Dogtown and Z-Boys (Deluxe Edition)

I don't skate, but this documentary captures the legendary glory days of skating, tearing all the rock and sunshine right out there to tell you the tale of pavement kings and queens. This is what we all wish we could do, and it's told in such a way that you can literally feel the vibe of history. Today it might not be much, everyone's skating everywhere and jumping off anything, but these guys would break the boards and tape them back together just to get another mile or so out of it. Maybe it was bound to happen sometime, but I'm glad skateboarding isn't still a trendy fad of careful padding and careful downhill riding. These people broke the mold, and I'm in awe. It's a great documentary experience.

"Dogtown and Z-Boys" is a documentary on the Z-Boys of Venice, California from the tough Dogtown neighborhood.

The Z-Boys aka the Zephyr team literally revolutionized skateboarding with an aggressive in-your-face style that shredded the competition.

Growing up in the 1970's, the documentary is blessed with old school footage (that is great quality compared to many surfing films that came out in the early 90's) that I just kept repeating... "sick".

The documentary shows the kids skating as well as a few classic clips of other competitors of skateboarding in the 50's and 60's and how the Z-Boys just came in and shattered the image of what skateboarding was all about with their freestyle surfing way on a skateboard.

Also, footage of the group skating in emptied pools brought upon the California drought.

Also, how the friends became rivals as skateboard manufacturers started to offer contracts and get a hold of a Z-Boy and make money off them.

Naturally, the talents of the kids of that time earned them great money but not all were able to overcome the limelight that introduced a few to drugs and hard tmes.

From the awesome freestyle of Jay Adams, the competitor and uber talented Tony Alva (aka godfather of skateboarding) and talented Stacy Peralta (who gone on to create Powell-Peralta Skateboards, the Bones Brigade which led to some guy named Tony Hawk), we are reminded of what these three and other members of the Zephyr team brought to skateboarding.

My favorite part of the film which I can't stop watching is the 1975 Del Mar Invitational where people saw the Zephyr team debut and saw a new style that no one has seen before. What makes it even more exciting was the footage of the skateboarding competitiors of that time and then the entrance of the Zephyr team and seeing how the competitors were frustrated by the Zephyr team.

That was a definite, classic moment in my opinion from yesteryear and to see the footage today is just incredible.

As for the video quality of this documentary, it was expected that certain footage (being very old) would be grainy and we would see some artifacts but a lot of those messes were cleaned up and look great on this DVD.

As for the DVD, this is the second release of the DVD (Deluxe Edition) which features a sneak peak at the theatrical release of "Lords of Dogtown", two webisodes of "Lords of Dogtown", "Alternate Ending", Director and Editor commentary and extended raw footage.

Footage includes Stacy Peralta visiting the original Zephyr store owner Jeff Ho shaping some surfboards in Hawaii and even Stacy Peralta and film crew skateboarding at an old Z-Boy hangout/skateboard spot.

Awesome footage of the group and competitions combined with a cool soundtrack, cool interviews of most of Zephyr team and a lot of cool, in-depth information of the past and what happened to the members of the team now.

Suffice to say that this film has done really well on the film festival circuit especially at Sundance and AFI and Stacey Peralta continues to show his talent as a director.

As someone who grew up wanting to be a skater, was not very good, I remember reading about many of these guys and watching skate movies that featured several of them. It was great to see how the whole movement came about.

I found it very interesting to see the areas of Venice and The Santa Monica Bay and what they looked like at that time. I spent four summers lifeguarding Venice Beach in college and recognized alot of the locations or recall hearing about "the old days" from those that had worked the beach back then.

Stacy Peralta makes his mark as a legitimate film maker and documentarian with this film. If you enjoy this type of film and have not yet seen Riding Giants, take the time and watch it. You emerge with a great respect for those that are able to and willing to tackle and ride some of the largest waves on the planet.

Dogtown and Z-Boys brought back the feel and culture of Venice and Santa Monica in the 70's. I was born and raised there and remember hearing about many of the skaters depicted in Dogtown. Especially Tony Alva, everyone knew who he was. One night while at a teenage party in Malibu he managed to offend one of my girlfriends who promptly pushed him into the pool. This movie brought back so many memories of that time. Anyone who grew up in the 70's is sure to love this movie. All the skaters of today should watch this to learn more about the true roots of skateboarding.

It's always great to watch something grow and evolve: just as baseball probably got started in backyards and parks many centuries ago, skateboarding has kick-started its' own "learning curve", and it seems to be a much faster pace than America's Favorite Sport.
The kids with a few bucks could buy (I hope) a nice plank of maple or oak...then fashion something funky for cement, asphalt, or what swimming pools are made of.
These young guys found a spot to enjoy themselves, to hone their craft, although I doubt they knew what "hone" meant or that they were initiating a new sport. (Which at its' best involved alot of skill, grace, and...rowdiness).
I can't call them "working class" heroes because in this film it seems that the only poeople with jobs are the surf-shop owners and the police.
There's a very telling image of a skateboarder circling some presumptive *private* swimming pool - there appears to be a combination of standing gray water standing and green slime. The dude falls right in.
Did he say....wow....that's a sign. I'm going for my GED. (Then I'll apply for a job as Swimming Pool Technician.....). Forgive my presumptuousness, but I doubt it.
They spend just a little too much time "sidewalk [and private pool] surfin'" back then - and it's not cool to tear up a tax-payers' private digs and make Police waste time on punks (with hearts of gold - threw that in).
Interviews with those who were there are professionally done; an interview with legendary Jay Adams, now in drug-related custody, is at once riveting and repelling. Interviews with those who got rich and famous are also well-done, particularly with the interviewee who affirmatively asserts that he was *there* when the name "Dogtown" was created.
It appears that one original skateboard icon has actually moved on to environmentally-positive endeavours: the healthiest, happiest appearing exponent of the 'boarding pre-history is a woman - can't say it was a "sport formerly dominated by men", as she had equal status as a founder.
Ex-skateboarder Sean Penn does a nice, mellow narration - an adroit approach considering that the sport basically is a quiet one.
The actual footage appears to be all Super-8, so we have that "home movie" feel which nicely complements the high-tech. quality of the contemporary footage of the stars.
There's extras including an interview with the Producer of "The Lords Of Dogtown", which create interest in seeing that flick.