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I don't like surfers; I didn't like them when I was growing up. I lived in a surfing community, and I thought they were all jerks. I like this movie so much. Surfers don't deserve this movie.

While all in all I prefer Milius' directorial debut Dillinger, it's hard to argue against the idea that his surfer epic Big Wednesday isn't his classic. The film revolves around three surfer buddies in the sixties, Matt (Jan-Michael Vincent), Barlow (William Katt), and Leroy the Masochist (Gary Busey) – all perfectly cast – who in their day riding the waves on the beaches of Southern California, were gods. But then, as is the case with most Milius characters, their day passes and they’re forced back down to earth to live among the mortals.

Except for Big Wednesday, none of the Milius-directed films have a satisfying conclusion. And the climactic showdown between the heroic trio and the monster waves is so good it makes up for the rest (the trio’s “Wild Bunch” inspired walk to destiny is by far Milius’ finest cinematic moment). Before that moment arrives, the film offers a rather oddball structure.

More than any other movie Milius directed, Big Wednesday contains the joy of filmmaking (he waited his whole career to make this movie). It also illustrates the problems with many of his other movies. Which by contrast seem to contain the frustration of filmmaking. In its day Big Wednesday never found its audience during its original release (it was one of three beach movies that came out the same year, California Dreaming with Dennis Christopher & Crown International’s Malibu Beach). After the film opened soft, Milius even considered going back in to re-edit it (as if that would help). However, in the eighties via surfer screenings and midnight shows from California’s Hermosa Beach to Australia’s Palm Beach, Big Wednesday became one of the most beloved films by the subculture it sought to depict.