Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)

Documentary about the pioneering 1970s Zephyr skating team.

Director:

Stacy Peralta

Writers:

Stacy Peralta, Craig Stecyk

Stars:

Sean Penn, Jay Adams, Tony Alva

7 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Sean Penn	...	Narrator (voice)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jay Adams	...	Himself - Zephyr Skate Team
Tony Alva	...	Himself - Zephyr Skate Team
Jeff Ament	...	Himself
Bob Biniak	...	Himself - Zephyr Skate Team
Steve Caballero	...	Himself - Skateboard Champion
Paul Constantineau	...	Himself - Zephyr Skate Team
'Baby' Paul Cullen	...	Himself - Zephyr Skate Team
Skip Engblom	...	Himself - Zephyr Co-Founder
Steve Freidman	...	Surfer (archive footage)
Tony Friedkin	...	Himself
Glen E. Friedman	...	Himself
Marty Grimes	...	Himself - Dogtown Skater
David Hackett	...	Himself - 70s Skateboard Champion
Tony Hawk	...	Himself

Storyline

The Film is a Fantastic historical account of skate boarding in the 70's. If you were in the Santa Monica, Huntington Beach area at the time you know. I think it's a shame the owner of "The Dog Bowl Pool" is just briefly mentioned as "The kid with head cancer". The Dog Bowl Pool was the epitome of the Z Boys and Dogtown, and the owner that let them ride, is "Some kid with cancer". I believe he deserved a little more recognition and to be remembered for his donation of the pool.

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Plot Keywords:

dog | california | skateboarding | surfer | skateboard | 

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Taglines:

A Film About The Birth Of The Now

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Genres:

Documentary | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for language and some drug references

Details

Official Sites:

Sony [us] About the film, history, news, gallery (Flash)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 January 2002 (Australia)

Also Known As:

Dogtown and Z-Boys - Onde Tudo Começou

Filming Locations:

Santa Monica, California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$103,355 (USA) (26 April 2002)

Gross:

$1,293,295 (USA) (2 August 2002)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Agi Orsi Productions, Vans Off the Wall

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of 'Sean Penn''s reasons for signing on as Narrator was that he himself had lived and surfed in and near the Dogtown area.

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Goofs

A brief shot of a news article/photo of the Z-Boys is flopped (so that the text is backwards).

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Quotes

Wentzle Ruml: This is concrete warfare we're talking about... if you're going to ride you gotta get on that shit.

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Connections

Features Charlie's Angels (1976)

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Soundtracks

"Bad Reputation"
Performed by Thin Lizzy
Written by Brian Downey, Scott Gorham and Phil Lynott
Courtesy of Mercury Records
By Arrangement with Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

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.