Review by Gary Tooze

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• Trailers (4:57)

DVD included

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The Film:

This story of three kids from Venice, California -- Stacy Peralta (John Robinson), Tony Alva (Victor Rasuk), and Jay Adams (Emile Hirsch) -- who invented a new, aggressive form of skateboarding has been told before, in Peralta's own acclaimed 2001 documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys. I missed that one, but what attracted me to Lords of Dogtown was its gifted director, Catherine Hardwicke, a former production designer (she worked on two Linklater films as well as the brilliantly cluttered Tank Girl) who made her directorial debut in 2003 with the fiercely moving drama Thirteen. That film was about the anguish of teenage girls; this one, about teenage boys living their dreams, is much bouncier, paced like a bullet and wearing its '70s milieu lightly. Hardwicke understands that a director needn't focus on a Farrah Fawcett poster to evoke the era.

Excerpt fromViewLondon (Matthew Turner) located HERE

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Lords of Dogtown is visually impressive on Blu-ray from Eureka in the UK. Colors are rich and full - grain textures, especially in the darker scenes, are wonderfully thick and textured.  It's a beautiful film and the contrast is impeccably layered in 1080P. This is dual-layered with a max'ed out bitrate for the, almost, 2-hour film. The 1.85:1 aspect ratio looks extremely pleasing on my system. Lords of Dogtown is full of energy and the HD visuals fully support the film's emotions and expression. I thought it looked fabulous.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The audio is transferred via a strong DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround track at 1986 kbps (only 16-bit). It works very well in supporting the action and encompassing skate rides/rolling wheels, as well as waves at the beach etc. with some crisp separations. The film's music is notable with a credited score by Mark Mothersbaugh (Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, Wes Anderson films; The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore) plus some impressive sampling of Cher, Ted Nugent, Neil Young, Nazareth, Foghat, Joe Walsh, Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, Iggy Pop, Black Sabbath, T. Rex, Peter Tosh, Alice Cooper, Blue Öyster Cult, Cream and even Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra! It all sounds full of energy with appealing buoyancy and depth in the lossless. There are optional English (SDH) subtitles, in a small font (see sample above), and my Oppo has identified it as being a region 'B'-locked.

Extras :

Eureka include the, older, uncensored director and cast commentary with Catherine Hardwicke, John Robinson, Victor Rasuk and Emile Hirsch. It discusses incidents in the production and it's decent and organized. There is a brief introduction to Dogtown by director Hardwicke and seven older featurettes about the making of the film (Making Of - 29:36, Dogged on Dogtown - 6:52, Bails and Spills - 1:10, Extended Pool Session - 1:37, Of Course We Want a Skateboarding Bulldog - 2:20, Making of Pacific Ocean Park - 4:36, The Ocean Washes My Hair - 2:23) 20-minutes worth of deleted / alternate scenes - a piece on storyboarding, a Blooper/Gag reel, the music video Nervous Breakdown by Rise Again and trailers. The package is dual-format and includes a second disc DVD.

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
Lords of Dogtown is an excellent film - Hardwicke does a fabulous job of crawling inside this niche and the time period - extracting the elements that give it life and exporting them on the screen with an amazing cast. DoP Elliot Davis' cinematography really advances the film experience.  It's a solid choice to release on Blu-ray. Absolutely recommended! 

Gary Tooze

December 4th, 2016