I saw this late Sat. night/Sun. morning on IFC. Wonderful film with good work by the director. I guess the bad reviews made here in IMDb were written by people who don't make movies? The movie carried me into the scene, wound me up, and left me unable to get the music out of my head :) I've gone and bought the Bedrock CD and Paul Oakenfold's Tranceport CD. Point one: Independent film made so well I never feel as if I'm facing indecision in the editing room. Point two: I couldn't take my eyes away from the film, from start to end. Point three: I love the fast/slow motion trick Greg Harrison does to sync /scratch the video to match Digweed's "Heaven Scent" audio! In the end, everybody reaches simultaneous bliss during that song, followed by the inevitable Sunday morning sun (I hate Sundays). Though hinting that this lifestyle can't go on forever it is blissfully free of the overdone TV-style "sin like this and die" guilt messages. Two thumbs way up (as if Ebert would ever publicly review this, laugh.)
Reviews
2 Reviews
Wild Style
(1982)
Very good and the catalyst for the next decade of hip-hop
25 January 2004
I took my friend up to LA back when this movie was released in '82 to see this in an independent theatre. We were both awed with this! In my mind this movie started the popular movement (yes, I know the music was on KSPC around this time too, but the rest of LA didn't know about the music).
Two years later "Beat Street" came out on the big screen, which is 1/1000 of this movie, and the popular crowd went with that, and the music all seemed to go "I'm poor/shot at/oppressed by the white man and I'm coming at him with my gun" as the years went on.
That's so sad to me - the genre could have had a meaning, a purpose, a style like this film shows. I think what instead happened is the studios just cashed in on whatever sold the most. Kind of a top 40 of rap/hip-hop. Get this film/video if you want to see where the genre really came from and was about back then. Get it if you want to see people and soul. Get it if you want to see people with a purpose.
Two years later "Beat Street" came out on the big screen, which is 1/1000 of this movie, and the popular crowd went with that, and the music all seemed to go "I'm poor/shot at/oppressed by the white man and I'm coming at him with my gun" as the years went on.
That's so sad to me - the genre could have had a meaning, a purpose, a style like this film shows. I think what instead happened is the studios just cashed in on whatever sold the most. Kind of a top 40 of rap/hip-hop. Get this film/video if you want to see where the genre really came from and was about back then. Get it if you want to see people and soul. Get it if you want to see people with a purpose.
Tell Your Friends