Project-Blu Review of Dogtown and Z-Boys by Iggy Michniacki

DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS

By: Iggy Michniacki on 12.25.2009

The Movie Itself:

"Twenty-five years ago
Freestyle skating was a bunch of short little muscular dudes popping handstands on skateboards.
Then came the volatile, obnoxious, hard-riding, hard-living Dogtown Boys.
America hasn’t been the same since."
The world of ‘extreme sports,’ not just skateboarding, owes itself to the one and only Z-Boys that herald from the beaches of Dogtown. Skateboarding, and surfing for that matter, were revolutionized on the coast of South Santa Monica in the early '70s when a group of young, adolescent hoodlums decided to use the land and architecture around them to serve as waves.

Dogtown and Z-Boys tells the story of the Zephyr skate team that erupted on to the scene and revolutionized the dying sport of skateboarding and unintentionally brought attention, money, and excitement to a world that had never seen it before.

”Two hundred years of American technology has inwittingly created a massive cement playground of unlimited potential. But it was the minds of 11 year olds that could see that potential.”
Jeff Ho, Skip Engblom and Craig Stecyk opened the shop, Jeff Ho Surfboards and Zephyr Productions in 1971 in an attempt to localize and revolutionize surfing. Ho had a creative touch that had him designing surfboards like nothing else that had been seen before.

This new design allowed for local surfers to show their local roots by escaping the corporate, cookie-cutter design as well as allowed them to change the attitude of surfing with a new design that opened up the movement on the waves.

Outside the shop, a young group of surfers all coming from broken homes began to use these boards and revolutionize surfing even further; both with attitude and moves. With limited surf time and space, the young group of kids took it to the streets and when Frank Nasworthy developed a skateboard wheel made of polyurethane this young group took it to new heights.

”Skaters by their very nature are urban guerillas: they make everyday use of the useless artifacts of the technological burden, and employ the handiwork of the government/corporate structure in a thousand ways that the original architects could never dream of.”
Nathan Pratt, Allen Sarlo, Jay Adams, Tony Alva, Chris Cahill, Stacy Peralta were joined by Bob Biniak, Paul Constantineau, Jim Muir, Peggy Oki, Shogo Kubo and Wentzle Ruml and had the owners of the Zephyr surf shop sponsor a brand new skate team. Debuting the team in 1975, at the Del Mar Nationals, with a strong presence and an attitude that completely changed everything.

The Del Mar Nationals showcased a new kind of skating, one that escaped the standing straight, and ‘rich-boy’ attitude that developed in the '60s. The Zephyr skate team ran away with the awards, with seven of them placing and a pair of them winning (different events).

” There was so much aggression...they were more like a street gang than a skate team.”
The documentary does much more than explore how it all started with these young kids, although that is the core amount of it. Exploring the world of surfing being revolutionized and skating being revolutionized is enough to showcase the fact that there was a complete new world created by this young group, most notably Stacy Peralta, Jay Adams and Tony Alva. But not only did they revolutionize the sports by completely changing them, they also revolutionized the business by completely making it.

Dogtown and Z-Boys is a fun ride that gives the story of it all from the ones who should tell it, the Zephyr team themselves. Actually, the directing and writing was also done by the same team, allowing facts and stories to come out that could only come from them.

For anybody that is interested in the skateboarding world this is a great feature, because it is obvious that the skating industry and world would not be the same, if even exist, if it wasn’t for the Zephyr team bringing the motions, ideas, and attitude of surfing to the world of skateboarding.

But this feature is more than just a documentary that can reach to the skateboarders of the world because it showcases history from the source and shows how a thing went from nothing to an industry that captivates millions today.

“On one hand its kinda sad that we were all bought out. On the other hand, what does a kid do when you put a candy bar in front of him?”
Unfortunately there are a few key aspects to this documentary that sit on the negative side. The Zephyr team is very conservative and doesn’t seem to act as if they were as important to the industry as they were. Time after time they let the audience know they were just having fun, and although that is great, when a group is responsible for such great change there should be more praise to be found.

The negative sides of their lives weren’t on display as well. The team quickly abandoned their founders, all within six months, and the fast pace world filled with money lead to fighting, drug use and downward spirals that were all to real and affected them as much as the positives of skating did. Where they are now was displayed in a quick text bit at the end, and the in-depth showcase only went into two skaters. Even though it was the two who succeeded the most, the team as a whole was crucial for those who followed.

“They were unconventional and they didnt care if they got judged well.”
Dogtown and Z-Boys was a great documentary that showcased a world of skating in some great historical accuracy by going directly to the source material. As a history graduate and a skateboarding enthusiast, I can say I was more than pleased. And although this targets a very specific audience, it might be found entertaining by a larger group than intended.
Rating: 7/10

The Presentation:
With a documentary your handed a variety of footage from different time periods with different people behind the cameras and different cameras in general. But what’s harder than judging a documentary? How about judging one that is based on the world of skateboarding, the sport that has created an identity for grunge, inconsistency and variety by choice.

”We were all hungry for recognition, so we all put out maximum effort.”
The video is presented in a full-frame 1.33:1, full 1080p image courtesy of a AVC Mpeg-4 codec that uses decades of footage leading to a picture that is hard to nail down. The use of footage spreads from when they filmed the documentary, at the turn of the century, to skateboarding footage from the sixties and seventies on what were inexpensive, hand-held cameras.

And even though this presentation is about as inconsistent as Kirstie Alley’s weight, it is obvious the creative team behind this upgrade to Blu-ray has done the best with what it has. As mentioned, the video is all over the place as shots quickly dance around from footage of all sorts and time periods. The older footage is the most notable, as some of the original skate shots of the Zephyr team is scratched and filthy. With that negative note there is quite a bit of positive with the old footage as the colors and dimension are upgraded quite nicely.

More modern footage sometimes looks worse than the footage from the seventies, with scenes bouncing from a grainy black-and-white look to a more deep, colorful palette. As mentioned, there is quite a variety and deepness in the color as this was something that showed off not only the time period, but the boards and uniforms the Zephyr team was wearing. Many scenes look very vibrant and boast an obvious upgrade in detail, but it’s still not enough to save it from the disaster of aging and weak technology.

"I missed a lot of good times, doing things that I shouldn't have been doing. There are certain mistakes I'd like to change, but I'm not going to trip on it to hard."
The audio, despite the video’s best efforts (not successes) to make this presentation a worthy one, crashes and burns leaving the final presentation score (see below) in shambles. The DTS-HD 5.0 track is a pitiful, front heavy disaster that does everything on the front end right, but nothing on the back end correctly. Meaning, dialogue and music are clear as day from the center channel but besides a skate-trick here and there, the rear speakers don’t even see any activity. The track does the job, surviving based on the clarity of the dialogue used which is very important based on the fact this is a documentary, but the footage that is showcased could have benefited from a high definition upgrade that showcased all five speakers. Weak sauce, no dice however you want to word it this DTS-HD track does nothing more for me than the Dolby track featured on the DVD release.
Rating: 5/10 (video 6/10, audio 4/10)

The Extras:
The extra features from Dogtown and Z-Boys are a rather average package, and are features that can be found on the Special Edition DVD. One of the cooler features was the icon that popped up in the top left-hand corner allowing viewers to access multiple angles and extended, raw skate footage at certain points in the documentary.

"This is concrete warfare we're talking about... if you're going to ride you gotta get on that shit."
Commentary with Stacy Peralta and editor Paul Crowder: The point of a commentary track on a documentary is pointless in my opinion. However, there is more offered by Stacy and Paul here than there was in the feature and most of their conversation focuses on the movie more than the Z-boys. Although, all the skaters are up for discussion as well.
Alternate Ending (SD): Once again, maybe not the best extra for a documentary, but does fair quite interesting. This alternate ending gets a bit more on the Tony Alva discussion and doesn’t change the tone of the doc.
Deleted Scene (SD): Some additional footage not found in the documentary’s final cut. This scene, much like the alternate ending, doesn’t change any tone it just showcases a bit more skateboarding.
Extended ‘Raw’ Skate Footage (SD): Additional footage of the Z-Boys skateboarding, without the documentary feel to it. It’s basically just more riding and would be something that would highly interest anybody who can catch themselves watching an entertaining skate video.
Lords of Dogtown Webisodes (SD): Promo webisodes for Sony’s take on the Z-Boys, with the pretty faithful adaptation of their lives, Lords of Dogtown (where’s that Blu-ray release?).
Jeff Ho 2000 (SD): Peralta pays Ho a visit in his Hawaiian home. There is no audio to accompany this short extra. Mar Vista 2000 (SD): The cast features the legendary Z-Boys, so what do you do when it’s time to break? The did what they do best… skate!
Trailers (HD): Trailers for other Sony titles arriving on Blu-ray.
BD-Live
Rating: 6/10

Overall:
One key fact those with plenty of Z-Boys knowledge might pick up after watching this documentary was the fact that narrator, Sean Penn, used to surf the beaches of Dogtown and isn’t too far out of these Zephyr’s reach. The team also shows to be the humble bunch as they compliment each other and show why they were so successful. The Blu-ray is an upgrade from the DVD, but not by a long shot and that is due to the old footage and the way Dogtown and Z-Boys was put together. A nice plate of extras, that have been done before, adds a bit of value but overall this is something the fans will enjoy and others might want to hesitate to blind buy.

"This sport isn’t a step child of another sport, it’s really an artform!"
Rating: 6/10

Quotes courtesy of Spin Magazine, Skateboard Magazine, Craig Stecyk, Jay Adams, Wentzle Ruml, and Tom Sims.