Style Wars
by Tony Silver
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DVD details
Actor: Sam Schacht, Wayne FrostDirector: Tony Silver
Cinematographer: Burleigh Wartes
Editor: Victor Kanefsky
Editor: Sam Pollard
Editor: Mary Alfieri
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 70 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-08-23
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Passion River
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.
DVD Review: Crime as Art
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a true PBS classic. I grew up primarily in a rural Ohio setting, and when my art teacher showed this documentary to our high school class in '83 or '84 it opened up a whole new world to us. I'd been listening to rap radio broadcasting out of Cleveland, but I had absolutely no context for understanding what I was listening to until I saw this film.
As an art geek, I found the graffiti itself arresting and inspiring, and it became one more strong influence on the artwork I was doing in those formative years. I immediately became a vandal.
For every person who, even to this day when hip hop culture is everywhere, scratches his or her head at it, this film is a must see. You'll learn about the formative years of hip hop as a popular movement, New York City politics (Ed Koch appears several times, displaying his trademark big stick approach), and urban youth culture. You'll see undirected artistic talent developing organically in the sunlight of peer approval, the universality of competition (at least among males; females are nowhere to be found in the film, except as mothers), and the unwavering importance of personal expression in every socioeconomic setting.
Fantastic, and worth owning.
DVD Review: Amazing
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of few documentaries I can actually watch over and over and still enjoy.
From the very beginning, with the dark shots of the trains rolling through the yards, it's apparent that is a very well filmed piece. The mood of the early 80s is nicely portrayed with the imagery and soundtrack.
What's really great about Style Wars, is that althought it's meant to show graffiti culture to outsiders, it doesn't have the feel of a mundane "outside looking in" type documentary. The makers definitely knew not to treat graffiti as some type of fleeting trend or mildly interesting phenomenon. They saw the depth of it and portrayed it well.
Coming from NYC, graffiti has been a part of my life for a long time. I can honestly say that this is a very good film to watch to learn it's history. It will have you thinking more about the graff you see on a day to day basis.
I would say that there could have been more action shots of actual painting being done. I mean, the artists featured in the film bombed hardcore, they wouldn't opposed to be being filmed in action. Either way, the picture montages and rolling train shots suffice.
DVD Review: The Bible for the birth of hip hop culture!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This documentary is timeless! Perfectly outlines the birth of Hip-Hop Culture on the streets of it's birthplace, New York City and it's boroughs.
It also captures the Legends before they were considered Legends...Rock Steady Crews own Frosty Freeze (RIP) and Crazy Legs as well as Graffiti Legends SEEN, DONDI, IZ the WIZ, ZEPHYR etc..etc...
Hands down the Bible of Underground Hip Hop Culture!
DVD Review: What a great buy!
Summary: 5 Stars
you get so much bang for the buck with this DVD. Not only is the documentary fantastic, but the supplemental DVD has recent interviews with lots of the superstar graffiti artists, breakdancers, and rappers. Well worth the money!!!!!
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 wasSome call it tagging, some call it writing, still others call it bombing--it's all graffiti. Whether it's art or not is another matter, but it's undeniably illegal. Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant's historic PBS documentary Style Wars tracks the rise and fall of subway graffiti in New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s. At the peak of its popularity, graffiti was as much a part of B-boy culture as rapping, scratching, and breaking. The filmmakers present a sympathetic, but well-rounded portrait of their subject through extensive interviews with taggers--notably Seen, Kase, and Dondi--art collectors, transit authorities, and even Mayor Ed Koch, who would eventually put the hammer down. Along the way, they documented the burgeoning breakdance scene, with a focus on the world-famous Rock Steady Crew. The soundtrack features selections from Grandmaster Flash, the Treacherous Three, and other tagger-approved icons of old-school hip-hop. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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