Although his surfing was explosive and dynamic, his mystique remains because of his elusive nature and perhaps lack of footage of such a great surfer.. for me his most memorable surfing growing up is of him in Albe Falzons 'Morning of the Earth', shot in the typhoon season of 1970 at Kirra, it remains one of the most beautiful and influential pieces of film ever shot, the famous cutback to this day remains watchable over and over.
As the film charts his history through the seventies, it turns to the darker side of the m.p story, drug abuse and a later diagnosed schizophrenia led to him being ever more withdrawn and elusive, after winning at bells beach in '75, he hid in some bushes, rather than come out and accept his trophy. After the '77 stubbies win he was involved in the biggest car chase on the gold coast when the police were racing towards an unrelated incident and m.p took off and a high speeed chase proceeded, eventually stopping him and sending him to jail, which resulted in him being diagnosed and sent to psychiatric hospitals and suffering electric shock treatment,mp never surfed again... He still lives in burleigh heads with his mum.
I enjoyed the movie and thought it was well put together, if you are familiar with the m.p story you may be left wishing there was more footage found but still its a captivating story with lots of amusing and insights from surfers of the time such as Rabbit and m.p's brother. I would say it is a must watch if you are interested in this period of surfing and the dvd includes bonus film of 'dogs run free' and rabbit talking about the hawaii story of which they are famous for all presented in a nice case.
Incidently if you havent got the book on mp,s life by sean doherty,then get it NOW, i promise you will not be able to put it down................
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