The Man Who Souled the World (Mike Hill, 2008)
THE
MAN WHO SOULED THE WORLD tells the story
of Steve Rocco, the irreverent genius who transformed the skateboard industry
from corporate to skater owned with a do-it-yourself punk attitude.
For those who are regulars on this film oriented blog
you know how I like to digress to my other interests. And boy, do I have lots
of interest: Cinema & Films, History, Snowboarding, Skateboarding, Graphic
Novels, Music, Drums, etc. Well, this review
combines three of my main interests this summer. Mostly Skateboarding, History,
and films more specifically documentaries. This very fun documentary narrated
by Jackass’ very own Jason Acuna aka
Wee Man. Brought me back to my high
school days when I was skipping classes to go skate, until dawn and destroy
shoes, decks, wheels, etc. Not being a big fan of documentaries, except when
they treat about subjects I have in heart might be a flaw for this review but I
think it is interesting to still review The
Man Who Souled the World.
Centering on Steve
Rocco a pro skater who decided to found his own skateboard company and get
the actual money into his pockets and the skater’s instead of letting the big
guys behind their desks who owned the companies back then. He founded World Industries and it became one of
the bestselling brands of skateboards in the 1990’s. However, in the process
Rocco didn’t only made money and friends. He attacked the other companies
directly in the publicities and always kept a “fuck it all” “do it yourself”
attitude towards the business. Using the mottos of Punk Rockers he built an
empire by crossing every rules of his enemies.
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| World Industries' Logo |
The format of the documentary is pretty standard
letting the people involved at the time getting full expressions and punning
each other in response. Besides Rocco’s interviews one of the most supernatural
skaters Rodney Mullen has a lot of
air time. We also see Steve Berra, Jason Lee, Mike Carroll, and many other skating legends.
Rocco crossed so many lines that he had to create his
own magazine to run his publicities and it was the genesis to Jackass. He also gave film director Spike Jonze first directing job to shot
a skate video.
At the end we feel that the community of skate has
respect and hate towards Rocco. He publicized and made a whole bunch of money
because of the sport but also pissed so many of his friends in the same time.
This is a very good documentary on the coming of a sport that was considered as
counter culture but that is now available in shopping malls and skate shops are
as frequent as clothes shops. This is a character that can be as interesting as
Mark Zuckerberg who revolutionized
another aspect of our 21st century lives. Recommended.
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