A feature movie about the beginnings of the skateboarding counterculture and its inception into extreme sports has made it to Hollywood, but “Lords of Dogtown” might leave audiences extremely bored.
Written by former pro-skateboarder Stacy Peralta, the film follows Z-Boys Tony Alva (played by Victor Rasuk), Jay Adams (played by Emile Hirsch), and Stacy Peralta (played by John Robinson) in Venice, California during the mid-1970s. Reckless and irresponsible, the teens sneak out of their parents’ homes to surf in the early morning and cause trouble in “Dogtown,” a neighborhood in Venice Beach – termed the “ghetto by the sea.”
Actor Heath Ledger plays Skip Engblom, a drunken washed-up hippie of a man who builds skateboards and surfboards for his Zephyr Surf Shop. He receives a package of urethane wheels (which grip to concrete, unlike its predecessor) and has the Z-Boys try them out on one of his skateboards. Impressed by the performance of the new wheels and the radical moves on the board by the boys, Engblom decides to create the Zephyr Skateboard Team after he realizes “There’s money in this,” Engblom said in the movie.
After practicing everyday, the eight skaters travel to compete in their first competition where they shock not only the audience but also the judges. Among 360s and 180-degree slides, the Z-Boys showcase never before seen extreme skating moves so outlandish that the sportscaster was baffled by what to call them.
The competition ends in a gleeful yet bitter note. With trophies in hand and obvious pride in their hearts, the Z-Boys engage in a fistfight with the referee after Alva is disqualified – the perfect foreshadow of the intense hostility to come.
With only one competition out of the way, the penniless Z-Boys immediately become rock stars of the skate world, and it is not because of their hair. Skateboards are their instruments; vandalism takes the part of trashing hotel rooms; empty swimming pools are used as rehearsal space; fans are mostly groupies and the skate competitions are their concerts.
Competition after competition brings hometown and eventually national fame to Adams, Alva, and Peralta. They score the front cover of Skateboard Magazine and deals with bigger skateboard companies – but not without a conflict.
Ego-maniac, Alva, betrays Zephyr and joins Team Alvar, headed by Topper Burks, played by Johnny Knoxville.
“I want to make money,” Alva said to his teammates in response to why he decides to leave Zephyr. “I want to get laid every night.”
However, Alva is not the only one who sells out. Soon after, Peralta signs with G&S Skateboards, at the time the biggest skateboard manufacturer in the U.S.
Adams quits skateboarding altogether to join a gang, and every character in the film begins to fall apart before the predictable and unexciting ending of this movie is revealed.
There is nothing to figure out. Undoubtedly, “Lords of Dogtown” is inspired by the true story of the tidal wave that these skaters rode from the bottom to the top before it crashed and eventually panned out.
“What we didn’t realize is that the little wheels under our feet were going to take us on a ride through life that none of us expected,” Peralta said in a press release.
Although the film has been deemed a story about the birth of extreme skateboarding, even boarders may find themselves, well, bored by the constant repetition of fast-action cinematography and slow plot recognition. There is a slight positive aspect to this, however – frequent smoke breaks, snack runs, and trips to the restroom won’t cause viewers to miss a thing for the majority of the film.
“Lords of Dogtown” premiers today.
