Lords of Dogtown

Explicit content warning

05/27/21 • 77 min

Sean and Cody exchange the gently-waving bamboo forests of China for the sizzling streets of Southern California as they skate their way into this 2005 sports drama, based on a true story. In Lords of Dogtown, urban surfers Stacy (John Robinson), Jay (Emile Hirsch) and Tony (Victor Rasuk) are having a sad in 1975 coastal California as the waves are flat and blown-out. But then spaced-out surf shop owner Skip (Heath Ledger) gets some groovy new plastic skateboard wheels and sends the boys out to carve up concrete and hopefully drum up some business. All it takes is the Dogtown lads and a drought of Biblical proportions to launch a whole new professional sport and cultural craze. Environmental issues discussed include the history of droughts in Southern California, the psychology behind water conservation, the rise and fall of amusement park piers, the linkage of pop culture fads to climate change, and the design of swimming pools and backyard gardens. This episode of Green Screen is uniquely dense with environmental history topics.

Would professional skateboarding exist as a sport if it hadn’t stopped raining in Southern California in 1976? Why is it a good idea to drop a brick into your toilet? How come people can be easily persuaded to conserve water in a drought, but they think having to wear masks in a deadly global pandemic is an unacceptable infringement on “muh freedom?” Would this podcast exist if not for the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine? Why is the world plastic industry dying? Is the Sid character from this film based on a real person and did he really die of a brain tumor? How closely can you copy Disneyland’s rides without getting sued for infringement? Why is “urban renewal” a racist concept? What famous film director’s father did one of the Green Screen co-hosts once work for? Is this movie worth seeing or should you just watch the documentary? All these questions and many more are skating the half-pipe in this information-heavy episode.

Lords of Dogtown (2005) on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0355702/ Lords of Dogtown (2005) on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/lords-of-dogtown/

Next Movie Up: Aliens (1986)

Additional Materials About This Episode

Lords of Dogtown (2005) on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0355702/ Lords of Dogtown (2005) on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/lords-of-dogtown/

Next Movie Up: Aliens (1986)

Additional Materials About This Episode

Previous Episode

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Having had enough of Libertarian dystopias for a while, Sean and Cody are ready to zen out in late imperial China and break themselves emotionally with another Ang Lee-directed drama, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a multinational Chinese-language production from 2000. When Green Destiny, the magic sword once owned by martial arts master Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat) gets filched by a masked bandit who’s apparently secured an exemption from the laws of gravity, Li and security consultant Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) go off to get it back. In the meantime, spoiled brat Jen (Zhang Ziyi) is still hopelessly stuck on her ex, the dashing Mongol bandit Dark Cloud (Chang Chen). These plots do come together, leaving not a dry eye in the house. Environmental issues discussed include hunting, frontier settlement and ethnic environmentalism in Qing Dynasty China and the lavish landscapes seen in this and other Chinese martial arts pictures.

Why are the Qing (Manchus) so crucial in the environmental history of Asia? What happened to all the tigers in China? What’s the deal with those funky hairstyles on all the men? What’s the difference between “Inner” and “Outer” Mongolia? Did the Chinese have a western frontier analogous to what existed in the United States? What does the title of this film mean? Why does the story of the author who wrote the book this film is based on sound like it would make a really great movie in its own right? Is this the saddest film we’ve ever done on the show? Is the world ready for Sexy Dr. Yueh? All these questions and more are dancing in the crowns of the bamboo forest in this deeply philosophical episode of Green Screen.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190332/ Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/crouching-tiger-hidden-dragon/

Next Movie Up: Lords of Dogtown (2005)

Additional Materials About This Episode

Next Episode

Aliens

After skating the parched streets of SoCal in the last episode, Sean and Cody get shot into space for the first time since Episode 21 as they commando-drop onto desolate planet LV-426 to meet its disagreeable inhabitants. In the classic 1986 sci-fi action epic Aliens, space jockey Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) wakes up after 60 years in cold storage to find the monsters she tangled with in a previous movie have run amok on a distant planet. She joins up with a gang of misfit Marines who can’t seem to shoot straight in a “bug hunt” that becomes an apocalyptic duel with power loaders and mommy issues. Environmental issues discussed center around invasive species: what they are, how they propagate, how (and how not) to eradicate them, and whether, as some characters in this film surmise, humans are the worst invasive species of all.

Are invasive species really “invasive,” or do humans just think they are? What happens when millions of rabbits took over one of the Hawaiian islands in the 1890s? What are lampreys, why do Great Lakes fishermen hate them, and how come nothing has been done about them since the 1940s? Whatever happened to the “murder hornets” that were supposed to be invading the Northwest in the early days of the pandemic, are they still around? Why is Ripley the ultimate action hero? How did James Cameron basically build the genre of the mid-80s action movie? Why don’t the titles of the various Rambo sequels match up with one another? Which member of the cast of this film was illiterate until well into adulthood? Is this going to be a stand-up fight, or another bug hunt? All these questions and more are waiting to be nuked from orbit, because it’s the only way to be sure in this action-packed episode of Green Screen.

Aliens (1986) on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090605/ Aliens (1986) on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/aliens/

Next Movie Up: Jaws (1975)

Additional Materials About This Episode