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(PG) MGM ENTERTAINMENT, 1984, 106 Minutes
Starring: Rae Dawn Chong, Guy Davis, John Chardiet, Leon Grant, Robert Taylor
Director: Stan Lathan, Wynn P. Thomas
All Movie Guide rating:
Many urban dwellers consider graffiti to be an ugly nuisance; but as long as there are aesthetes and sociologists who prattle on about "graffiti art", there will be films like Beat Street. Jon Chardiet plays a Puerto Rican youth who targets subway walls for his graffiti renderings. For a while, it looks as though Chardiet's problems will carry the plotline, but before long the film's true raison d'etre comes to the surface. Rap-music deejay Guy Davis, in tandem with such like-minded individuals as music student Rae Dawn Chong, endeavor to stage a huge breakdancing presentation, featuring several musical artistes of the period. It was this "Hey, gang! Let's put on a show!" aspect of Beat Street that proved to be the film's biggest selling angle. Harry Belafonte served as coproducer, then spent scads of his own money promoting the film on any TV and radio outlet who'd give him time. A huge hit when it came out, Beat Street now seems as quaintly dated as all those Monogram collegiate musicals of the 1940s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide