Battle of the Year (film)

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Movie
German title Battle of the Year
Original title Battle of the Year
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2013
length 110 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
JMK 0
Rod
Director Benson Lee
script Brinn Hill ,
Chris Parker
production Beau Flynn ,
Tripp Vinson ,
Amy Lo
music Christopher Lennertz
camera Michael Barrett (II)
cut Alessandra Carlino ,
Peter S. Elliot
occupation

Battle of the Year is a 3D film by the Korean - American director Benson Lee . Like Lee's previous documentary, the importance of the major dance event Battle of the Year for today's global breakdance scene is dealt with. The feature film Battle of the Year is thus the counterpart to the documentary Planet B-Boy , on which it is based, according to official information.

action

The "Battle of the Year" is considered the unofficial world championship of the B-boying crews. The USA, as the country where the style was born, has not won this competition for at least 15 years. Ex-breakdancer, hip-hop mogul and sponsor of the US team Dante is concerned that his company's foreign sales have exceeded domestic sales for the first time. At a concert he found out that breakdancing had become uncool for the (American) kids and he feared that hip hop as a whole could eventually become uncool, which in turn would be very bad for the business of his company.

He then tries Jason "WB" Blake, with whom he was quite successful in a crew during his breakdance time, as a coach for his team. After serving as a dancer, Blake became a successful high school basketball coach and is now addicted to alcohol due to the loss of his wife and son in a serious car accident. Since he obviously needs money, Dante offers him a contract as a coach for his crew.

At first he seems reluctant, but he pulls himself together to collect information about what has been going on since his active time as a dancer in the scene. After a few cursory remarks about pomermoves in videos and what's going on in the scene, Dante's collaborator Franklyn turns out to be an interested fan and amateur dancer.

The following day, Blake accepts Dante's offer, provided that Franklyn becomes his assistant coach and that it goes “his way”. When Franklyn wants to thank Dante for the chance, he informs Franklyn about Blake's past, their b-boy time together, and promises him that he will learn more from Blake in 5 weeks than at the company in 5 years.

As a first official act, Blake throws out the entire previous crew “LA finest” because he lacks the fire and the progress of this crew. He tells the sour Dante that he wants to set up a "dream team" with the best dancers from all crews in the country, based on the model in basketball. In the following week he recruited the best 32 dancers for a video interview at the event “Freestyle Session”, of which he in turn invited 22 to a hard training together in an old youth prison.

Right at the beginning, the goal and the strict rules for the upcoming three-month training are announced. Anyone who violates this threatens to be expelled. In addition, a dancer has to go home every Friday. Due to the competitive situation, competitive behavior breaks out among the dancers. Blake is also still struggling with his addiction. When the situation between the dancers Rooster and DoKnock becomes almost palpable, a battle between two teams of the participants is supposed to clarify the disputes. During the battle it turns out that the best dancer "Rifter" acts too selfishly and has to go home first.

In the period that followed, the coach tried to use unconventional methods such as the ban on using the word “I” and penalties such as 100 push-ups for everyone in the event of a violation to form a team from the dancers. Hard physical training makes the team fit for 3 months. A show battle against the 2010 “Battle of the Year” champion, the well-known top 9 crew from Russia, will serve as a test. The choreography Stacy is hired for this. But the tension among the candidates remains high and emotional.

At the show battle, the Russians convince the audience, as Rooster and DoKnock each go it alone in the middle of the battle. Subsequently, the fellow candidate, and Rooster's oldest friend, Aniz, gives both of them a lecture, whereupon they both pull themselves together. Last Thursday, Blake saw "Flipz" run off at night to take care of his child. Flippz reveals that he has only lived on credit card for the past few months in order to have the chance to be part of the dream team.

The fewer candidates left, the more difficult it will be to choose. Blake explains to Franklyn that it's not about creating a harmonious team, but one that spurs itself on to top performance. Out of respect for a biased decision and as a baptism of fire, he gives Franklyn the final choice. After both of them had sent “Bambino” home, the crew had a hard time saying goodbye. When he and Aniz wanted to show a newly rehearsed move, Rooster injured himself so badly during the last presentation for Dante that he couldn't go to France and Bambino moved back to the crew.

At the official evening party of the competition, the crew got into a fight with a few French guests, which is why Sniper is officially suspended from the competition management. Blake wants to send him home. The entire crew show solidarity with him because he fought for his crew member "little Adonis". Blake then succeeds in allowing Sniper to stay. Despite the negative mood at the beginning of their performance, the “dream team” made it into the top 4 showcases alongside the favorite crews from Germany, South Korea and France, which entitles them to participate in the semi-final battle against France. There the “Dream Team” prevailed with a maximum of 50 points with 45:42 and meet the highly-favored “Soul Assassines” from South Korea. This battle is lost with 48:49. After an encouraging speech, Blake announced that they would compete again next year, as they had trained to become champion.

background

The film features many scenes from shows from the real “Battle of the Year” event in 2011 in Montpellier. The performance and the final battle were both filmed at the major event itself, which is why only a single take was possible. In the film, many actors, dancers and other active people from the film and dance world appeared by means of cameos . Amongst other things:

  • Nils "Storm" Rubitzky as a commentator on the Planet B-boy documentary
  • Thomas Hergenröther as organizer of the Battle of the Year
  • Albert 'Trix' Thompson as MC Trix presenter
  • Rafael 'Spax' Szulc-Vollmann as moderator MC Spax
  • the Russian ex-title holder crew "Top9" as a show competition opponent
  • the French crew "Smokemon"
  • the Pro7 moderators Joko Winterscheidt and Klaas Heufer-Umlauf

The budget was $ 20 million. Income was $ 16.5 million.

Film music

The following music tracks can be heard in the film:

  • "All Eyes on You" - Michal Menert
  • "Breakers Dedication - Recall 2013" - Colors United ft. DJ Mike MD
  • "Perfect Skill" - DJ Pablo
  • "Android Talk" - Aero Chord
  • "Victory Theme" - DJ.M@R
  • "Runnin Through My Veins" - Jay-Roc
  • "On the Fly" - Fusic
  • "Inner City Motion" - Mr. Confuse
  • "We Are Groovin" - DJ Nas'D
  • "Pepper Jam" - MumboJumbo
  • "Rock 2 The Beat" - Esone
  • "Valiance" - Rayden
  • "Body Movin" - OnDaMiKe
  • "Rhythm" - Emile YX? [Black Noise]
  • "Rock On" - Fendaheads
  • "Start Sum Shit (DBK's 2013 Mix)" - Diamondback Kid
  • "Prophet Break" - DJ Kid Stretch
  • "Lost Soul 2013" - DJ DSK

criticism

The editorial team of Cinema judges: “The plot is too transparent, the conflicts are too monotonous, and the constant speeches are oozing pathos. Even the sympathetic ensemble and the spectacular choreographies cannot save the film. "

Andreas Staben from filmstarts says: "For the duration of a breathtaking and touching breakdance performance," Battle of the Year "is a really excellent film, the rest is a run-of-the-mill sports drama with some questionable undertones."

Spielfilm.de sums it up: “The breakdance film“ Battle of the Year ”revolves realistically around the international competition of the same name in France and offers spectacular acrobatic numbers. Unfortunately, the conventionally structured story lacks fresh dynamism and emotional substance. "

Major event Battle of the Year

The annual event "Battle of the Year" was founded in 1990 by Thomas Hergenröther in Hanover. From 2001 the Volkswagen Hall in Braunschweig was the venue for a long time. The Battle of the Year International was held from 2010 to 2012 in Montpellier / France, where the film store is located. The BOTY final 2013 returned to Braunschweig and moved on to Essen in 2016.

The champion of the world championship is always invited directly to the event of the next year in order to be able to defend his title. All other groups qualify in the preliminary rounds held worldwide. At the beginning there are the choreographies of the individual groups, in which the crews present a show of a maximum of 6 minutes and on the basis of this the four best groups are determined, which then compete directly against each other in so-called battles, a type of dance competition. The crew with the highest rating will receive an award for the best show for their choreography.

The last American winner was the "Rock Force Crew" in 1998. Since then there has only been a second place for American participants in 2011 through the "Battle Born" crew. Since 1998, South Korean crews have dominated with eight wins and eleven second places or semi-finals, the French crews six wins ("Last Squad") and twelve other places in the TOP 4, the Japanese crews with three wins and thirteen times second places or semi-finals and the Russian crews with two wins. Thus, nineteen of the last victories add up to only four nations, although for example seventeen different nations took part in the competition in 2018 alone. This number has been more or less constant for years.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Battle of the Year . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , November 2013 (PDF; test number: 141 794 K).
  2. ↑ Age rating for Battle of the Year . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ a b c List of occurring actor , according to the Internet Movie Database
  4. ↑ Criticism and background on moviepilot
  5. ^ Battle of the Year (2013) . Box Office Mojo. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
  6. ↑ Soundtrack list from soundtracks-db.de
  7. ↑ Film review from cinema.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.cinema.de  
  8. ^ Film review by Andreas Staben at Filmstarts.de
  9. ^ Criticism from Spielfilm.de
  10. ^ Interview with Thomas Hergenröther in the Hannoverische Allgemeine Zeitung
  11. ↑ Results of the last few years according to the official BOTY homepage ( memento of the original from November 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.battleoftheyear.de
  12. ↑ participating crews from 2018 www.battleoftheyear.net