Compared to the remake of Point Break, the 1991 version is a master class in subtlety. Everything that is artfully communicated in the original is said, loudly, several times, and more stupidly, in the remake.
In the remake, Johnny Utah and all of Bodhi's gang are "polyathletes." Which is a made-up term used to excuse away why they're instantly pro-level at every sport they try. In the original, Johnny Utah is just a regular guy who used to be an athlete. He played football, and he's not ever even good at surfing. This is decidedly more engaging, because you're no longer watching a superhuman (or, as is so often the case in the remake, a CGI gumby-man).
In the remake, Bodhi is looking to complete the "Ozaki 8," a concept that is half pseudo-eastern religion and half X-games category. And which is also completely unrelatable for 99% of the population. In the original, Bodhi is only looking to live a life where he can ride waves forever. This is decidedly more engaging, because all of us want something in the same vein.
In the remake, Bodhi knows that Utah is an FBI agent, and tries to "save him," by putting him on a sophomoric path of enlightenment, which is really just the dressed-up nihilism of a year living at a ski resort in perpetuity. In the original, Bodhi doesn't have designs on anything quite so high-minded. But his character imparts all the essential aspects of remake Bodhi's philosophy without lowering himself to saying it out loud. The film just shows it to you and trusts you'll arrive at your own conclusions. This is also decidedly much more engaging.
Because it's not exactly high-level stuff. Bodhi wants to live a free life. Utah is, in both films, a prisoner of his own expectations and the expectations of society. We're all Johnny Utahs, and Bodhi offers us emancipation.
In the same way as Utah is more relatable in the original, so is Bodhi. Remake Bodhi is much closer to his namesake, a kind of bodhisattva, but in the most insipid, rich-white-woman, boutique candle store, sense of the word. He's almost all shine and no grime. Original Bodhi is extremely grimy, to the point where you have to wonder if he's even a good person. Or rather, you throw out that infantile categorical, and see him simply as a person with a goal, with which you may agree or disagree, and evaluate him on those terms.
Yes, Bodhi is a criminal. But he only intends to steal insured money from banks. Yes, in the end, he is a murderer. But he only murders cops, and only once provoked. And cops are the protectors of the powers that be. Especially FBI agents who investigate bank robberies. They're not stopping murders. Not finding sex-trafficked women. They're guarding the keep for our oppressors -- the same oppressors that force us away from the true joy of life and into soulless, humiliating, labor, day-in, day-out.
It's difficult to fully root for original Bodhi, since he does take some questionable actions to get away from Utah, but it's harder to root for Utah and downright impossible to care if any of the other FBI shills prevail. The only real protagonist is the disembodied idea of Bodhi: that we would someday cast off the yoke of the world and live to find real fulfillment.
Would it surprise you to know that this film (which could be fairly summarized as "fuck the police, go surfing") was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, the same woman who went on to direct The Hurt Locker (a film about how pointless endless imperial war founded on lies is hell, but mostly for the poor bored American soldiers when they come back from vivsecting child suicide bombers and can't decide which breakfast cereal to buy), and then Zero Dark Thirty (a film whose protagonist is the CIA and message is that torture is probably actually okay as long as you get your man)?
Would it also surprise you to know that the original Point Break was produced by James "fuck the man" Cameron, himself? You can see a Cameron-esque influence on this film. From the sleazy corporation in Aliens, to the sleazy corporation in Avatar, to cops protecting the sleazy corporation in T2, to the oppressive FBI, James Cameron's general assessment of authority is clear: it is incompetent and/or evil.
And the piece that might explain it all: that Kathryn Bigelow is James Cameron's ex-wife
They divorced in 1991, the same year the original was released. Could it be that her marriage to Cameron was the source of the anti-authority streak of Point Break? Could it be that her divorce from Cameron was also her divorce from vilifying authority?
Who can say. All I can offer in conclusion is: fuck the police, go surfing