Dogtown and Z-Boys (Deluxe Edition)
Starring: Sean PennStudio: Sony Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Format: Color, Dolby, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
Running Time: 91 minutes
DVD Release: May 3rd 2005
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DVD Review
In the early 1970s, a group of young surfers from a tough neighborhood south of Santa Monica took up skateboards and offhandedly changed the world. At least it appears so after watching Dogtown and Z-Boys, a documentary about how twelve "Z-Boys" (including one girl) resuscitated a dead sport and created a lifestyle that spread infectiously to become a worldwide counterculture phenomenon, namely high-flying "vert" (i.e. vertical) skateboarding and punk rock abandon. Director Stacy Peralta, one of the original Z-Boys, and Craig Steyck, the photographer whose publicity first made them famous, would have you believe that with empty pools as their springboard, the clan single-handedly carved a niche that grew into what is now referred to as "extreme sports" (snowboarding seems particularly implicated). Degrees of accuracy aside, the hoard of original footage Peralta and Steyck have access to makes for an engaging portrait of "accidental revolutionaries" whose mythology as expressed by themselves (all but one of the original crew give extensive interviews) and those they influenced (including Henry Rollins, Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam, and Sean Penn, who narrates) is far more entertaining than any evenhanded version could ever hope to be. --Fionn Meade
User Reviews
Not what it seems - Rating: 2/5
Skateboarding could really do without self conscious myth making like this. One part that really got me mad was the film maker saying "These guys were making history every single day!" or something to that effect. Who are the egotistical ones, the filmakers there to get rich and famous or the skaters who made their own decks and skated curbs in the rain for the enjoyment of it? I eventually flicked channels half way through the movie after a piece of dubious editing.
Stuff like this gets in the way of skateboarding.
The skating speaks for itself - Rating: 4/5
While this documentary could have been an incestuous, self-congratulatory promo piece for director Stacy Perralta, he manages to present himself and his childhood pals (the title's "Z-Boys") from an outsider's point of view. Perralta attempts to show a "warts and all" portrait of he and his group. While there may be "sins of the past' that remain out of the camera's view, these are secondary to the wider scope of the film.
DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS focuses on the history of skateboarding, from its surf board origins to its explosive rebirth in the mid-70s. Perralta (co-founder of skateboarding company Powell-Perralta) and his hometown cronies comprised "Team Zephyr" and helped revolutionize the "sport" of skateboarding. Told in vignettes scored with an incredible soundtrack of guitar rock (the music rights probably quintupled the flick's budget), DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS occasionally resembles a bigger budget "Bones Brigade" video. The form lends itself to fleshed-out chapters of information along with occasional skate breaks that highlight the poetry of the sport.
The skating speaks for itself and calls attention to the narration of Sean Penn who trips over the overwrought prose of writer Craig Stecyk. Far too often, Penn sounds like he's reading his Ninth Grade term paper on skateboarding.
Perralta's film moves at a good clip, only bogging down towards the end with long-winded vignettes focusing on he and two of his other Dogtown chums. Yet, at no time does DOGTOWN AND Z BOYS ever wear out its welcome. If anything, I'd have liked the film to go farther into the post Z-boys era and the metamorphosis of skating.
At 44 years old I still have my skateboard... - Rating: 5/5
Moving to Hawaii in the mid 70's when skateboarding was just getting big started it all for me. I bought Skateboarder magazine all the time back then and felt giddy when I recognized the cover in the movie. The same guys in the movie were the ones I tried to copy. It was like seeing old friends.
I'll have a skateboarding dream about 2-3 times a year and they are always fun. This movie was fun to watch but I wish it were a little better with more footage and less photos. But back then everyone was too busy skating to take movies of the action.
I still carry my skateboard in the cab of my truck just in case an opportunity shows up...
In the begining.... - Rating: 5/5
...there were the Z-Boys. Before snowboarding halfpipes and the current trend of aerobatics done on skate boards these days. This group of young people were inpsired by each other to push the envelope of what was possible on a skateboard. A tight knit bunch that evenually was broken apart by skate board manufacturer's lure of sponsorship to form the foundation of professional skateboarding.
I relate to their cohesive bond and their wild character. If I had lived in that neighborhood, I would have been right there in the middle of it.
This is an wonderful documentary about a story I never knew existed until now.
Astounding arrogance - Rating: 2/5
I admit I really liked Dog Town and Z-Boys when I first watched it. Being a skateboarder from Long Beach myself, I was fascinated by the roots of the now legendary counterculture. However when I purchased a copy of the film recently, my opinion went a 180.
These guys are way too conceited! I had trouble enjoying the film because I had to wade through gallons of crap interviewee talk that basically says "We were there man, we did this, we did that, we did it all.....you weren't there, so you wouldn't understand it". Look, I love skateboarding and I skate and surf as much as possible, but I treat it as a hobby and nothing more. You really want to say to these guys "Ummm....its only skateboarding you guys, just calm down". The opinions they hold of themselves simply because of a leisure activity are astonishing. As much as I love skating, I don't want to base my adult life around it and be a 45 year old tattooed skater guy in a poolhall who acts like he's still 16. I want to have a life. Peggy Oki and Wentzle Ruml, also very arrogant, at least sought professional careers in something more beneficial to society than skateboarding.
Probably even more worse than Tony Alva's middle-aged-guy-with-dreadlocks is Skip Engblom, the Zephyr team's sponsor and "mentor". Skip was a surfer at one time, not a skater. Yet he prides himself as a skater authority and still has to back up his tough guy persona by being a rude jerk to the interviewer. I doubt his lard ass can do anything on a skateboard now anyways.
All in all, there is some fantastic footage in Dog Town and Z Boys and it is a fun nostalgia trip for those who were alive at this time. However, those interested in a professional career in skateboarding might want to check it out to see how NOT to end up
