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Dogtown and Z-boys - Sean Penn, Stacy Peralta, Craig Stecyk

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Thirty years ago, the southern Californian Zephyr surf team filled their wave-low afternoons fooling around with skateboards. When the rain dried up and pools all over the city were emptied, they began to skate as they surfed: climbing walls and spinning in the air. These guerrilla pioneers called themselves the Z-boys. Narrated by Sean Penn, this award-winning documentary by original Z-boy Stacy Peralta (later of skateboard giant Powell-Peralta) fuses original footage from the 70s with interviews of the team all grown up. This cool, cool film is unmissable for skaters and non-skaters alike.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Dogtown and Z-boys image

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

  • Film documentary surf skateboard Zephyr 1970s teen early skateboarding sk8 bowl pool

Persons of interest

  • Sean Penn .... Narrator
  • Jay Adams .... Himself (Zephyr skate team)
  • Tony Alva .... Himself (Zephyr skate team)
  • Jeff Ament .... Himself
  • Bob Biniak .... Himself (Zephyr skate team)
  • Steve Caballero .... Himself (skateboard champion)
  • Paul Constantineau .... Himself (Zephyr skate team)
  • "Baby" Paul Cullen .... Himself (Zephyr skate team)
  • Skip Engblom .... Himself (Zephyr co-founder)
  • Tony Friedkin .... Himself
  • Glen E Friedman .... Himself
  • Marty Grimes .... Himself (Dogtown skater)
  • David Hackett .... Himself (70s skateboard champion)
  • Tony Hawk .... Himself
  • Jeff Ho .... Himself (Zephyr co-founder)
  • Wes Humpston .... Himself (Dogtown skater/artist)
  • Shogo Kubo .... Himself (Zephyr skate team)
  • Ronnie Jay Leipold .... Himself (Zephyr surf team)
  • Ian MacKaye .... Himself
  • Jim Muir .... Himself (Zephyr skate team)
  • Peggy Oki .... Herself (Zephyr skate team)
  • Steve Olson .... Himself
  • Jake Phelps .... Himself (editor, Thrasher magazine)
  • Nathan Pratt .... Himself (Zephyr skate team)
  • Mark Reiter .... Himself (70s New York skater)
  • Fran Richards .... Himself (Transworld skateboarding magazine)
  • Henry Rollins .... Himself
  • Wentzle Ruml .... Himself (Zephyr skate team)
  • Allen Sarlo .... Himself (Zephyr skate team)
  • Tom Sims .... Himself (70s skateboard champion)
  • Craig Stecyk .... Himself
  • Stacy Peralta .... Himself
  • Craig Stecyk .... Screenwriter
  • Stacy Peralta .... Screenwriter
  • Stacy Peralta .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Bump and grind.

Dogtown and Z-boys is a flick that's more for the new generation of skate-boys than it is for the nostalgia freaks: there's little that you don't already remember (if you were into skateboarding at that age) but there's plenty that you can learn. Ripping up a swimming pool? Dude, where's my car?

The style is very much "show us your Shockwave web site" and it gave even me a bit of a brain-fit (kind of like a Slurpee brain-freeze) from all the squiggly lines and motile graphics (not to mention the hard-core soundtrack) so you've got to be very multimedia to last through to the end without losing one of your wheels.

For what it is, it's pretty good, and it'll pull a few teenage boys off the streets for an hour and a half, but if you ain't into it, you won't be into it after this.

Media intelligence (DVD)

  • Audio: Dolby Digital 5.0
  • Disc: Single side, single layer
  • Languages: English
  • Picture: Widescreen
  • Special features:
    • Commentary: Stacey Peralta, Paul Crowder (Editor)
    • Deleted scenes
    • DVD-ROM
    • Featurettes:
      • Banks
      • Dogbowl
      • Pools
    • Picture disc
    • Trailers: Theatrical and Bonus
  • Subtitles: 2

Security censorship classification

M (Low level coarse language)

Surveillance time

91 minutes (1:31 hours)

Not for public release in Australia before date

Film: 3 January 2002
DVD rental: 18 September 2002
VHS rental: 18 September 2002

Cinema surveillance images

Dogtown and Z-boys imageDogtown and Z-boys imageDogtown and Z-boys image

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