Morning Of The Earth

A classic surfing movie and a classic of the hippie era, Morning of the Earth, subtitled “A fantasy of surfers living in three unspoiled lands and playing in Nature's oceans” is more of a sensory experience along the lines of Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi (1981) than a conventional narrative movie. Indeed there is no narrative or even dialogue, the film is simply a soundtrack of Australian music of the era, featuring artists such as Brian Cadd, G. Wayne Thomas, and Taman Shud matched with wonderful photography of some of the leading surfers of the day such as Nat Young riding the big waves of Australia, Bali, and Hawaii.

If there is any criticism to be made of the film it is that there is not enough of the counter-cultural lifestyle of the period depicted or used to contrast with the surfing footage. But probably that would have been less of a priority then and as a tripped out audio-visual experience the film still works well today. The film has deservedly acquired iconic status and director Falzon has his own website that trades on the legend

 

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