Dir: Catherine Hardwicke
I will never forget the shark-like shape of the board, and the huge rubber wheels. In my hometown in Oregon there was a bit of a hill rising up through the neighborhood, up to the grade-school. And at the end of the sloping sidewalk were a couple of steps leading to the main road. It was Sunday, summer, and the streets were empty like the school. Gray clouds scowled down on the sleepy little town, on me and my red skateboard. I placed it on the concrete, struggling to keep it steady, like some rambunctious colt under my hands til I could sit down on it. And with a shove I was off, rolling down the slope of that cement runway. And when I reached the steps... I was airborne! It was glorious, it was magical, it was difficult keeping the board under me. And when I landed the board shot out like a rocket, leaving me to land on the rough pavement of the street. Luckily the ridges of my spine acted as a series of brakes, and I skidded to a halt well short of the Pacific ocean, which looked to be my inevitable destination. A stranger walking by saw the whole thing and asked “Whoa, you OK, kid?” I don't think I answered him, instead opting to run home crying from my injuries. The scars are faded now, but still barely visable.
“Lords of Dogtown” is a period-piece taking place somewhere near the same time as my own incident, in the middle 70's. The subjects of the film were much more proficient at skateboarding than I was. In fact, they are considered the originators of the punk-skateboarder lifestyle born out of Venice, California. They were also the fiery heralds of the skateboarding sport, introducing a new style and level of expertise that serve as inspiration for the house-hold names you know today, such as Tony Hawk. The movie follows the lives of a group of kids, particularly 3 boys, played by John Robinson, Emile Hirsch, Julio Oscar Mechoso. These fresh young faces were perfectly cast in their respective roles, playing the rigid perfectionist, the troubled rebel, and the self-absorbed protege with skill and nuance. The film also showcases Heath Ledger as their self-serving original sponsor, who gives focus to their talents, but lacks the business sense to profit from it. It follows the group as they grow from members of surfer gangs to world-traveling skate-boarding sports stars, and highlights the hurdles life interjects along the way.
The script is solid, the acting sublime, and the direction well done. Where the film shines, however, is in the art direction. Many period pieces lose sight of the period, interjecting language or anachronistic flubs that simply don't fit. Open up a film in Elizabethan England and you run the risk of using dialect that simply didn't exist, or turns of phrase that hadn't been invented yet. “Lords of Dogtown” doesn't have as much difficulty, since it originally took place in recent memory. But that doesn't mean attention to detail didn't occur. As a culture we understand that “Melons” and “Fakies” and grinds and hand-plants all exist, and many of us can differentiate the various tricks by name. But this story takes place before those tricks were conceived... before ANY tricks were conceived. Tricks on a skateboard were like... juggling while skating, or riding two boards at once. These kids, in this moment of time, changed the game from something shown on the Tonight Show to something worthy of validation as an Olympic level sport. The movie recognizes these embryonic moments, and embraces them. The tricks, by today's standards, are not flashy and impressive. Yet they are held in reverence. When the heroes man their skateboards, mass-produced plastic things with huge vinyl wheels and ball-bearings that sound like a swarm of bees, they look and act like 70's era amateur skateboarders.
I enjoyed the story, which is a coming of age tale with moments given special credence to pace an engaging turn of events. And I enjoyed the acting by these new-comers who fit the roles so well. What I enjoyed the most, though, was regressing back to a time when things weren't simpler, only different. A time when so much of what we take for granted now was inconceivable then. It was fun to watch the birth of something that changed the world as we know it. I liked “Lords of Dogtown”, not because it is a great movie or deserves awards. I liked it because it carried me back to a poignant moment time, successfully and without approbation.
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