Russell Crowe Movie:

				Label: Roadshow Salesrank: 120627 Released: August 7, 2007
		Our Price: $14.67
		Used Price: $14.66
		MPAA Rating: Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
The most successful Australian documentary ever released! Narrated by Russell Crowe and being made into a Hollywood feature film by Imagine Entertainment (the winning team behind A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man); directed by Russell Crowe and starring Mark Wahlberg and Colin Farrell. The soundtrack features local artists including Butterly Effect and The Camels. DVD SPECIAL FEATURES: MORE interviews with the Bra Boys, surfing and unseen footage, The Making of Bra Boys, Short Film starring Koby Abberton, music Videos by 3SEVEN7 and The Camels LANGUAGES: English SUBTITLES: TBC

Bra Boys [NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia] [Region 4] Reviews:
Big Surprise
2009-11-22 - I bought this film in Bali thinking it would be purely entertaining and pretty bad as a documentary. It's pretty rare that surf documentaries also have good stories and frankly, I just wanted to see surf footage of "Ours", the insanely dangerous, hollow reef break in Sydney that the Bra Boys were the first to surf. Turns out, it's a great film and not because of the surf footage (although that's awesome too). The film follows the three Abberton brothers (one of them, Koby Aberton, a top-ranked big-wave surfer) growing up in a rough eastern suburb in Sydney that happens to also be on a killer surf break. (The area has since been gentrified, but 20 years ago it was legitimately poor and working class.) With a strung out mom and no dad, the Aberton brothers turned to the beach and their friends for guidance, forming a tight-knit surf gang called the Bra Boys. The Bra Boys are a scrappy bunch who are constantly at war with the surfers from neighboring breaks and generally getting into mischief, but in the end, surfing and the pride they have for their neighborhood help them rise above and basically become good guys who want to help the youth and their community. Since the film was made by the Aberton brothers themselves, you can't help but think it's sort of an attempt to clear any trash talking about them (the Bra Boys gang has been caught up in all sorts of criminal activity) but that doesn't make the film any less entertaining. It's also an insightful look into why surfing is so territorial. I really, really enjoyed this film. Oh, and you also get to see these guys surf "The Cyclops", probably the most dangerous wave on the planet. It's sick.

By Jaimal Yogis, author of Saltwater Buddha

The Wave as Nurturer
2008-05-22 - A bumper flick! Took me utterly by surprise, especially as I have next to no affection for the sea or surfing. Russell Crowe narrates a short history, since settlement, of the bay where entrenched working class aspirations have been enacted for the most part of the last century. Crowe's authorial voice is no coincidence as several Bra Boys play for his football club, The Rabbitos. He confers the right tone of tough, resigned affection for his subject. The pacing and editing of the film is perfect; archival footage, home doco, mugs shots of the main players in a blackened studio, and some of the most impressive surfing footage I've seen. Never have I been so convinced of the powerful attraction of the wave. It's a character in its own right, brilliantly elucidated by the Bra Boys. Their story, and one realises that many if not most of the 200 or so members have similar tales, drives the film. It's a story of survival through brotherhood whose power in unity withstands poverty and oppression ftrom all comers. The film doesn't shirk any of the tough guy stuff that has been the usual, one-dimensional perception of the gang. And there is almost a total absence of feminity. Yet the essential goodness and humanity of the lead actors(playing themselves) is very heartening and will open understanding to a much maligned sub-culture of Australian life.