Rating: PG13
Genre:
Sports & Recreati
Theatrical Release: 04/26/2002(USA
Release Date: 01/05/2010
Flags: Questionable for Children, Adult Language, Drug Content, Suitable for Teens
Distributor/Studio: Sony Pictures
In the mid-'70s, skateboarding was widely seen as a fad of the 1960s that had all but died out, except for a handful of committed fans in California. But that began to change with the emerge of the Z-Boys, a team of teenaged skateboarders who emerged from a decaying urban community in Santa Monica, CA. Hard-core surfers who sought to translate the hot-dogging stunts of world-class wave riders onto their skateboards began hanging out at the Zephyr Productions Surf Shop, a store that stocked top-grade equipment for local surfers and skaters, and with the help of the store's owner
Jeff Ho, twelve of the skaters organized themselves into a team to compete at local skate events. Soon the radical moves and scruffy-streetwise style of the Zephyr Skate Team -- the Z-Boys for short -- upended public preconceptions of skateboarding as a sport and a lifestyle, and the wild style of Z-Boy skaters such as
Tony Alva,
Jim Muir, and
Jay Adams made them celebrities who blazed the trail for the extreme sports movement. But while the Z-Boys' success brought them a measure of fame and fortune -- lucrative endorsement contracts, deals to manufacture their own custom skateboards, and even movie roles (
Tony Alva starred opposite
Leif Garrett in
Skateboard, while Z-Boy
Stacy Peralta was top-billed in
Freewheelin') -- their fame proved to be fleeting, and several of the Z-Boys fell prey to drugs, crime, and ego.
Dogtown and Z-Boys is a documentary by former Z-Boy
Stacy Peralta that chronicles the glory days of the Z-Boys through footage of the skaters in their prime and interviews with the pioneers of the Southern California skate scene. Rock musicians and noted skate enthusiasts
Ian MacKaye,
Henry Rollins, and
Jeff Ament also appear to discuss the importance of the Z-Boys' legacy;
Sean Penn narrates.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
;)
