up and down

Rating: 7/10 (3 June 2005)

This movie--and the documentary that preceded it--taught me a lot about the history of skateboarding but made me think about much more than that. On the surface, it tells the story of a group of young boys who created a unique skateboarding style in Venice Beach in the mid 1970s that went on to influence the whole world. But at its heart, this movie is a story about the American Dream, writ large across the concrete, urban face of the late twentieth century. It's about rising up from the bottom to the heights of glory and then coming back down to earth again. Much like a skateboard ride up and down the edge of an empty swimming pool.
While this movie is spottier on the history of the Dogtown skateboarding style than the earlier documentary, it does help the viewer out by focusing the story on the three main dogs from the "legendary" Zephyr skateboarding team: Tony Alva, Jay Adams and Stacey Peralta. It follows them as they serendipitously develop their own style of skateboarding in the schoolyards and backyards (and empty pools!) of their neighborhood, Dogtown, and then go on to revolutionize the world of skateboarding with it. And then it shows you how they struggle to deal with the trappings of their own success.
Since the story is based on actual events, the movie's "plot" doesn't follow the typical narrative structure of having everything lead up to a climax, or a happy ending, or what have you. So the viewer is mostly left with a portrait of the three main characters' distinct personalities, and their unique approaches to dealing with the events that are rapidly unfolding all around them. Which only seems appropriate, since skateboarding is a sport where the object of the game is to express your own personal style.
What's interesting about the way the story progresses is that it shows that each of the main characters' strengths is also a weakness--whether that be Alva's egotism, Adams' recklessness, or Peralta's reliability. Thankfully, the movie doesn't try to wrap up all those flaws neatly by making it seem like "that's why they all needed each other", or something obnoxiously happy like that. It's just the way they are. And they each have to live with the consequences, good and bad.
Another aspect of this movie that I like is the way that it captures the randomness and spontaneity of the small kernel of creative insight that led to a revolution. In that way it reminds you that there will always be something pure and right burning at the heart of whatever the characters decide to do with their lives. I think (or hope) that everybody has moments of clarity in their lives like that. Like the moment that you realized you were in love with the person you would eventually marry. Or the excitement you felt when you first discovered the work that would become your career. Those moments that you can always go back to when you can no longer see through the institutional build-up in your soul.
In that sense I feel like this is a movie with a universal message to tell. A message about how to synthesize the passion and freedom and creativity of youth with real life.
Good stuff.