Real Lifeguard Reviews Baywatch Movie

Wyatt Werneth is a Lifeguard with over 35 years of experience and is the retired Ocean Rescue Chief of Brevard County, Florida. Werneth is the National Spokesperson for the American Lifeguard Association.

Why do you as a lifeguard think it is important to review this movie?

We as lifeguards realize that this is just a movie, and that it is not going to be exactly like real life. But on the other hand, it presents an opportunity for lifeguards to point out what is important about our profession. Like CHIPs when it just came out, the cops are looking at that in a different light. Back in the day when Top Gun came out, all the people in the Navy and the pilots were looking at it. So lifeguards, we have an opportunity to really critique this movie. So as lifeguards, we’re going to take a look at this movie in a way that nobody else has or will.

As a lifeguard, what was something you noticed right away?

No one had a whistle. Lifeguards use whistles. That is something that we use to control the crowds and get attention. Not one time did they use a whistle. I would have to say they were more reliant on their good looks and their beautiful bronzed bodies. Whistles are very important to lifeguards.

Anything else?

In the opening scene, when Dwayne Johnson (Mitch Buchanan) notices a swimmer in distress; he jumps over the railing of the tower and runs out into the water and makes a magnificent dive off of the jetty. But he does not have fins. That is something that we will not go in the water without, is a flotation device, which he did have. But he did not have fins, and he did not blow a whistle and alert the surrounding lifeguards that were on duty that this was all going on.

Did you notice anything in particular in the movie that was larger than real lifeguard life?

When Mitch Buchanan comes out of the water, and he’s holding the survivor that he just went after, you have Baywatch blowing up in the background, you have dolphins doing tricks. And that’s really exciting. I wish that was how it was when we came out from an assist or a rescue. It’s nothing like that.

What was your overall impression of the movie?

Personally, I liked it, okay. I thought it was pretty neat. They actually, I think captured some of the stuff that was kind of true to life. They had some parts in there about how lifeguards are perceived by the police department and city officials as just people out on the beach having a good time and getting a tan. That’s very real.

Was there anything else in the movie that you think was true to real life?

There were also some parts in there where we had some conflict among the people who were competing, or trying out to be lifeguards. In addition, there was some stuff where the administration was replacing people who had been there longer, and deserved the position. A lot of the stuff, I thought was brilliant. I mean, I thought the way that they wrote this in, and the characters that they identified, were a lot like some of the people that we deal with in a lifeguard environment. So A+ for that, guys! I think the writers did an awesome job with that.

The views expressed in this review are not necessarily that of Lifeguard Times™

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