At the age of 13, Bethany lost her left arm to a 14-foot tiger shark, which seemed to end her career as a rising surf star. Genres: documentary, drama, true life story, sport.Bethany Hamilton has become a source of inspiration to millions through her story of determination, faith, and hope.
The credits run for approximately 2 minutes. There are extra scenes of Bethany’s real life playing all across the credits, so you will want to stay throughout the very short ending. The Recommended Peetime comes at 57 minutes, but all are just fine. Therefore I focused my 3 Peetimes on the many voice-overs and interviews you can find elsewhere online. “When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.” -Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 2.Ībout the Peetimes: Since this is a surfing documentary and NOT a shark attack movie – at all – I’ll assume peeps who know of Bethany Hamilton are coming to see the fine surfing action & cinematography. And don’t ever let the turkeys, or the sharks, get you down. I’m going to stop here because I really don’t want to be flippant over Hamilton’s real heroic journey. (Tales/Tails…OMG what is with me and puns today? I am so disrespectful to this tasteful docu-drama, but I don’t mean it, really.) If you’re looking for voyeuristic escapist shark-esque tales, stick to 47 Meters Down 1 & 2, The Reef, Deep Blue Sea, The Shallows, The Meg, Jurassic World 1 & 2 (the Mosasaurus), Jaws (an A+ film, if there ever was one), Crawl, or even those campy Sharknado films, for some man-eating survival tales. (Docs have a short half-life until the awards seasons, coming next in 2020.) But What About The Sharks? Go now, while Unstoppable is still in the theaters. And that’s why you should see this docu-film. Don’t let anyone or anything shut down your dreams. If you’re a girl, or someone with a disability, or just terrified of shark attacks, there’s an inspiring takeaway here. It “breaks” down to this (pardon the pun): if you want to surf, or your child does, watch this. I know she has great things ahead, and her disability means she has to pioneer new techniques about balance, steadfastness, and belief in one’s self.
She’s a sweet girl and works Olympic-level hard at her sport. There’s nothing here you can’t find poking around the internet about Bethany Hamilton.
So I’ll grade this purely on the level of a surfing documentary. And I have to say, it was about average, but on the high end. (Sorry - I am being a total douchebag, but I wanted action sequences). There are no sharks, even though this is released during Shark Week and arrives only a few weeks before the expected crazy chomp-chomp goodness of 47 Meters Down. I’m not going to downgrade it as a disappointing outing when I expected, well, you know -> SHARKS. The Terminator of water, disabled or not. Bethany even experiences the normal happy life events a lovely young girl can expect (marriage, a baby), and after the attack and the childbearing, she had to work harder than anyone else out there on the waves - to not just compete among the world’s best caliber surfers alongside women like Courtney Conlogue and Nikki Van Dijk - but to show well and take home titles.