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:

The birth of extreme

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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

"I'll Give You Money"
Performed by Peter Frampton
Written by Peter Frampton
Courtesy of A&M Records
By Arrangement with Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

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.