Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)

• Year: 2001
• Released: 10 May 2002
• Country: United States
• Adwords: 7 wins & 6 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0275309/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dogtown_and_z_boys
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: PG-13
• Genre: Documentary, Sport
• Runtime: 91 min
• Writer: Stacy Peralta, Craig Stecyk
• Director: Stacy Peralta
• Cast: Sean Penn, Jay Adams, Tony Alva
• Keywords: skateboarding, 1970s, venice beach, california,

	7.6/10
	76/100

Dogtown and Z-Boys Storyline

Sub-titled “The Birth of Extreme”, this documetary takes a look at the transformation of skateboarding from its former image as a land-bound pastime for surfers to its status today as an extreme and acrobatic sport in its own right. Starting from the California surf community of Dogtown, the film follows the evolution of modern skateboarding through it’s 70’s heyday, its decline during the 80’s, and its eventual (and highly lucrative) return in the 90’s.—Jean-Marc Rocher

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Dogtown and Z-Boys Movie Reviews

Thanks to IFC I finally caught this amazing film-well worth the wait!

Back in the day, I was one of the RN’s in the Emergency Rooms, these skaters would occasionally land in. They were not treated well, and some of it was brought on by their asocial personalities- but we all knew they were a talented bunch of “wonderkids” even then. They deserved better care than they received, I’m afraid. They had “attitude” in spades.

I’m so glad I caught this documentary on IFC tonight- it will be on again at 1 am and I’ll be watching again!

Little attention was given to them until the rich dying kid was able to talk his parents into draining the pool- and the film really highlights that as the taking off point….it was an amazing time, and deserved to be recorded. Stacy Peralta is due all the praise heaped on him, and long may those Z-Boys enjoy their memories and contribution to the real sport of skateboarding. As for the few “sour grape” reviews contained herein, there always were and there always will be “wannabees” and hangers-on who never do more than dream…the Z-boys lived it, breathed it, were it.

Nice to see the vintage films and even the lone girl, “Peggy” who was so talked about as being the only female to win their respect.

Thanks to IFC I get to really take the occasional drug-free head trip of my youth and relive the heart pounding excitement again.

The birth of “extreme sports”

My skateboarding career ended in 1974 when my two-by-four skateboard with steel roller-skate wheels hit a rock and I tumbled, for days it seemed, down the sidewalk outside my parent’s house in Boston. By the time the cast came off my arm, summer was gone.

But I have always admired the X-games types and surfers especially. I think I spent the first month after I moved to Southern California on the beaches and piers watching the surfers, bemoaning that fact that I had missed my calling. It’s the sort of thing you should learn young, before the horrible senses of self-preservation and self-awareness burrow in. Or else at best, you’ll be so worried about not getting hurt or laughed at, you’ll wind up looking like a trained bear.

I always admired how a good surfer seems to not care about anything but that moment, that wave, that experience. At one with the forces of nature. A good surfer makes it look like there is nothing else but that wave right there, and the way you interact with it. There’s a lot of Zen in it to me.

This documentary outlines how a few young folks took the surfing concepts and extended them to skateboarding. Ramps, downgrades, low sweeping curves while interacting with the cement waves beneath their feet. In their day and time, this was all new. radical. Prior to the Zephyr Skate team the idea apparently was to go as fast as you could in a straight line on a skateboard, hence my long “Evel Knievel at Caesers Palace” like tumble down the front walk.

This film is a look back through time, to an America before EVERYTHING was labeled, tagged, marketed, and jam-forced down our throats as “Extreme”. (Seriously, what’s so “extreme” about an “Extreme value meal” at Taco Bell? Other than the fact that it is an extreme hazard to your colon…)

Watch this film and watch the birth of ‘extreme sports’. Before there was an X-games, before Boom-boom Huck-Jam, before Crusty Demons, before the ASA…there were these young street urchins who created ‘extreme sports’ without really trying. They were just doing it for the purity, the pure pleasure, of skateboarding in the sun with friends.

I hope they get a cut of the ‘extreme’ money out there. Goodness knows they don’t get the credit they deserve. Maybe this film can correct that.

Excellent film with a great soundtrack, a portrait of a Southern California, indeed an America, that no longer exists.

I don’t care for Sean Penn but he does a decent job narrating.

When skateboarding became more than nose wheelies and handstands.

Anyone looking to learn more about the development of skateboarding should find Dogtown and Z-Boys adequate research material. This is not to be confused with Lords of Dogtown, that sorry Hollywood attempt to cash in on the success of the original Dogtown revival.

Directed by Stacey Peralta, a former Z-Boys himself as well as pro skater and mastermind behind the 80s Bones Brigade, and co-written with skateboarding photojournalist Craig Stecyk, this documentary traces how a group of surfing kids from Southern California’s mean streets (known as Dogtown) who formed the Z-Boys skateboard team (actually there was one girl–Peggy Oki) revolutionized skateboarding. The film contains interviews from nearly all of the Z-Boys (Chris Cahill’s whereabouts are unknown) with the most noteable being bad ass Tony Alva and the youngest, Jay Adams, who’s talents (along with Perlata) seemed to transcend the rest of the teams. There are interviews of the team’s (and the Dogtown shop) founders, surfboard designer Jeff Ho, Skip Engbloom, and Craig Stecyk. There are also interviews of folks like Tony Hawk (obviously), Ian McKaye (Fugazi), and Henry Rollins, who were young kids in the 70s when Dogtown was making it’s influence on skateboarding (skateboarding was a whole other context in previous years as the documentary explains).

It really shows you not only who the Dogtown team was and how they formed, but why their style changed not only skateboarding tricks (pool skating became immensley popular, and thus gave way to vert skating), but also facilitated the sport (though not into the extreme commercialism it is today) as more than just the fleeting fad it had been earlier as these surfing kids who’s waves ran out in the early morning needed ways to spend their time and eventually got into skateboarding. The days of Russ Howell and Alan Gelfand were long over as the Dogtown, at least through the publicity of their skate team, paved the way for the new generation of skaters. Because Dogtown got all the attention, they were able to push skating to the next step.

It’s a great documentary in the way that it is put together, though Stacey Peralta always knew how to do this even when producing the Bones Brigade mini movies/skate demos like “Ban This” and “Search for Animal Chin.” Narrated by Sean Penn, the film is accompanied by a fantastic soundtrack, contains lots of terrific archive footage, and lots of interview to give you a genuine feel of who the Z-Boys were and how they made their mark on skateboarding.