Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator

This film NAILS it by juxtaposing the fast rise and rocky descent of 80's counter-culture commercialism with the tragic story of Gator and his victim. We get to know Gator as a wild punk, arrogant jock, immature romantic, and finally, a violent and dangerous man. He was made for stardom, but the path to skater stardom was even younger than its pioneers... he was the era's most notable fallen angel.

I haven't yet seen a more vivid reflection on the style and attitude of California in the 1980s. It's very easy to get lost in this one; it's a sad, enlightening, and socially significant piece of journalistic film-making. Kudos to the filmmakers.

This movie was ok, but if you weren't part of what was going on back in the mid 80's, then you probably won't have any interest in it? I lived in Del Mar and worked at DelMar Skatepark, where a lot of it was filmed. I knew some of the people that are in this movie, so for me it was a trip down Memory lane.

I do not think this was a great documentry, I just think it was interesting for anyone who grew up and skated in the 1980's.

It was sad to see the decline of Gator, and for some reason I understood the isolation and desire to re-attain the spotlight, mostly because some of these guys were friends, and I saw what happened to them when the light faded.

See this movie if you want to know part of the History of what Skateboarding really is and was, and if you want to know what can happen to you if you start to believe other peoples versions of who and what you are ~!

Don't see this is your looking for some ollie kick flip "XGAME" pretense marketing idea movie!

It seems like only a few years ago when the local news stations were reporting on one of San Diegos local skateboard heroes,apparently being accused of murder? This was, of course a shock to everyone who knew or admired Mark Rogowski. It seemed like all those guys had such a great lifestyle! How could one of the sports most succesful icons have spiraled so far out of control? Well,its' been about 13 years now since Gator was convicted, and until I saw "Stoked" The Rise and Fall of Gator", I had many questions about what really happened to this guy. Helen Stickler, I must say right off the bat, did an outstanding job bringing his story to light. It's a story ,that if fallen into the wrong "creative hands" ,so to speak, could have come off as sensationalizing, or dramatizing the life, and subsequent murder conviction of Rogowski. While using classic skate footeage from the eighties, recorded phone conversations from Rogowski himself,and on camera interviews from fellow skate legends,former friends and former Girlfriend ,Brandi Mc Clean, Stickler created a mesmorizing look into this sad story. Her contact with those close to Gators story even includes the investigating homicide officers. The film tells it like it is. Through clever editing of skate footage and commentary, it is a sad look into a pathetic downfall of a once great sports hero.You see the effect his rape and murder conviction has had, not only on his life, but, on everyone who knew and loved him. "Jessica didn't deserve my rage", Gator stated from a prison phone call. Jessica Bergsten was only about twenty one years old,when gator murdered her. He claims,out of rage towards her relationship with his ,then, ex- girlfriend,Brandi McClean. Although none of Bergstens family members appear on the film ,one can only imagine the effect, Rogowskis' rage has had on their lives. Anyone who has any interest or questions regarding ,what exactly happened to Mark"Gator" Rogowski, should definately check out, Stoked! It's a a top notch documentary, that keeps you rivetted to the story, while never glorifying it.

Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator is a documentary about the former skateboard star Mark "Gator" Rogowski, his troubled youth, his rise to fame and fortune and his inevitable fall from grace. However, his no ordinary fall: He is currently serving a 25 year to life sentence for the first degree murder of his ex-fiancé's friend, Jessica Bergsten. The story begins with how he began his rise. He started in the 70's in the skate parks of Southern California as a wild child with a gift for skateboarding. Skateboarding itself has risen and fell in popularity over the years, and each time it comes back it seems to be reincarnated, new styles, new tricks, new medium. In Gator's case, it was the half-pipe or vert. He was only 14 when he was sponsored and went pro. He had a good-looking but bad-boy look, a snotty punk rock attitude and loads of talent to boot. He was a hit, both in the corporate world (He became a mascot of sorts for Vision, a leading skateboard company at the time), and with the cute young girl groupies, or Bettys. At one point in his career he was making $20,000 a month before he was 18. His story is told by many of Gator's former associates and friends (including Tony Hawk and Stacy Peralta), and it lays the groundwork for his sense of entitlement and the madness that includes alcohol and drug excesses, anger, mental illness and eventually murder, that shows his slow but definite fall.

Because the skateboarding community was so shaken by this event, many who knew anything about it or even Gator did not want to talk about it at all for a long time. So this movie is to be commended for trying to tell the story of what happened. It makes some excellent points about what happened to Gator once the limelight and money was gone, in particular by Pro skaters Steve Cabellero and Stacy Peralta. To be washed up before you are even 25 would pretty hard to take, with nothing to fall back on once it is over. But nothing else is really explored at all, and that is where the documentary really falls short. For example, his troubled childhood is glossed over, they give the bare-bones of the case, you learn nothing about his victim other than she was the friend of his ex-fiancé's, they merely mention the conditions of depression he was diagnosed with after he was in prison, and it seemed to me that so many more people should have been interviewed that were more directly related to the story. They show lots of pictures of him with his mother, yet his mother is not interviewed, to name but a few. Overall a good attempt but when the majority of the case is treated so lightly, the feeling I was left with was that the whole story was not heard. It could have been much better with a deeper look at all the sides of the story. 6 out of 10.

I think Stickler's documentary, "Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator" gave us an interesting look at the character of Mark Anthony Rogowski through the comments of those who knew him. It was as objective as it could have been. It certainly didn't glorify him as the demigod he seemed to think he was during the peak of his career. I learned a lot from this movie about the skateboarding culture and how it affected the participants and the fans. There was a lot of hype given to Gator's abilities and personality during the 80's. As talented as he may have been, I'm sure there were other skaters just as talented who were not being promoted with the same enthusiasm. It was clearly Gator's reckless regard for his own well being that put him in the limelight in the first place. Would Stickler or any other director in the industry have wanted to do a documentary on this troubled youth if he hadn't turned his fame into notoriety by brutally raping and murdering an innocent young lady who had the misfortune of crossing his path? It gives one cause for pause. I think it's sad that the victim, Jessica Bergsten, like most other victims of violent crimes, became nothing more than a segment of Gator's seedy past. It's almost as if Jessica's death was merely a springboard to more publicity for Gator, long after he deserved it. He even said it himself over the phone from prison in this documentary: "Since 1991 I thought about this over and over...They say the past does not define the future but it'll always be a part of who I am. I know that." Not that he'll regret for the rest of his life killing someone who was no threat to him, but that it tainted his reputation permanently. He'll never be able to live it down. In his mind, it's still about Gator, even after ten years in prison. He hasn't changed his perspective at all. Chilling! It was a story worth telling, and my praises to Helen Stickler and everyone who had a hand in this production for telling it.