Skateboard

I have a weird history with this movie. When I was a kid, I came across the book adaptation of the movie in a used book store. As a young skateboarder in the early 80s, I enjoyed the book quite a bit. Then to my amazement I caught the movie played on Saturday afternoon television and also enjoyed it quite a bit.

Then about 20 years pass and I've long outgrown skateboarding, and what do I come across being played on late night TV? Skateboard! I settle in for a nostalgic return to my youth.

It's obvious that this film had to be mostly improvised by the cast, but to me that's part of the charm. It definitely feels more like a documentary than feature.

Yeah, the skateboarding is completely archaic, but sheesh, this movie is 30 years old. Vert ramps hadn't been invented yet.

If you get a chance to catch it on late-night TV, I definitely suggest a look.

All that I can say is that the other guy that reviewed this movie knows nothing about the history of skateboarding. In the 1970s skateboarding was one of the greatest spectacles of the time. There were actually skateboard World Championships which drew grand crowds and the invents did include slalom(weaving in and out of cones) and downhill races... I found the other guy to be completely asinine in his reasoning. This movie has a cameo of Tony Alva of Dogtown fame. Who recently was featured in the video game Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, and the feature film Lords of Dogtown and the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys. I would recommend this movie to anyone who loves skateboarding and its history because this is clearly a part of it...

GRADE: A+, excellent

The phenomenon of skateboarding which blossomed in the 70s gets a look in this G rated film about a down and out promoter who sees a bunch of kids doing their skateboard thing and turns them into a team. Allen Garfield stars as the promoter who gets to like the kids no matter how much he first sees them as just a cash cow.

Garfield's probably a decent enough guy under ordinary circumstances and considering what he does for a living. But these times aren't ordinary, Garfield is into Anthony Carbone for some bucks and then borrows some bigger bucks to promote the team. The leg breakers will be paying him a call if he doesn't succeed.

Which explains the pressures he puts on the kids to win although they don't understand it. Neither does Kathleen Lloyd, team nurse and guardian and all around confidante to Garfield though he levels with her.

Leif Garrett who was on the cusp of bubblegum stardom plays one of the kids and Garfield's eventual savior. The rest of the players are skateboarders first and barely handled the dialog.

Still it's skateboarding and Leif Garrett that people paid to see and Skateboard gives them their money's worth.

You gotta love it! These guys (and girls) have what it takes to be the best skateboard team ever, it takes skill,heart, and determination to get to the top of the game. The action was fast and fearless witch turned me on to the sport of skateboarding. Skateboard rocks!

A low rent LA promoter Manny (Alan Garfield) latches onto a bunch of hotshot teenage skaters and turns them into a traveling skateboard demonstration roadshow entering lots of skating competitions to pay a debt back to Sol (Antony Carbone) his mobster type investor.

This is definitely a B movie with stilted acting and weak plot line but it is a fascinating piece of 1970's history chronicling for the first time on film the dramatic rise of the skateboarding craze. It features some of the early real life icons of skating only in their late teens who helped build the sport: Tony Alva, Richard van Der Wyk and Ellen O'Neill along with some excellent footage of skating in deep empty pools that was the forerunner to the big pipes that became a feature of the sport from the 80's on. The skating tricks pulled in the skater boys and throw in 15 year old Leif Garrett who was on the cusp of major stardom as blond eye candy for teen girls (actually Garrett did all his own skating stunts) and the movie wasn't a complete box office flop.

Anyone who grew up in the 70s is going to love the bell bottom jeans, big collared shirts, the proliferation of green and brown styles and short shorts. It also features cameos from WKRP Cincinnati star Gordon Jump and famous Hollywood 50s and 60s icon Orson Bean.