Film Review: Breakin' (Breakdance, 1984)

During its relatively short but prolific existence Cannon Group was regularly bringing ire of critics with its films made with low budget and low ambition. This included even that studio’s most successful and influential title, 1984 dance film Breakin’, known in many countries under title Breakdance and often credited for bringing breakdancing and hip hop music to the mainstream of world’s popular culture.

Protagonist, played by Lucinda Dickey, is Kelly “Special K” Bennett, classically trained aspiring jazz dancer forced to work as a waitress while studying in dance studio led by snobbish choreographer Franco (played by Ben Lokey). Her friend Adam (played by Phineas Newborn III) invites to Venice Beach where she meets two talented street dancers – Orlando “Ozone” Barco (played by Adolfo “Shabba Doo” Quiñones) and Tony “Turbo” Ainley (played by Michael “Boogalo Shrimp” Chambers) and gets deeply impressed by their skills. When they lose dance battle to rival street dancers at breakdancing party Kelly offers to become part of their act and teach them her classic skills while they would teach her breakdancing in return. Trio gets represented by Kelly’s initially sceptic agent James Wilcox (played by Christopher McDonald) and tries to begin mainstream career by appearing at traditional dance competition.

Made in order to exploit sudden popularity of hip hop subculture (with young Ice T making appearance as MC), Breakin’ was produced very quickly and with low budget. This was partly due to need to bring the film to theatres before rival breakdancing film Beat Street. Despite all those limitations, director Joel Silberg did a decent job, even with script by Charles Parker and Allen DeBevoise using generic plot and almost all cliches possible. Cast is made of relative unknowns, mostly people with little or no acting talent, with notable exception of Christopher McDonald whose character of well-intentioned agent surprisingly remains nice guy till the end. The main talent required by this film was dancing and Breakin’ delivered, with Dickey, Quiñones and Chambers using different styles and mixing them in a very effective way. Silberg, aware that he wasn’t making anything particularly deep (despite some hints about American racial and class divisions as motives in the script), kept good pace and didn’t allow audience to dwell too much on film’s flaws. Breakin’ enjoyed huge success and introduced not only breakdance, but also concept of dance battle to modern dance films. Good box office results resulted in Cannon Group quickly producing sequel Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogalo only few months later.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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