Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)

92% of critics liked it
(95 reviews)
86% of users liked it
(12,927 ratings)

In the mid-'70s, skateboarding was widely seen as a fad of the 1960s that had all but died out, except for a handful of committed fans in California. But that began to change with the emerge of the Z-Boys, a team of teenaged skateboarders who emerged from a decaying urban community in Santa Monica,… More In the mid-'70s, skateboarding was widely seen as a fad of the 1960s that had all but died out, except for a handful of committed fans in California. But that began to change with the emerge of the Z-Boys, a team of teenaged skateboarders who emerged from a decaying urban community in Santa Monica, CA. Hard-core surfers who sought to translate the hot-dogging stunts of world-class wave riders onto their skateboards began hanging out at the Zephyr Productions Surf Shop, a store that stocked top-grade equipment for local surfers and skaters, and with the help of the store's owner Jeff Ho, twelve of the skaters organized themselves into a team to compete at local skate events. Soon the radical moves and scruffy-streetwise style of the Zephyr Skate Team -- the Z-Boys for short -- upended public preconceptions of skateboarding as a sport and a lifestyle, and the wild style of Z-Boy skaters such as Tony Alva, Jim Muir, and Jay Adams made them celebrities who blazed the trail for the extreme sports movement. But while the Z-Boys' success brought them a measure of fame and fortune -- lucrative endorsement contracts, deals to manufacture their own custom skateboards, and even movie roles (Tony Alva starred opposite Leif Garrett in Skateboard, while Z-Boy Stacy Peralta was top-billed in Freewheelin') -- their fame proved to be fleeting, and several of the Z-Boys fell prey to drugs, crime, and ego. Dogtown and Z-Boys is a documentary by former Z-Boy Stacy Peralta that chronicles the glory days of the Z-Boys through footage of the skaters in their prime and interviews with the pioneers of the Southern California skate scene. Rock musicians and noted skate enthusiasts Ian MacKaye, Henry Rollins, and Jeff Ament also appear to discuss the importance of the Z-Boys' legacy; Sean Penn narrates. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 1 hr. 31 min.
Directed By: Stacy Peralta
Written By: Stacy Peralta, Craig Stecyk
Genres: Documentary, Sports & Fitness

In Theaters: Jan 19, 2001 Wide
On DVD: Aug 6, 2002
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

Critic Reviews

David Ansen, Newsweek
You want to know more about their private lives than you get. But most viewers may be too stoked by the sheer adrenaline rush of the subject to care.
Dennis Harvey, Variety
Package is lively, if loosely structured.
Meredith Brody, Chicago Reader
This propulsive, highly satisfying 2002 documentary concerns a group of daredevil skateboarders from an economically depressed and dangerous area of Santa Monica known as Dogtown who reinvented the sport in the 70s.
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
Few sports films catch their time, place and sport so well.
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star
This is pop history that blows your hair back.
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail
Blatant promotion aside, the chronicles of Dogtown make for fascinating insider cultural history.
James Plath, Movie Metropolis
Raw, baby, raw. That's what this documentary is, and that's why it's not meant for Blu-ray.
Kelly Kessler, Common Sense Media
Before Tony Hawk, skateboarding had the Z-Boys.
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
Skateboard-legend-turned-filmmaker Stacy Peralta rips open the paradigm of the documentary form in much the same way that he and his young Santa Monica Zephyr Competition Skate Team revolutionized skateboarding in the mid-'70s.
, Film4
Marred by a self-importance and heavy-handed assertion of mythic status that some may well find misplaced or just downright ridiculous.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
I know exactly nothing about skateboarding, but this wild, exuberant documentary puts it all in perspective, outlining a crew of 12 surfers-turned-skaters who pioneered the sport -- and, some say, the art form.
, Time Out
Infectiously exuberant.
Scott Weinberg, DVD Clinic
If you're a boarding aficionado, this movie's your new best friend.
Martin Scribbs, Low IQ Canadian
Using the Zephyr team's creation, its sudden fame, and death by defection, Dogtown documents genuine 20th century tribalism.
Susan Tavernetti, Palo Alto Weekly
The straight cuts illustrate how the Zephyr team's revolutionary, riffing style was both an extension of surfing and aesthetically beautiful.
David Poland, Hot Button
There is something I find deeply disturbing about a documentary made about one's own life that never acknowledges its first person status.
Adam Smith, Empire Magazine
Quite possibly the best documentary about youth and sport since Hoop Dreams.
Rich Cline, Film Threat
The film fearlessly gets under the skin of the people involved ... This makes it not only a detailed historical document, but an engaging and moving portrait of a subculture.
Tim Sanger, Film Threat
It's an entertaining study for anyone, as it makes you believe that skateboarding is the ultimate guerilla sport -- taking something that exists and is shrugged off and turning it into something amazing.
Robert Roten, Laramie Movie Scope
An enthusiastic ode to a few of the pioneers of extreme sports.

Read all 22 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Lorenzo v

"This is concrete warfare we're talking about... if you're going to ride you gotta get on that shit." Documentary about the pioneering 1970s Zephyr skating team. <center>"This is concrete warfare we're talking about... if you're going to ride you gotta get on that shit." Documentary about the pioneering 1970s Zephyr skating team. <center>REVIEW</center> Waycool documentary by legendary skateboarding ace Peralta chronicling the origins of the original extreme sport with vintage Super 8mm home movie archival footage, black & white stills, and assorted media combining with a classic rock and roll score to form a comprehensive and obvious valentine to a way of life. Gravity defying gravitas is captured like lightning in a bottle showing the wayfarer scruffy charisma and authority-defying nonchalance that has a visceral thrill in watching underdogs become cult heroes. Excellent portrayal of unbridled angst, anomie and pure adrenaline rushes from curling on a wave from the prototypical surf in the Pacific Ocean to the concrete playgrounds of abandoned suburban pools. Narrated by perfect choice, Sean Penn, The Artist Formerly Known As Spicoli.
Leo L

Phenomenal.
Wu C

The history of skateboading. Very rad.