'80s movies fetishized California to a huge, unholy degree. The number of movies I'm going to see which obsess over palm trees and bikinis and the Pacific beaches is going to be in the hundreds.
And if there is another big subtext to 80s films, it's teen rebellion. From River's Edge to The Legend of Billie Jean to The Wizard (!) to Gleaming the Cube to The Goonies to Heathers, to name only some of the bigger movies, it was a major motif. Rebels were everywhere and, as a kid at the time, I can tell you that the message came through loud and clear. Cool kids broke the rules and did what they wanted, and amazing adventures were the result. Also, girls and sometimes treasure.
Thrashin' (1986) is perfect example of when those two influences come together. A young Josh Brolin is Cory Webster, a name that sounds like it came straight from the 80s Name Generator. He's a teen skateboarder in California, determined to win fame and fortune in the "L.A. Massacre," a massive downhill skateboard race. As the poster delightfully notes, this movie is Hot, Reckless, and Totally Insane.
However, there is more than a little Romeo and Juliet in Thrashin' - because Cory has fallen in love with the sister of the leader of the enemy skate gang, the Daggers. And let me tell you, the Daggers don't like it. Also, is there a better, more cliched gang name than the Daggers?? Better than Sharks, Jets, any of the classics. Daggers. Just has a great ring to it.
This movie has a number of elements which work together really well. There is a constant soundtrack of 80s music (New Wave, synth pop, regular pop, ballads, punk, aggro punk, etc.) that changes to reflect the mood of the scene. The Red Hot Chili Peppers even play a scene of total neon surreality at a typical graffiti-stained underground unregulated nightclub:
There are also a thousand little hilarious touches, some of which are unintentional. After Cory and his forbidden paramour hook up in the den of the Daggers, he has to escape in a really great night-time chase where, in real life, every single person would have died. In fact, there is a a great sequence where one of the Daggers flies off what looks like a 40-foot cement embankment, only to reappear later completely unhurt.
Another funny scene: when Cory is rocking his skate routine in a competition that takes place in an empty pool, the evil Daggers throw jacks (yes, the metal toys) into the pool, which makes Cory crash and apparently generates huge bloody wounds. That's not the funny part, though - what's funny is when Cory's friend picks up a jack off the ground, study it intensely for a few seconds like some kind of jack scientist, only to conclude with total seriousness: "Daggers."
The Jousting scene is also a classic. After burning the skate ramp of Cory's friends, a big rumble starts in the Daggers front yard, a rumble that can only end when the Daggers invite their rivals to a Joust. What is a skate joust, you might ask? It's amazing. In a foggy abandoned culvert somewhere in LA., Cory and a Dagger with a cool face-paint mask ride back and forth on their skateboards, swinging what appear to be giant bags of change attached to wooden handles via chains. It plays out like a deleted scene from The Warriors.
I think it's probably obvious from the amount of text this movie has generated that I have an enormous soft spot for it. This is the kind of movie I thought was the coolest when I was 7 or 8 years old. It has a lot of charm, at least some of which is due to Josh Brolin's earnest good guy skater character and his team of dumb-but-lovable friends.
The real crux of the movie is the lengthy L.A. Massacre segment. About a thousand skaters all take off as a fast drum-heavy rock song plays on the soundtrack. It looks like complete chaos and I'm sure was difficult to film. Cory, our hero, has a broken arm from the jousting scene mentioned above, making his performance extra brave and extra tough.
Now, let me tell you: when people crash during the L.A Massacre, they don't just crash they flying 15 feet in the air, flip three times, and then crash horribly. It truly is a massacre. People wipe out going about 40 mph, crash into rocks at full speed, take each other out in gruesome ways that would make rollerderby look as gentle as eating cotton candy on a lazy Sunday at the fair. According to IMDB, the quick shot of a Dagger smoking a cigarette while EMT's bandage his terrifically broken leg actually happened.
As you might imagine, the L.A. Massacre comes down to Cory and the head Dagger, Hook. Yes, Hook. They battle back and forth going like 65 mph on skateboards until finally Hook tries to wreck Cory, misses, and suffers a truly insane crash where he appears to break both legs, his hips, probably his arms, and land in some kind of tar pit. And yet he's up not five minutes later, having completely learned his lesson and reformed, telling Cory, "That was insane! Good race." Roll credits. WHAT?! WHAT?!?!?!?! Was he in shock from breaking so many bones at once? This was the completely immoral monster who took delight in being as sadistic as possible for 90 minutes until finally being bested in a speed race took the moxy right out of him and reminded him that hey, we're all just human here.
Amazing. This movie is a companion to the other Great 80s Skate Movie, Gleaming the Cube (1989) which may come later in the decade but makes up for it with not just a romance, but also a murder mystery involving an adopted brother, a cop antagonist, and corrupt Asian importers (!). More on that at a later date.
Small but interesting real life subplot here: Josh Brolin and Johnny Depp were both in consideration for both 21 Jump Street and this movie; Depp was turned down for Thrashin', and instead accepted his iconic role in Jump Street. Looking back, as fun as this movie is, it's hard to argue that Brolin got the better of the deal, as 21 Jump Street launched Depp down the path that took him into early 90s stardom.
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