Beat Street (1984)

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Beat Street was always the film you watched back in the 80's if you took Hip Hop and Break Dancing seriously and wanted a better idea of how this new wave of music was infecting the youth culture at the time. Oh how we laughed at those who thought Electric Bogaloo was the film to watch,if you hadn't seen this, you didn't know anything.Beat Street as a film in its own right is something of a rare gem and still stands up today, despite a really weak performance from Rae Dawn Chong,the rest of the performances from mostly non or inexperienced actors are raw and real. The plot, such as it is revolves around two brothers, KK a DJ, Lee a dancer and their close friends who are all hustling with the new movement of dance, music and graffiti art to make their marks in the run down impoverished Bronx of New York. Thrown into this story is something of a rather flimsy love plot involving the older brother (Guy Davis) and a dance from the local arts school, where it seems only the rich kids go. What is more interesting is the relationship between talented artist Ramo (John Chardliet, shame he didn't do more acting) and his girlfriend and mother of his young child,(Santiago, excellent in anything she is in) as they struggle to make ends meet while he strains to retain his title of the spray can king. At the time this was made it was seen by many as a fictionalised version of the documentary Wild Style, the films almost go hand in hand. In the latter an artist called 'Cap' always sprayed over everyones work, just for the hell of it. Here someone called 'Spit' does the same, ultimately with Tragic results.The film features the dance groups of the time, Rocky Steady Crew and New City Breakers, as well as Africa Bambata, Doug E Fresh, Grandmater Mel and the Furious Five and others. It is gritty, rough around the edges, but has a charm and is often funny and touching. The ending with the concert and mesh of styles and music of the time is a really rewarding sequence which I have watched many times. Anyone who looks at this film dismissively is really missing the point. It was an attempt to counter point god awful films like Breakdance 1 and 2, to show a more realistic depiction of the types of kids who were involved in this music and culture at the time (Most of them in the film actually were) and though the film enjoyed some success it left many of its participants wondering at the end, what happens now? What indeed? It almost feels as if the film was the last cry of a generation that became fragmented and lost its way just before drug culture impacted so heavily on communities.Beat Street played out of competition at the Cannes festival in 1984, which that year found Paris / Texas scooping up all the awards, but as an impact on youth culture on an international stage that film cannot claim to have even a fraction of the influence that Beat Street did, especially behind the iron curtain where pirate copies were being sold for as much as 100 dollars. Sometimes it feels as if it were criminally overlooked, not least of all, by Cannes. Anyone who doubts its impact only needs to go and look at Art and Hip Hop in France, and you will find many of its influences orginate from this film. It was a voice for a time that many over looked, but those interested in the beginnings of Hip Hop should seek this out. As a statement on musical culture given voice through a drama, in this way, this film has not been equalled.

Beat street was/is a movie that impacted kids all across America. Showing to the world what the culture of hip hop and where it originated from. I was in my early, early teens when this film debut and I was residing in San Francisco, California. And it just made everyone understand and take to it. All four elements are represented somehow. I still think today even back then that the story is very weak. That I do not appreciate. I understand Harry Belafonte produced (or directed?) the film. I think he and others were capitalizing on the emerging movement or youth culture that is the birthplace in New York, specifically the South Bronx, of this phenomenon called hip hop. Hip hop is about taking initiative and doing it yourself, like its cousin punk rock, an ethos, if you will. Which is why I stopped listening to contemporary music of today, especially rap. I do not recognize hip hop when it is mentioned or when it comes out of somebody's mouth. I would not call it hip hop it is something entirely removed from what it truly, originally meant. I don't listen to m&m, 50cents, and gangsta rap. I just don't. Because the moment rap went into other subjects(such as gangsta, another term and genre too tedious for me to even comment on) I got bored and it no longer became fun. Booty shaking music or lullaby music is what I call it. And it is dull. True hip hop is about doing what you feel and going against the grain because your into something that you feel about. Rap music, especially contemporary one of today, is just hella funny to me and boring. I hear the lamest, wackest beats blaring on car stereos and I am relieved from this by my Ipod. Rap music is boring. Not amazing. I'm talking about the music today. Nothing to get excited about. That's why when I see Beat street, although it is just a hazy hint of what hip hop is about you can see the energy from the music, art, dance, and language resonating with each other. Like with the dancing, the music videos that I see and the music that goes with it is very, very, very funny to me. usher, missy eliot, justin timberflake, I've heard a woman say they are the greatest dancers and I choked. What??????????????? But, I just laugh to myself. There is so much more I would love to share but I will stop here. Beat street is one of my favorites not because of the story but because it captures the actual people who practition the arts: Rock Steady Crew, New York City Breakers, Africa Bambaataa and Soul Sonic Force and all the artists. Tougher than leather was a film that was a failure because it did not originate from the source and did not know what it was trying to be. And let me say just this, big ups to Run DMC and Jam master Jay, but they were not responsible for the wearing of adidas kicks. Naw, man, they had nothing' to do with it. I started because of Rock Steady Crew and The New York City Breakers. Rest in peace, Dondi, Caine, Buck 4, Kuriaki, Sane, Shy 147, and big respect to the innovators and pioneers and people just doing their own thing. New York the capital of Hip Hop! Yeah, Doze, I remember that and I had the RSC album, too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

I had not seen this movie since the late '80s and decided to pick up the VHS version of it. The plot is very slow, and the actors almost seem robotic in this breakdance flick. The music, hip hop/freestyle artists and the breakdancing scenes are what make this movie special. The breakdancing is actually better in this movie than in "Breakin'", but I have to say that "Breakin' 1&2" carry the energy & excitement to the screen a lot better. It's a movie I will keep in my library, but it's not a movie that I can watch over & over again, just once in a blue moon.

When released in 1984, Beat Street was one of the best hip hop themed films released at the time. The movie gets a 10 just for combining all of the elements of hip hop which are the mc,dj, graff and b-boy. The soundtrack is one of the best I've ever heard.