Taglines: It’s their world. Above the world. Exploding with music, passion, romance — and danger.
Rooftops movie storyline. T, as most of his friends, lives in a self-constructed ‘house’, built on top of an old building in the city. Their one passion is ‘combat’. Combat is a dance/streetfight during which the contestants try to push each other out of the arena, while not allowed to actually touch each other. When drugdealers move into the neighbourhood and kill T’s best friend he embarks on a mission to eradicate the drug-presence in the neigbourhood. His friends are reluctant to help though, knowing what happened to T’s friend when he crossed them.
Rooftops is a 1989 American crime and dance drama film directed by Robert Wise and starring Jason Gedrick, Troy Beyer, Eddie Velez, Tisha Campbell, Jamie Tirelli, Luis Guzmán, Robert LaSardo, Jay Boryea, Edouard DeSoto, Rockets Redglare, Millie Tirelli and Cynthia Elane. The film follows the misadventures of two homeless teenagers in Manhattan. Rooftops was the last theatrical motion picture directed by Wise and the second of his films about poor young New Yorkers, the first being the famous West Side Story.
The music credits included the title song “Rooftops” performed by Jeffrey Osborne, “Avenue D” performed by Etta James featuring David A. Stewart, and Bullet Proof Heart written and produced by Grace Jones.
About the Story
Squeak, the main character’s best friend has tagged the wrong place and a local crew of misfits seeks to teach him a lesson. A chase ensues through the streets of New York City, through abandoned buildings and on rooftops. Squeak is finally cornered before his best friend and the film’s main hero, T, comes to his rescue. The rest of the film focuses on T and his group of friends, among them a reformed prostitute, a young woman, and a deaf basketball player.
T is famous among the neighbourhood for taking place in a dance called “combat” in which “combatants” attempt to force each other off of a square fighting surface through only intimidation, no contact is allowed. T falls in love with Elana and she reciprocates his feelings. T is also exposed to Capoeira, which he naturally compares to his own fighting style.
The main antagonists are a group of drug dealers who are slowly taking over the city’s abandoned buildings, stringing out the local youth and establishing themselves as the law of the streets. Squeak crosses the drug dealers and pays for it with his life. The rest of the movie follows T and his friends quest for redemption at the hands of the drug dealers, and ends in a climactic rooftop battle.
Rooftops (1989)
Directed by: Robert Wise
Starring: Jason Gedrick, Troy Beyer, Eddie Velez, Tisha Campbell, Jamie Tirelli, Luis Guzmán, Robert LaSardo, Jay Boryea, Edouard DeSoto, Rockets Redglare, Millie Tirelli, Cynthia Elane
Screenplay by: Allan A. Goldstein, Tony Mark
Production Design by: Jeannine Oppewall
Cinematography by: Theo van de Sande
Film Editing by: William Reynolds
Costume Design by: Kathleen Detoro
Set Decoration by: Gretchen Rau
Art Direction by: John Wright Stevens
Music by: Michael Kamen, David A. Stewart
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: New Visions Pictures
Release Date: March 17, 1989
Views: 292