Dogtown & Z-Boys (2001) +
Riding Giants (2004/Sony Pictures Classics Blu-rays)
Picture: B- Sound: B-/B
Extras: B- Documentaries: B-
Stacy
Peralta is one of the best and most underrated documentarians today, underrated
because the subjects she covers are about forgotten youth and fun. A great documentary brings to light ideas and
parts of the world you many not be as familiar with or as familiar with as you
think. To do works considered definitive
in two broad, popular sports subjects is not easy, but she has achieved just
that with skateboarding documentary Dogtown
& Z-Boys (2001) and surfing documentary Riding Giants (2004), which shows the rise of both from fun to big
business extreme sports.
Narrated
by Sean Penn, Dogtown is the
documentary that many skateboard fans consider the best of the large cycle of
such work and inspired Twilight
director Catherine Hardwicke (who took over from David Fincher) to helm Lords Of Dogtown (reviewed elsewhere on
this site) showing how the modern era of extreme skateboarding arrived. This begins with suburban teens and younger
with not enough to do, deciding to invade the backyards of homes with empty
swimming pools and reinvent skateboarding; a sport that was a pastime, but not
what it became.
Giants is also as formidable in that it
actually bridges the gap between the sport as we know it now and its
now-legendary early peak as a popular escape and leisure pastime from the 1950s
and especially 1960s. Unlike most of the
surfing films and documentaries that are endless segments of if a surfer (or
surfers) gets wiped out or manage to totally succeed in achieving the title of
the film, this goes deeper with vintage footage, history and new sides of
surfing that make this a must-see for all fans.
Fans of
both will be stunned (unless they have already seen them) by Peralta’s access
to big names (she actually knows many of them in real life and for a while,
even if most are not household names, they are legends in their respective
sports) and both become vital records of them while still keeping them fresh
and out of the mainstream. That is not
an easy achievement, but Peralta pulls this off and both are definitely worth
your time, especially on Blu-ray.
The 1080p
1.33 X 1 digital black and white High Definition image (bookended on the sides
by black bars) on Dogtown and 1080p
1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Giants
are a compilation of vintage footage, newly filmed (on film!) footage and other
visual items (some exaggerated for effect) to tell the respective stories
presented. I was very impressed with the
transfers in both cases, especially where obvious 16mm footage comes in,
looking color rich and with the grain as natural as an actual print. Unless you have seen film prints of each,
their Blu-ray versions will be a revelation.
The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 5.1 mixes on both are not bad
considering the older audio from the past and limits of some location audio
recording throughout both, sounding as good as they are likely to ever sound.
Extras on
both include Director Peralta/Editor Paul Crowder feature length audio
commentary, Deleted Scenes and BD Live interactivity. Dogtown
adds an Alternate Ending, Extended “Raw” Skate Footage, Webisodes tied to the
film, Multi-Angle Footage, Mar Vista 2000
and Jeff HD 2000 featurettes, while Giants adds Writer/Surfers feature
length audio commentary, a making of featurette and FUEL TV’s Blue Carpet Special on the film.
To see
more by Peralta, we also highly recommend Crips
& Bloods: Made In America in DVD as reviewed here at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8545/Crips+&+Bloods:+Made+In+America
- Nicholas Sheffo
