'Big Wednesday' could actually be called 'White Privilege: The Movie'

It's a weird experience watching the 1978 film Big Wednesday -- a nostalgia soaked homage to white America's loss of innocence in the 1960s -- in the wake of what's going on in the real world right now.

It's not that the movie is terrible, it has its charms and some really glorious surfing footage (the film's writer-director, John Milius, is an aficionado of the sport), but the movie features a lot of content that really reminded my that we truly live in two Americas.

For instance, although the movie is set in the '60s, there isn't a single mention of civil rights and there is barely a single black person in it. The three leads are white, blonde, tanned jocular types who party and carouse all day without a care in the world.

In the first third of the film the three lads (played by '70s staples William Katt, Jan-Michael Vincent and pre-meltdowns Gary Busey) throw a raucous, no holds-barred beach party. This lily white affair features girls getting wrestled, a house being virtually torn apart and plenty of 'good-natured' fistfights.

When I watched this seemingly harmless scene, in the aftermath of the Eric Garner and Michael Brown grand jury decisions, I couldn't help but think to myself -- what if the characters on screen were black? Would this unbridled hedonism and mayhem be interpreted as fun or would it be deemed repellent and even scary.

In my estimation, the cops would have been called 15 minutes into the proceedings, where in this film white lawlessness is met with a "boys will be boys" shrug. Later in the film one of the main character's girlfriends reveals that she's pregnant with an almost whimsical smile. The news doesn't plunge anyone into a panic, as if it's presumed that child will almost certainly be provided for.

Katt, Vincent and Busey in Big Wednesday

Milius, who has made no bones about the fact that he is a reactionary conservative, no doubt enjoyed this kind of lifestyle and to this day right-wingers talk about our pristine untroubled past as something we ought to return to. But as an African-American, when I watch movies like this about characters who needn't be troubled by prejudice or classism, I think I am so glad I wasn't alive then.

Sure the Vietnam war and other factors darken our heroes trajectory but they never face a monolith on the level of institutional racism. But of course that was going on that time. And while these California surfer dudes were having the time of their lives crossing over the border into Mexico, black and brown people were being oppressed to a stunning degree.

In the movie's defense, it was made in 1978 -- a time that was arguably far less contentious than the one we currently live in. The top films that year were movies like Superman and Grease, so light entertainment was very much in keeping with the spirit of the times.

I guess I am just less interested in being amused these days. After Eric Garner and Michael Brown, I'm in the mood for movies that reflect that reality of life, the struggles and the tension of the everyday grind. Escapism can be great, but at the end of the day you escape the pain of living in a racially polarized society.