Description: LORDS OF DOGTOWN tells the radical true story behind three teenage surfers from Venice Beach, California, who took skateboarding to the extreme and changed the world of sports forever. Stacy Peralta (John Robinson, Elephant), Tony Alva (Victor Rasuk, Raising Victor Vargas) and Jay Adams (Emile Hirsch, The Girl Next Door) are the Z-Boys, a bunch of nobodies until they create a new style of skateboarding that becomes a worldwide phenomenon. But when their hobby becomes a business, the success shreds their friendship. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke (thirteen) and written by Stacy Peralta, Lords of Dogtown is "...a dazzling daredevil ride." (Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE)
Amazon.com: Lords of Dogtown captures the sheer kinetic joy of skateboarding like no other movie (except, perhaps, Dogtown and Z Boys, a documentary about the very skateboarders this movie depicts). Set in the mid-1970s in Venice, CA--a.k.a. Dogtown--the movie starts with three young aspiring surfers turned skateboarders: Stacy (John Robinson, Elephant), Jay (Emile Hirsch, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys), and Tony (Victor Rasuk, Raising Victor Vargas). When alpha-stoner Skip (Heath Ledger, A Knight's Tale) recognizes the potential of skateboarding as a new sport, his surf shop becomes the center of the boys' universe. They swiftly rise as skateboarding stars and find their brotherhood threatened by sex, money, fame, and ego--it's a common enough story, but director Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen) has a gift for capturing the raw messiness of life. Lords of Dogtown seems to unfold haphazardly, yet every scene moves the increasingly dizzy rise (or fall) of each skater forward with headlong momentum. The excellent cast includes Rebecca De Mornay (Risky Business), Johnny Knoxville (Jackass: The Movie), and Nikki Reed (Thirteen). Lords of Dogtown, written by skater Stacy Peralta (and based on his own life), both celebrates the excitement of testosterone-fueled recklessness and quietly reflects on the cost of getting what you want. --Bret Fetzer
Great true-life story of the origins of Skating It was very interesting to see a movie based on the origins of skateboarding. The story was a little choppy in the beginning. It basically went from the boys being poseur surfers, to them skateboarding competatively all of a sudden. Despite that incomplete transition, I still found the movie to be highly enjoyable and entertaining.
Emile Hirsch, as he tends to do in his movies, completely stole the show, along with Heath Ledger, who also did a fantastic job.
I give this film 4 stars out of 5. I've already recommended it to several people, and I will continue to via amazon, as it's really a movie worth seeing.
From Jan & Dead To The X Games Ok the documentary Dogtown and the Z Boys is more historic and correct, but I enjoy watching this much more. I started skate boarding in 1965 at Collage on a flat wooden board with steel wheels. Jan & Dean's song "Sidewalk Surfing" had spread it nation wide that spring. It was fun but nothing sensational, there was no skateboard culture. This movie,and yes the documentary tells the story of how a group of teenagers changed everything. Haggling about details changes nothing, this was a radical transformation by a small group of teenagers. Eat your hearts out Hippies. I watch this movie every year before the X Games to remind myself how they really started.
Even my Grandson Became Bored with this Movie Okay, this movie is supposed to be about three teen boys. However, I didn't know this when I tried to watch it with my grandson, and they looked to me like twenty-somethings who had never grown up. I guess they did to my grandson as well because, although he talks frequently about skatboarding when he gets a little older, he lost interest in the movie barely a third of the way through it. I felt the same about it - it was intensely boring to me to watch what looked like a bunch of immature guys doing their thing. Maybe if one is really into skateboarding this movie might be of interest. For me, and for my grandson, it wasn't worth the time spent watching it.
Thrash and Shred, Heath and Hardwicke LORDS OF DOGTOWN is both a coming-of-age saga, exploring three young men who take three very different paths, and it is also a skate-umentary, if you will. Due to a drought in Venice, California, the teenage skateboarders discover the joys of skating drained swimming pools. This and other styles of extreme skateboarding are depicted with great care, and also sheer joy and excitement. And finally, there is also the story of the surf shop would-be mogul who forms them into a skate team, but ultimately tries to exploit their talent and is left behind. The part of Skip was played by Heath Ledger, and he really immersed himself in his role. I didn't know it was him until after his untimely death, someone mentioned it to me. He looked totally different, and, like Sean Penn will sometimes do, was bravely unconcerned about whether people would like him, or like his character, and he also didn't seem concerned with his looks. He was a skuzzy skankster, indeed.
The three main characters, Stacy Peralta (John Robinson, Elephant), Jay Adams (Emile Hirsch, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys), and Tony Alva (Victor Rasuk, Raising Victor Vargas) are on three different paths. Stacy is very serious about the sport, and works at it. At first he isn't asked to join the team because Skip feels he is not an "outlaw." Tony Alva becomes a "star," but has to realize that his entourage of hangers-on and partyers doesn't have his best interest at heart. Jay Adams is shown as the instigator, the spark that ignited the radical new style of skating. One of the funniest moments is when an ad exec from Wham-O! tries to get him to shill for Slinky! He attempts to sing the Slinky! Theme, but quickly realizes that it is not for him. But then he becomes a thug. This may have been slanted a bit, to make for a more dramatic story. In bonus footage, the real Jay Adams complains that he actually accomplished a lot more than mere thuggery with his life. The script was written by Stacy Peralta, and his character was a hard working and dedicated skater who didn't let the temptations thrown at the young stars divert him from the path to success. I wouldn't argue with that, but since he wrote the script he could've sanitized it. I would have liked to have seen him act out a little more, maybe throw a few punches. Something to show that characters are not all good or bad, but everyone has parts of both.
Directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen) The Lords of Dogtown shreds and thrashes, like a good skate movie should. In bonus footage it is revealed that while filming the skate sequences in the drained swimming pool, Hardwicke got so enthralled with the shredding action that she fell in, broke a few bones, and had to be rushed to the hospital. As a director she showed much better judgement in her choice of the little details that define an era. Like when the skaters are partyin' the skater girls perform a dance routine choreographed to Cher's "Half Breed." What a time it was, the mid 70s, for the sport of skateboarding. The gnarly cast includes Rebecca De Mornay (Risky Business), Johnny Knoxville (Jackass: The Movie), and Nikki Reed (Thirteen).
Dogtown and Z-Boys
Thirteen
Candy
Blackrock
Brokeback Mountain (Full Screen Edition)
Ned Kelly
Casanova
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
Elephant: A Film By Gus Van Sant
Raising Victor Vargas
Dogtown Lite Keeping in mind that this telling of the Z-Boys tale is BASED on a true story, it wasn't bad. Being spoiled by watching "Dogtown and Z-Boys" about 10 times, had problems with some of it. For example, why was Jeff Ho a character in this movie? But since it wasn't intended to be a biographical story, guess that was Peralta's (an original Z-Boy and wrote the screenplay for this movie) call. Have to agree with one reviewer. The moves the boys in this movie are "half baked" compared to what they real boys were doing. That aside, I like this version as a "Hollywood" telling of the Z-Boys story. Heath did a great job capturing Skip's voice, but was Skip really "out of it" most of time. I would highly recommend you watch "Dogtown and Z-Boys".
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
