Style Wars
by Henry Chalfant, Tony Silver
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Actor: Cap, Daze, Dondi, Frosty Freeze, Kase 2Director: Henry Chalfant, Tony Silver
Cinematographer: Burleigh Wartes
Editor: Mary Alfieri
Editor: Samuel D. Pollard
Editor: Victor Kanefsky
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Black & White, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 69 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-04-22
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Plexifilm
DVD Reviews of Style Wars
DVD Review: A grass roots, street-level documentary pleasing to the eyes
Summary: 3 Stars
Style Wars (1983) from directors Henry Chalfant and Tony Silver,
is a grass roots, street-level documentary that is easily
digested, as it's pleasing to the eyes.
It offers a glimpse of 10 to 16 year olds, in the inner cities of
Brooklyn, Bronx back in the 1970's and 1980's, who are surrounded
by high rises, who brainstormed for ideas back in the 1970's to
have fun and pass the time.
In this particular instance, it involves dance competitions, art
competitions, music competitions, expressed in various
recreational halls through the break-dance styles, DJ-ing and
rapping, free-styling with rhymes as well as by using up 15 to 20
canisters per subway train in color painting them.
This subculture, comprising the "personal lives" of dozens of
youths (in contrast to school, or professional endeavors) is
specialized to the point that various youths' aliases become
"stars" in their own right, with verbal histories or accounts
being told and passed down to other joining this movement, who
are pigeon holed in this ghetto.
The psych of those taking part, is underpinned by a sense of peer
pressure in the group for the best art, dance moves and ability
to rhyme, coupled with a sense of ego gratification by somehow
having become world-class, as their assigned names or tags are
seen on trains crossing the city. Perhaps a sensitive point for
the undertrodden in the inner cities, housing projects,
accustomed to poverty, yet crossing all background and cultural
lines.
The images taken are numerous, well chosen, and the narrative
well planned, the testimonies frequent, the educational aspects
to the masses very understandable. Underground terminology such
as "bombing" (meaning to deface a train for the first time),
breaking and rocking (meaning, doing a style of dance), are a few
explained.
Some locations are reminiscent of those seen in Escape from the
Bronx, by Enzo Castellari or Warriors by Walter Hill, such as the
manhole entrance, or the underground warehouse, etc.
Inevitably the idea is taken from the ephemeral, to amateur, to
professional, as viewers see graffitists sketching ideas back
home, planning out missions on trains, organizing themselves in
time and space, approprating 15 paint cans at a time, from
stores, in their competition. To the point that 8 year olds are
given an apprenticeship of sorts into become accomplished
graffittists.
All sides of the story are told, with messages from the mayor of
the city, police detectives, concerned parents, outraged public
transit users, keeping in mind that these deeds against property
pale in comparison to behaviors against people also processed in
the justice system (murders. etc) or even, the 3-card-Monte,
pickpockets, shoplifts, etc.
The movie redeems itself, by calling attention to art galleries,
school programs for those with a talent in visual art, by
suggesting that the "big time" is possible into the mass media.
It also underlines sensitivity campaigns against graffiti, by
boxers Hector Camacho and Alex Ramos.
Description of Style Wars
When director Tony Silver and co-producer Henry Chalfant delivered the broadcast version of their prize-winning film to PBS in 1983, the world received its first full immersion in the phenomenon that had taken over New York City. The urban landscape was physically transformed by graffiti artists who invented a new visual language to express both their individuality, and the voice of their community. In STYLE WARS, New York's ramshackle subway system is their public playground, battleground, and spectacular artistic canvas. As MC's, DJ's and B-boys rock the city with new sounds and new moves, we see street corner break dance battles turn into performance art.- Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
- Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. )
- Number of discs: 2
- Rating:
- Studio: Music Video Dist.
- DVD Release Date: August 23, 2005
- Size: 7 1/2" x 5 1/4" x 1/2"
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