The other night we watched "Dogtown and Z-Boys," a fascinating documentary about the birth of skateboarding. The sport grew out of surfing, which is so obvious once you watch this, but something I'd never realized. A group of young, delinquent punk surfer dudes in and around Venice Beach in the '70s really invented skateboarding as we know it today. They came from broken homes and did nothing all morning but surf in the last of the "beachfront slums" of southern California. Then, every afternoon, after the waves had blown away, they attached rollerskate wheels to old boards and tried their surfing moves on the street. Next thing you knew, a drought hit, and someone had the bright idea to sneak into one of the many drained backyard pools and try skateboarding vertically. That transformed the sport in a way that no one had ever anticipated, and we get to know each of the members of the Zephyr Team who created and perfected the aerial moves.
Remarkably, the now-adult Zephyrs are nearly all bright and articulate, married with kids, holding down jobs, and looking back fondly on those days. Some are even still skateboarding and/or making money off skateboarding equipment and films.
The movie is exhilarating and makes you feel cool by association with these guys. I have no real interest in surfing or skateboarding, but I was riveted. My only complaint was the shamefully wooden narration by Sean Penn. He'd have been better off doing the entire thing in the voice of Jeff Spicoli—at least that would have been funny rather than painful to listen to.
Stacy Peralta made a perfect film, but I have a fortunate geographic and generational bias. I grew up just an hour and a half north of this scene and vividly remember my own little part in the rebirth of skating. Skateboarder Magazine was more visible on the floor of my bedroom than carpet.
Most of the folks I know who've seen this film love the Penn narration because it's real and not pretty - much like skating was (and is.) I can't imagine it any other way without it becoming just another gussied up slide show.
Posted by: Loren | July 14, 2007 at 10:00 PM
I'm not saying that Penn should have tried to make it sound all glitzy and Hollywood, just that he didn't sound as though he cared even the smallest bit about what he was saying. The main players sounded so passionate and enthusiastic that the contrast really struck me. I can't say that it detracted from the film, but it was something I noticed in a negative way.
Posted by: Karen | July 15, 2007 at 08:41 AM