Movie Details
| Title: | Breakin' | |
| Director: | Joel Silberg | |
| Year: | 1984 | |
| Genre: | Healing Power of Dance | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 04.08.06 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 04.08.06 | Alamo Downtown | Tonight was an awesome double feature here at the Drafthouse... Breakin' and Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo with creator/producer David Zito and dancer/star Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers in attendance. It was complete with local dance contests before each show and Q&As after. Kier-La had mentioned earlier this week that the show had only garnered 4 online ticket sales... well it turns out she wasn't checking the double feature purchases. Both shows were sold out with apprecieative crowds and even though Boogaloo was charging for autographs and pictures with him and a broom, the people at AMODA together with the Drafthouse people managed to put together another top choice of what to do on a Saturday evening. The dancers before the first show were a little peeked, although there was this one kid that said he taught himself that got up there in his vest jacket and rocked some serious popping and locking. He came in second though... some random guy in a longhorns shirt was the clear winner. After the show though, one young girl in the audience asked Boogaloo to show off some of his moves so he gave us a little something that was pretty impressive (although the whole night was much more oriented toward pop & lock rather than breakdancing... they had a few DJs from Backspin Records mixing some primo electro live before each show and the Alamo stage isn't really condusive to any serious floor work). A fun time was had by all though. For whatever reason, it seems like they always play Breakin' 2 on TV and never the first, so it's been a LONG time since I've last seen this movie (and likewise for Beat Street, which is so long ago I hardly even remember)... What I found watching it again was that the movie has a certain sincerity to it much like Wild Style. It's a feeling that this is actually more a jazz dance movie with this new street dancing stuff showcased in it than what would later become the breakdance movie. It's clear that they had a classically trained dancer and then just found these Shabba-Doo and Boogaloo Shrimp kids and the movie then became a bit of a document of the times and emerging trends (kind of like krunking I guess)... The movie's pretty straight forward and devoid of most cheese (until of course the end scene when the healing power of dance overtakes the snooty Brit audition judge). It's not a bad movie at all, and Chambers' scene with the broom set to Kraftwek's Tour de France is pretty classic. Also, Ice-T's there but I think he's credited as like a hip hop speaker or something like that. Jean-Claude Van Damme can also be spotted as an extra in Venice, grooving out in the crowd. In the Q&A afterward, producer David Zito told us about the relative success of the film (made for 1.9 mil, ended up grossing around 28 mil, with ancillary deals and whatnot extending to about 50 mil, but more importantly allowing producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus to raise upwards of 200 mil on Wall street. Zito credits Breakin's success to Golan and Globus buying MGM. Interesting. P.S. I'm not sure if I mentioned it above but I wanted to make sure to note that Boogaloo Shrimp said he got a lot of dancing inspiration from Ray Harryhausen and mentioned Clash of the Titans multiple times during the Q&A. I thought that was interesting and awesome. |
