoping this will coax him into it. It works, and the realization that she can use her gift to inspire people motivates her to take up surfing again.
Tom believes that Bethany possesses a great surfer's instinct for sensing when the best waves will form, rigs a handle on her surfboard which she can use to prevent falling off while paddling out to the waves. It is not prohibited by the competition's rules because the judges only score what you do when you catch a wave. Bethany trains for the competition while rekindling her friendship with Alana and enters the national championship. During the competition she performs respectably, though she is still chasing third place. Suddenly, with only minutes left on the clock, the waves die down and all the surfers can only loiter, waiting for the waves to start back up. Tom's belief in his daughter's instinct is proven when she is the only one to sense a big wave forming, and she alone paddles out. When it forms, the others cannot get out in time, and she catches it just as the horn sounds. If it is in time, she will win, but the judges rule that the time has expired. Malina is the winner, but she has finally gotten over her differences with Bethany, inviting her up on the platform to share her victory. Bethany thanks Malina for never taking it easy on her and saying she's a tough competitor. Malina responds that nobody is as tough as Bethany.
Subsequently, Bethany lets the reporters interview her. One asks her what she would do if given the chance to undo the loss of her arm. She says that she would still lose it because she can embrace more people now than she ever could with both. The film then ends with real video of Bethany surfing after the attack. Also, there are videos of interviews and special appearances that she has made.
Plans for a biopic film about Hamilton had existed months after her shark attack and her subsequent recovery in 2004. During Hamilton's media attention, the father of Bethany's friends Chantilly and Tiffany, Roy "Dutch" Hofstetter, became the Hamilton family's media manager. Hofstetter, in February 2004, envisioned a film based on Bethany's experience, provisionally titled The Bethany Hamilton Story.[3] Bethany published her biographical book Soul Surfer in 2004,[4] and BBC reported that a film about her life was scheduled to begin filming in January 2005.[5] Production did not begin as anticipated, and Time reported in July 2006 that production was scheduled for later in the year.[6]Variety reported that the project at one point had an investment of $7.5 million and the backing of Peter Schlessel, a Sony Pictures executive.[7]
Though production had not begun by the end of 2006, in January 2007 Sean McNamara was announced to be directing the film.[8] While Hamilton had a series of surfing successes, turning pro in 2007, McNamara and producer David Brookwell with her manager Roy "Dutch" Hofstetter sought more material for the film. The book was considered "a straightforward account" that was targeted to Christian readers, so the filmmakers met with the Hamilton family to determine if there were any unpublished conflicts that could be highlighted in the film. They discovered that the incident had strained the family, that family members questioned their Christian faith, and that Bethany Hamilton struggled with her physical appearance and how boys would perceive her. The media attention on the family was described by Brookwell as "a second shark attack" that had made their lives uncomfortably public.[7]
"She was actually my suggestion. I'd seen her in several films like Bridge to Terabithia and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and thought she could play me really well. She visited me in Hawaii and my surf coach and I taught her how to surf, so she at least looked like she knew what she was doing!"
— Bethany Hamilton on suggesting AnnaSophia Robb to portray her[9]
McNamara, Brookwell, Hofstetter and Douglas Schwartz spent several years raising money for production.[7] The director wrote an adapted screenplay with Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz and Deborah Schwartz. Additional uncredited writing was performed by Ron Bass, Jen Smolka and Kara Holden. Before the film entered production, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions acquired distribution rights for North America and most other territories. The production companies Mandalay Vision, Brookwell McNamara Entertainment and Life's a Beach Entertainment collaborated for the production, with Enticing Entertainment and Island Film Group providing financing.[10] Bethany Hamilton chose with her mother AnnaSophia Robb to portray her, as well as Sonia Balmores Chung and Jeremy Sumpter to play Malina and Alana's brother, Byron.[11] In February 2010, Robb was announced to be part of the film as Bethany Hamilton, along with Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt who were cast as Bethany's parents.[12] Singer Carrie Underwood, in her feature film debut, was cast as a church youth leader.[12] All the surfing scenes after the shark attack were done by Hamilton herself.[9] Filming began the same month in Hawaii.[12] Principal photography and second-unit aerial work took place for 40 days; cinematographer John R. Leonetti shot on 35mm film. During filming, Robb wore a green sleeve on her arm so visual effects could be included later.[7] Though McNamara was editing the film by May 2010,[13] additional filming took place in August 2010 in Tahiti. During post-production, the VFX company Engine Room worked on 450 arm-removal shots, digitally inserting the upper arm residuum in place of Robb's green sleeve.[7] The Hamilton family was involved in the choice of music.[11] Ultimately, the film's production budget was $18 million.[14]
Release
In July 2010, USA Today reported Soul Surfer as one of several faith-based films similar to The Blind Side, Get Low, Like Dandelion Dust, and Jumping the Broom.[15] In September 2010, independent studio FilmDistrict was launched, and the company formed a partnership with TriStar Pictures to release Soul Surfer.[10] FilmDistrict originally committed to release the film at 300 theaters, but when executives saw the final product, they invested $26 million in a print and advertising commitment with the goal of releasing Soul Surfer in 2,000 theaters.[7]
Prior to the film's commercial release, it was screened for religious leaders. A scene in which Dennis Quaid's character reads the Bible in the hospital at his daughter's bedside had the words "Holy Bible" digitally removed from the cover. Bethany Hamilton's father said that David Zelon, an executive at Mandalay Pictures, lobbied to reduce the Soul Surfer's Christian elements so the film could appeal more to non-Christian audiences. The Hamilton family objected, and the words "Holy Bible" were restored in the scene in a follow-up screening. Another debated scene was one in which Carrie Underwood's character, a church youth leader, quotes biblical scripture (Jeremiah 29:11[16]). While those involved with the film were fine with the verse, they did not want the scene to explicitly indicate that its origin was the Bible. Their stance was challenged, and the scene indicates the verse being from the Bible. The Hollywood Reporter cited the dust-up as an example of Hollywood learning to appeal to the faith-based community while still attracting secular audiences. The Blind Side, which accomplished both, had grossed $256 million in the United States and Canada.[17]
Reception
Box office
The film was released in 2,214 theaters in the United States and Canada on April 8, 2011. It grossed $10.6 million over its opening weekend, ranking fourth at the box office.[1] Sony Pictures reported that 80% of the audience was female and that 56% were under 25 years old.
Critical reception
Soul Surfer has received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives a score of 46% based on reviews from 101 critics, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The site's consensus is: "There's an amazing true story at the heart of Soul Surfer -- and unfortunately, it's drowned by waves of Hollywood cheese."[18] On Metacritic — which assigns a weighted mean score — the film has a score of 53 out of 100 based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[19]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times was mildly positive in his review, giving the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and writing "Soul Surfer is a wholesome movie, intended as inspirational. Whether it will cheer viewers who are not as capable as Bethany is an excellent question. AnnaSophia Robb is a convincing, cheerful heroine. Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt, as Bethany's parents, are stalwart and supportive, although the script indeed leaves them with no other choice."[20]Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B grade, writing "[t]he more cynical viewers out there may say, 'Not for me.' But Soul Surfer, while formulaic in design, is an authentic and heartfelt movie."[21] S. Jhoanna Robledo of Common Sense Media gave the film three stars out of five, writing "Yes, it's a message movie, but the message burrows deep enough under your skin to make the movie, given its utter conventionality, unexpectedly stirring."[22]
Despite mixed critical reception, it was a hit among audiences; CinemaScore polls reports that the average grade moviegoers gave it was a rare A+.[23]
Long Journey Back, a 1978 film about a female amputee's recovery after her leg is severed in a bus accident
Related Research Articles
Bethany Meilani Hamilton is an American professional surfer and writer. In 2003, she survived a shark attack in which her left arm was bitten off; ultimately, she returned to professional surfing and wrote about her experiences in the 2004 autobiography, Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board. The book was adapted into the 2011 feature film, Soul Surfer. Hamilton attributes her strength to her Christian faith.
Laird John Hamilton is an American big-wave surfer, co-inventor of tow-in surfing, and an occasional fashion and action-sports model and actor. He is married to Gabrielle Reece, a former professional volleyball player, television personality, and model.
AnnaSophia Robb is an American actress, model, and singer. She began as a child actress on television, making her feature film debut in Because of Winn-Dixie (2005), followed by the supporting role of Violet Beauregarde in Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). Her performance as Leslie Burke in Bridge to Terabithia (2007) garnered her recognition and praise, and two Young Artist Awards. She received wider recognition and praise for playing surfer Bethany Hamilton in the 2011 film Soul Surfer and the lead role of Carrie Bradshaw on The CW's series The Carrie Diaries (2013–2014). In 2019, she played the role of Gypsy Blanchard's neighbor Lacey in the Hulu miniseries The Act.
Surf movies fall into three distinct genres:
Surf culture includes the people, language, fashion, and lifestyle surrounding the sport of surfing. The history of surfing began with the ancient Polynesians. That initial culture directly influenced modern surfing, which began to flourish and evolve in the early 20th century, with its popularity peaking during the 1950s and 1960s. It has affected music, fashion, literature, film, art, and youth jargon in popular culture. The number of surfers throughout the world continues to increase as the culture spreads.
Beyond the Break is an American drama television series about four women who join a competitive surfing circuit. It is set in Hawaii. The show was created by Michael D. Jacobs, David Brookwell and Sean McNamara. It aired on Noggin's teen programming block, The N. The series premiered on June 2, 2006, and aired its final episode on June 25, 2009.
Sean Patrick Michael McNamara is an American film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter.
Peʻahi is a place on the north shore of the island of Maui in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It has lent its name to a big wave surfing break, also known as Jaws.
Sonya Balmores is an American actress, model, and surfer from Kalaheo, Hawaii who also competed in the Miss Teen USA pageant.
Lorraine Broussard Nicholson is an American actress. She is best known for playing Alana Blanchard in the biographical film Soul Surfer (2011).
Faith Fay is an American actress.
David Andrew Brookwell is an American television and film producer, writer and director.
Ross Thomas is an American actor, filmmaker, philanthropist and adventurer.
A soul surfer is a surfer who surfs for the sheer pleasure of surfing. Although they may still enter competitions, winning is not the soul surfer's main motive, since they scorn the commercialization of surfing. The term denotes a spirituality of surfing. As Brad Melekian stated in a 2005 article in Surfer magazine:
to pursue surfing not just as an athletic endeavor or as a sunny day diversion, but to try to glean whatever lessons you can from the practice. It means being aware of your surroundings, and respectful of the people and places that you interact with. It means being patient, mindful, kind, compassionate, understanding, active, thoughtful, faithful, hopeful, gracious, disciplined and...good.
Shark Girl (2007) is the debut novel by Kelly Bingham. It is a young adult novel in verse that tells the story of the fifteen-year-old Jane Arrowood who goes swimming at a California beach in June, is attacked by a shark and has to have her right arm amputated. The novel is told mostly through blank verse poetry that is interspersed with news articles about Jane’s attack and letters of encouragement she receives from strangers. The story is similar to—but not based upon— the life of professional surfer Bethany Hamilton who had her left arm bitten off by a shark in 2003.
Alana Rene Blanchard is an American professional surfer and model. Blanchard has surfed on the ASP World Tour.
Garrett "GMAC" McNamara is an American professional big wave surfer best known for setting the world record for largest wave ever surfed, as documented in the HBO series 100 Foot Wave. McNamara is also known for successfully negotiating a monstrous barrel at Jaws and being the first person to ride a wave formed from calving glaciers.
Coco Malia Camille Hapaikekoa Ho is a professional Hawaiian surfer born in Honolulu, Hawaii. She began surfing at 7 years old, following in the footsteps of her family.
Women's surfing is thought to date back to the 17th century. One of the earliest records of women surfing is of princess Keleanohoana’api’api, also known as Kalea or the Maui Surf Riding Princess. It is rumored that Kalea was the trailblazer of surfing and could surf better than both men and women. A few centuries later in the mid-late 1800s, Thrum’s Hawaiian Annual reported that women in ancient Hawaii surfed in equal numbers and frequently better than men. Over the last 50 years, women's surfing has grown in popularity.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
