Breakin' (1984)

Directed by

Joel Silberg

Genre

drama film, musical film, comedy drama, coming-of-age film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 30m

Rated

PG

Rating

6.7 of 10 from 176 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A young dancer named Alysha Williams gets involved with a group of breakdancers in Los Angeles. They compete in dance battles and try to make it in the hip hop scene.

energeticupbeatdance-heavyfeel-goodnostalgicstreetwiselivelyrhythmiccelebratory

What happens

Breakin' (also known as Breakdance in the United Kingdom and Break Street '84 in other regions) is a 1984 American breakdancing-themed musical film directed by Joel Silberg and written by Charles Parker and Allen DeBevoise based on a story by Parker, DeBevoise and Gerald Scaife about dancer Alysha Williams. The film's setting was inspired by a 1983 documentary titled Breakin' 'n' Enterin', set in the multi-racial hip hop club Radio-Tron, based out of MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. Many of the artists and dancers from that documentary, including Ice-T (who makes his film debut as a club MC), and Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers, went straight from Breakin' 'n' Enterin' to star in Breakin'. The film's soundtrack featured the hits "Breakin'... There's No Stopping Us" by Ollie & Jerry, "Freakshow on the Dance Floor" by The Bar-Kays and the UK Top 20 hit "Body Work" by Hot Streak. Breakin' was one of the final Cannon film productions released by MGM/UA. After release, MGM and Cannon dissolved their distribution deal, reportedly over the potentially X-rated content in John Derek's film Bolero and MGM's then-policy of not theatrically releasing X-rated material, forcing Cannon to become an in-house distribution company once again. Breakin' was released to theaters on May 4, 1984, and despite receiving negative reviews from critics, it was a box office success. A theatrical sequel entitled Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo was released later in the same year. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• Footloose (1984)
• Beat Street (1984)
• Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984)
• The Karate Kid (1984)
• Heavenly Bodies (1984)
• Old Enough (1984)
• Going Back (1984)
• Conexión Caribe (1984)