Movie Details
| Title: | Class Action Park | |
| Director: | Seth Porges, Chris Charles Scott III | |
| Year: | 2020 | |
| Genre: | Documentary | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 12.11.20 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 12.11.20 | Internet | This Screening is part of event: DVRfest 2020 Documentary about infamously dangerous Action Park in New Jersey. This was really good. I didn't grow up in that area but I do remember Rikki Rachtman and Alice in Chains shooting there for a Headbanger's Ball and have since discovered it via random internet blogs and whatnot. I think there's even another mini-doc that this used for the owner's son's interview footage that I found somewhere... maybe a vice thing or something? Anyway, I think the allure of a storied local amusement park with zero safety regulations is correctly extrapolated here by the filmmakers and Chris Gethard's interview in particular, and that's that it kind of personified a childhood that I don't believe exists any more. My generation, growing up in the 80s, was maybe the last of the independent, "go outside and play" comings of age. And even then we were already hearing about razor blades in the halloween candy and rashes of serial killers, child abductions, AIDS, gang violence, and other sources of fear clamping down... but those of us who grew up in suburban or relatively safe neighborhoods still had that experience of being on your own, getting up to nonsense that you probably shouldn't have gotten up to, just a little too much freedom at just a little too young an age that I think Action Park distills. It was a place with outlandish rides designed by a guy with more sense of fun than common sense that let kids rule the kingdom. Kind of like the idea of Huck Finn Island but for realsies. The doc does a great job of laying out all the ways in which this place was crazy, letting us laugh at the absurdity, then reminding us of the actual human cost that resulted. While the death rate was undoubtedly very low compared to how many kids had great times there, it's still higher than 0 which is unacceptable. I thought I already knew "the deal" on this subject due to those previous google rabbit holes but this doc filled in all the details and did it in an entertaining way. Can't ask for more than that. |
