Bra Boys: 'When Being A Man Is All You’ve Got?'*

Critics have accused the film of glorifying thuggery, and the type of “localism” that led to the December 2005 Cronulla riots, when white surfers attacked Lebanese-Australians visiting “their” beach.

Clifton Evers, a Sydney University academic and keen wave-rider, wrote in “The Sydney Morning Herald” that visitors to Maroubra risked being “bullied by the resident group of surfers”. He said: “It can happen just for catching a wave they wanted, or for parking in a spot they have ‘reserved’.” Mr Evers said that Bra Boys ignored the gentrification of Maroubra, with its new cafes and expensive houses. “The film sucks you into an ugly world of surfing, localism, violence, mateship and masculinity,” he wrote.

Perhaps the moment that most confirms that the Bra Boys are much more than just naughty boys is the inclusion of Anthony Hines in the series of photographs at the end of the movie in tribute to some deceased members of the tribe.

Hines was a convicted rapist and the man Jai shot in response to Hines’s threat to sexually assault his girlfriend so the “RIP Always in our hearts” inscription on his photo was odd indeed.

Even after causing such strife, Hines apparently remained part of the brotherhood.

*Phillip Butterss wrote a journal article called When Being A Man Is All You’ve Got: Masculinity in Romper Stomper, Idiot Box, Blackrock and The Boys.