DVD: The Man Who Souled The World
Submitted by videovixen on Sat, 2008-07-12 13:10.
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DVD Reviewed by videovixen
Starring: Jason “Wee Man” Acuna, Steve Rocco
The Man Who Souled The World tells the story of how some fairly average and broke skater dude (Steve Rocco) took an anarchic DIY punk attitude to the skateboarding business and became an unbelievable success, bringing skateboarding to all new levels of coolness.
From nothing, a single person, as if destined by the Gods, started with an idea, not of making shit-loads of cash, but of filling a growing need that they knew was out there as they themselves were also craving it. In this case, Steve Rocco, a freestyle skater on a pro team was being phased out due to more public interest in the spectacle of vert skating.
Borrowing money from a dubious loan shark, Rocco started a business making boards with cool, edgy designs on them. After some initial financial problems, his company, World Industries, soon bloomed.
Clever marketing campaigns that pushed the boundaries of mainstream ideas of decency became World Industries’ signature, with advertisements featuring provocative statements and imagery. In step with this image, board designs became more and more extreme, creating a buzz amongst skater kids.
Rocco often splashed his cash freely with his team, creating an indoor skate park (a colossal disaster), and starting Big Brother Magazine, which launched the career of Jackass star Johnny Knoxville.
But the kids soon became restless, and with so much freedom and money floating around, they just moved on, leaving Rocco with almost nothing.
Rocco bounced back with a more focussed, professional approach, and in a way he became the corporate guy he detested in the first place. Ahh, the cycle of life.
To get the real gist of The Man Who Souled The World, it’d seriously help if you had some basic skateboarding knowledge. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, and if you don’t know who they are you find yourself lost in a forest of names and faces that don’t quite fit into the larger picture.
It’s not exactly a negative, as this isn’t really made for skateboarding illiterates (so you can scratch it off grandma’s birthday list), but it doesn’t help the flow if you’re constantly trying to work out why this guy said that about some other guy.
Some cool skating footage, including early Spike Jonze (Adaptation) directorial work, awesome grunge-y soundtrack, and a surprise (at least to me) appearance by Jason Lee (My Name Is Earl) who skated on Rocco’s team and later co-founded his own skating company.
Bonus features include some old skool never-before-seen skating footage. As well as several featurettes including ‘Skateboarding Is Dead’ which discusses a bunch of skating companies that Rocco’s World Industries either inspired or directly helped. There is a nifty gallery of boards and videos that World Industries produced, and the obligatory DVD commentary by Steve Rocco.
All in all, The Man Who Souled The World is an ok documentary as far as being put together, but the story is a fascinating, anarchic romp of a rags to riches to rags to super riches tale that any self-(dis)respecting skater should watch.
