How sad is this?

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

John (Scott Eastwood) is from a poor surfer family. His parents, Shelia (Rita Wilson) and Trick (Jeff Fahey), run a struggling surfing shop. His brother Ben (Chris Brochu) catches his girlfriend Donna (Kim Matula) with Miguel. Later, John finds Ben shot dead in the head on the beach. At a later time, John is a Marine in a foreign desert held prisoner by an Arab woman. The flashbacks reveal a tale of revenge, deceit, betrayal, guilt, and dread.The story is a grinding muddle. Scott Eastwood may be more photogenic than his father but lacks his inner intensity. He doesn't have the charisma to take over a movie. It could still work as a harden family crime drama but the future story takes away whatever tension is left. Once the reveal is done, the movie struggles for another half hour. Then there is a final twist which only leaves the story feeling silly.

I like the idea of blue collar surfers trying to figure out their lives. Surfing is often associated with beautiful tropical places or the more glamorous parts of Southern California. But this time our setting is the semi-depressed Ventura. It's a town with a mixture of working class whites and Latinos.Many reviewers have mentioned that the characters were mostly hideous people, so why would we care about them? Well, I don't think you have to like any characters in order to appreciate a film. However, I do think you need to understand why other characters would like a particular character. I didn't get that part at all with this one.You have this so-called "Golden Boy" younger brother who is supposedly a heroic gutsy surfer and womanizer, but there is every indication that he is a self-absorbed low-life otherwise.I guess you are supposed to assume that since his family and friends are all white trash, that they liked him for his guts and glory, and for his loyalty to his community.Having said all that, I think our true main character, Clint Eastwood's son is supposed to be a fairly decent guy. Even when he punches a lesser skilled fighter, he doesn't beat him up. Later, he tries to do the right thing amidst various people's conception of what that means. But you can root for him.The best performance is by a young blonde who plays the neighborhood slut. She was convincing. Perhaps that is partially because she was an unknown actress. So instead of picturing her in some other roles, you just believe her as this girl.Our main guy makes very little money repairing surfboards, but he rides around on a tiny dirt bicycle that seems fit for a 14 year old. This guy is supposed to be at least in his mid-20's and pushing six feet tall. Perhaps they were milking his poverty a bit.No one ever explains why our Mexican gangster is living there and doing that life, if he comes from wealth.There is a good moral conflict, some gritty realism, a unique setting, some sexy scenes set up well, and a few minor stars involved. The beginning however will lose many viewers, because there is no indication of some of the good stuff coming. I originally gave up after 15 minutes.Also, instead of someone telling our main guy to get some guts regarding revenge or surfing, they should tell him to go to school or get a real job. At one point his dad does say, "You are better than all this." That was a good line. I would have liked to hear more dialogue like that.Also, give us a little more back story on the parents, the girls, and the Golden Boy.Nice try, but missing a bit more depth and context.

If you've seen the film, this review is for you. While Dawn Patol is a flawed film, it's an ambitious attempt to explore serious and universal themes, set against a backdrop of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the economic meltdown of 2008. The themes include racism, sexism, parenting, what it means to be loyal to friends and family, the search for purpose and the sense of alienation, connection with others and the search for self-identity. Most of the action revolves around Scott Eastwood's John, who has a problem connecting with his parents and who doesn't have a girlfriend (while his brother Ben has sex with every female within his eyesight). He lives with his parents and makes a meager living repairing surfboards, although he's doing arguably better than his father and his father's friends, who have lost their jobs in the recession. The problem with the movie is a script with situations and dialog that veer into territory that is unintentionally campy. The editing is less less than stellar. As a result, there are some facets to the story that are probably going to be overlooked:The film title has a triple meaning. It refers to a military patrol, to surfers who hang out with each other in the morning while waiting for waves, and to the early morning discovery of the dead brother Ben, the budding surfing star and golden child to his parents, on the beach.The location of the movie takes place in the water, on the beach and in beach towns, except for one out-of-joint scene when John, is supposed to be in Afghanistan. The scenery, though set within sand dunes, is obviously the same scenery used earlier in the film for the beach, particularly late in the film. While this may look like an expedient way to portray a desert-like setting it's also a metaphor linking cultural warfare to physical war: John is a fighting the same battle, whether at home with his parents or in a far away war at the behest of the government, a battle that pits the desire to find self-identity with the need to connect with with someone or something larger than himself. The underrated actress Julie Carmen plays a pivotal role as the mother of the slain Miguel. Eventually she's revealed as a wealthy, enigmatic, potentially criminal Hispanic living the good life. It's a life in a house behind gates that are the bars that lock her into a prison of her own making. She also serves as a counterpoint to the stereotypical low-life Mexicans we see at the start of the film, where John is hanging out with his father and Ben.She puts on clothing meant to disguise her identity (presumeably in case she decides to kill John). She morphs into someone else: a Middle Eastern woman, who, like an aggrieved Muslim, insults John by striking him with her shoe. And where do Mrs. Rivera and John find themselves when he reveals he killed Miguel? On the same sand dunes at the beach that also served as the stand-in for Afghanistan.By the film's end, John's search for his own identity, for acceptance by his parents and for a deep connection with someone else has led him, sadder and wiser, to the place where that search began, a state of alienation.

The entire story rests on the fact that the younger brother was killed and he revenges his killing... problem is they wrote the younger brother as a complete pieces jerk that I for one was happy to see killed. They made the whole family come across as a bunch of pathetic, obnoxious losers. I got the impression that the writers had absolutely NO IDEA how to connect with an audience. Out of curiosity, I'm going to have to look up the writers to see if they've actually done anything of merit.End result, about 10 minutes into the movie I lost ALL interest in the story. Paid for the movie and didn't even bother to watch rest of it. Last time I did this was years ago.