Bethany Hamilton is one of those perfect libertarian heroes. When she wants something, she goes after it. When things go wrong, she looks for a way to make it right. She doesn't whine or complain, even when the thing that goes wrong is the horror of a shark taking off her arm. She relies on herself, her family, and her God.
The movie about Bethany, Soul Surfer, has its predictably maudlin moments, fueled by Marco Beltrami's heavily emotional musical score, but don't let that put you off. If you are looking for a film to demonstrate libertarian principles to your friends, take them to Soul Surfer.
The film is based on the true story of Bethany, a competitive surfer with corporate sponsorship who was on her way to professional status when a huge shark bit off her arm. She returned to competitive surfing within a matter of months, and is now a professional surfer. She also seems to be a really nice girl. I learned that not only from the film, but also from the articles I have read about her.
And the Hamiltons seem to be a model libertarian family. They ignored traditional middle-class expectations in order to follow the dreams they made for themselves. All of them, parents and children alike, live to surf. When Bethany showed a great aptitude for surfing, her parents opted out of the government school system and educated her at home so she could take advantage of daytime surfing. After her injury, they did for her only the things she absolutely could not do for herself, encouraging her quickly to find new ways of managing her "ADLs" (activities of daily living).
The film portrays the Hamiltons (Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt, parents) as a close-knit family within a close-knit community of surfers who understand the true nature of competition. True competition isn't cutthroat or unfair. In fact, unfettered competition has the power to make every person and every product better. Even Bethany's surfing nemesis, Malina Birch (Sonya Balmores), is portrayed as competitively solid. After she paddles full out toward a wave during a competition instead of kindly slowing down to allow for Bethany's injury, Bethany (AnnaSophia Robb) thanks Malina for treating her as an equal and pushing her to be her best. It's a great example of the good that competition can accomplish.
Instead of turning to government support groups to help her deal with her injury, Bethany turns to three free-market sources: family, business, and religion. When she returns to surfing, she rejects the judges' offer to give her a head start paddling past the surf. Instead, her father designs a handle to help her "deck dive" under the waves. When finances are a problem, a news magazine offers to provide her with a prosthetic arm in exchange for a story, and a surfboard manufacturer sponsors her with equipment and clothing. The youth leader at her church (Carrie Underwood) gives her a fuller perspective on her life by taking her on a service mission to Thailand after the tsunami that hit in 2004. There she learns the joy of serving others — a kind of work that earns her psychic benefits rather than monetary rewards. She isn't "giving back"; she is "taking" happiness.
These examples of self-reliance and nongovernmental solutions to problems raise the level of this emotionally predictable film to one that is philosophically satisfying — and well worth seeing.
