The world was simply never enough for Bunker Spreckels.

If his family had gotten their wishes, he would’ve been a banker. Or maybe a film industry executive – his stepfather, famed actor and media mogul Clark Gables, could’ve easily arranged for that.

But on his 21st birthday, he inherited his $50 million ($388 million by today’s standards) share of the Spreckels family fortune, and any ambition rooted in normalcy went out the window. He had spent the last few years camping out in a military pillbox above Pipe – living a surprisingly holistic lifestyle, abstaining from drugs and alcohol and living off the land – and was ready to explode in the opposite direction.

Consequently, a new persona rose to the surface: Bunker became surfing’s “divine prince of decadence” (per the words of Craig Stecyk III), a radically hedonistic embodiment of all things rock and roll, best described as equal parts Miki Dora and Jim Morrison.

Produced by a motley crew of celebrity big-wigs including Edward Norton and Anthony Kiedis (rumor has it that Quentin Tarantino once attempted to buy the rights to make a Bunker biopic), Bunker77 explores both the pre and post-inheritance eras of his brief but fabled life. The doc also investigates the inner demons that came attached to his excessive lifestyle, providing insight into the internal dichotomy of surfing’s only true rockstar.

Spectacle aside, the real reason we chose Bunker77 as this week’s Friday Night Flick was to highlight the photographic genius of the late Art Brewer, who is largely responsible for putting Bunker on surfing’s map. From 1968 up until 1975, Art and Bunker’s tumultuous creative relationship produced what are considered by many (myself included) to be the most intriguing and unconventional photographs to ever emerge from the surfing community; nothing comes close in terms of originality. I could go on about the profundity of Art’s work during this time, but the images speak for themselves.—Jackson Todd