Lords of Dogtown

Lords of Dogtown (2005)

Runtime: 107 minutes

Directed by: Catherine Hardwicke

Starring: John Robinson, Emile Hirsch, Heath Ledger, Nikki Reed, Rebecca de Mornay

From: Columbia

Here is a random movie that actually has to deal with the surfing scene also, and is a feature film version of a popular documentary concerning some surfer boys who went into skateboarding and did a lot to change it from a fad thing to a now popular sport that has many fans and is a staple of such things as the X-Games.

Way back when I saw the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, which I guess was fine but for whatever reasons wasn’t as great as I was hoping it would be. Strangely (especially for me) I was more entertained by this movie version of the same story. To sum things up, you get to see the lives of young kids Stacy Peralta (who put together Dogtown And Z-Boys and wrote this movie), Jay Adams, and Tony Alva, who enjoy skating and surfing alongside a board designer named Skip Engblom (Ledger; I thought he delivered a very memorable performance here. Remember, this was long before The Dark Knight and around the same time as Brokeback Mountain; back in those days his acting skills didn’t always receive a lot of praise, fair or not). Skip polyurethane wheels for skateboards, which manage to greatly improve their usage. From that and the usage of emptied swimming pools one summer, those boys become great at that craft and forming a team called Z-Boys, representing Dogtown (an area of Santa Monica, California); they win competitions and all the boys receive a fair amount of fame. Not too surprisingly, jealousy and cash drive them apart, but various events cause them to patch things up.

I am not quite sure how accurate the movie is to real life (I’d hope so given that one of the boys wrote it), but it’s an entertaining tale about the history of a hip sport and how some teenage males managed to play a role in the 70’s to make it the success it is today; there’d be no guys like Tony Hawk, Chad Muska, or Bob Burnquist (yep, back in the day I enjoyed playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 on my Nintendo64. Other than that I don’t watch skateboarding and I sure as heck don’t try to do it myself, me with my little to none athletic ability) and it wouldn’t be an X-Games staple. The movie is well-made and not only do you get to see some drama, but also of course there’s the skateboarding action and there’s a soundtrack filled with cool 70’s tunes.

By the way, I didn’t mind that there were some attractive ladies in the cast, including Nikki Reed (director Hardwicke directed her in the great Thirteen in ’03 and I’m sure that connection is why she was cast in the Twilight series, the first one helmed by Catherine) and America Ferrara. Speaking of her, it reminds me of when I saw the movie on the big screen back in ’05. It wasn’t a crowded screening by any means, but a group of young teenage girls were there along with one “father figure” type. I presume they wanted to see it because the lead boys in the movie were “cute” or what have you. There’s a scene where Ferrara’s character (a minor one) takes off her shirt and a boy gets to see her large breasts encased in a bra. This was back when America wasn’t so thin. I thought she looked fine back then, but maybe that’s just me. Anyway, a girl went, “Whoa!” to the sight of a shirtless Ferrara. I thought a similar thing!

I'll be back a week from today with a new review. Things may be hectic with Thanksgiving coming up and all that, but I'll still have a new review then.