Tony Hawk and the Poetry of Failure
The new HBO documentary Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Come Off is, in most respects, a straightforward and entertaining sports doc. Hawk is, of course, a winning and appealing hero (who’s interestingly honest, if in a reserved way, about his emotional and psychological problems). The skating clips are great to see. And the interviews with the members of the Bones Brigade — the legendary skateboarding crew that Hawk became a part of when he was a callow teenager — are moving. But it’s ultimately a pretty traditional documentary, with one striking and brilliant exception, which is the way the film begins. In its first four minutes, the movie gives us an extended look at something we rarely get to see: an elite athlete failing over and over again.
The opening sequence features Hawk on his skate ramp in a huge warehouse, trying to do a 900 (a trick that requires 2 ½ revolutions in mid-air, and a trick that he was the first skater ever to pull off). He drops in and ascends the opposite wall, comes back to build up speed, then goes back across and up the wall and spins. But he can’t keep the board under his feet. It flies away mid-spin. He slides down the ramp on his knees. Walks back up the stairs to the top of the ramp. Drops in, ascends the opposite wall, comes back up, then down again and up, spins. Falls. Walks back up the stairs, drops in. And again. And again. We then see shot after…
