The Gator documentary has been out for years but I never got around to seeing it until last week. Pretty psyched that my public library has both this and the Hosoi one.
I thought Stoked was quite well done. There was a lot I didn't know about Gator. I knew his board years before I actually started skating. There was always some random guy in the neighbourhood who had the classic Vision Gator board. I didn't even know what a Gator was. By the time I started reading skate magazines and familiarizing myself with who the pro's were, he was a flamboyant weirdo. I didn't know there was a punk version of him in the mid 80's. Lots of the interviewees commented on his phoniness with his drastic image changes. The guy seemed to be on another level with the cheesy VSW video clips, crazy self promotion and the overall selling out to the highest bidder.
One of the best parts is when they get to the years when vert was dying and street was taking over. The street footage of him was really really off the charts bad. In comparison to Rising Son, the impact of the transition in the popularity of street skating was a lot more heavy and drastic as well as the extreme lack of support for Gator in terms of friends, family and colleagues.
All the murder stuff is just super gnarly and I was familiar with most of it already. Jason Jessee has some amazing quotes.
1 comment:
Amazing flick that I think stands above the other skateumentries. I must have watched it four times now and every time it makes me feel sick to the stomach.
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