Style Wars

Just as a disclaimer, I know it can be annoying to watch full-length movies on YouTube. Rarely are they in one piece, and good luck if you can find all of parts 1 of 8 in a logical order. Don't fret, because for your viewing pleasure, I found the full length version of the 1984 documentary, Style Wars.  Directed by Tony Silver, Style Wars follows the graffiti culture of New York City during the early 1980s. The film has a gritty, 70's quality to it, some of it shot in black and white.  If you like Midnight Cowboy, Taxi Driver, and other movies about NYC before it got cleaned-up, this is for you. It is apparent that everyone is just trying to deal with this chaotic environment. The upright citizens bemoan the graffiti on the trains and lump the graffiti artists with other criminals, while the artists defend their craft, and paint whenever possible despite efforts against them. It is apparent that both sides are victims of their society. 

While some of the graffiti is impressive and obviously took a lot of skill to execute, I do think the young taggers for the most part were unwittingly sustaining the broken windows theory: basically if you leave a broken window, then crimes escalating in severity will be committed. The interviews with the young graffiti artists are eye-opening. These boys between the ages of 12 and 20 are well-spoken, and have strong beliefs in their art. It's amazing to hear them talk about why they tag, how they are building names for themselves.

Shots of the train yards at night are chilling. It's a place most people don't see, but the graffiti artists are very familiar with it. At one point an extremely panoramic shot of a fabulously painted subway train moves across the screen for about 2 minutes. As a photographer I am still a bit baffled at how they got the shot without any visible breaks in the image. Style Wars is beautifully filmed, a worth while exploration.