Styles Wars

Plexifilm, $27.95

Groundbreaking and nearly perfect, Tony Silver’s 1982 documentary on New York City’s graffiti artists and b-boy subculture is a heady, sexy slice of Americana that, in its own way, is a close companion to Okie Noodling. Both films celebrate the outsiders among us, and while Style Wars‘ “bombers” redesigned the city’s subway cars as a mobile, perpetually renewing artistic canvas, in those halcyon, pre-Giuliani days, their constant tagging of the trains and surrounding walls echoes Noodling‘s obverse passions. The double-disc edition showcases much, much more than the original 80-minute film, including an entire disc devoted to the artwork of the early-Eighties scene before Keith Haring and Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine helped to legitimize the idea of disaffected youth crafting Krylon masterpieces. Fab 5 Freddy, DJ Red Alert, and other now-legendary names from NYC’s post-punk art world pop up from time to time, but it’s the kids themselves who speak most eloquently to their work, citing an urge to make their presence known beyond the borders of their often squalid neighborhoods.

This article appears in March 28 • 2003.

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