A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Its been twenty twenty six years since the streetwise film was made i was in a boys home at the time of filming i was asked to be in the film but i was unable to be there i knew rat and lulu Kim Dwayne tiny munchkin and Pattie hell i even dated Lillie for a while the days of the doughnut shop and the aftermath when Gunther got busted and yes even to this day the murder of lulu still makes me cry to some people out there these kids were ghosts to me they wers my friends and family who at times were the only family we had its sad to think so many of them are gone but never will be forgotten my name is T I am now 42 years old and live in Nashville tn im married with two kids and work in law enforcement i see kids today just where we all were downtown on first and pike just as scared and just as tough trying to survive in a world that is not that easy to survive inyet i try to help them the best way i can hell somebody has to. to all those who was in the film i still think of you everyday and send love im even writing a book about the seattle street kids in those days if any of you are still around and remember me T please send word email me i would love to hear from you

I first saw this Academy Award nominated documentary when I was 11 or 12 years old and I can't think of what possessed me to want to see it. Director Martin Bell profiles several homeless kids in the Seattle area. This is pretty powerful stuff even today. Semi-main character Dewayne is a very compelling story and it is still shocks me when it is revealed he is 16 (he looks 12). Bell parlayed the father/son relationship of Dewayne seen here into the feature American HEART with Jeff Bridges and Edward Furlong. I would love to see a follow-up on the kids today (kinda like how they did SCARED STRAIGHT: 20 YEARS LATER). Wikipedia offers some insight into their current lives and it is cause for some hope. Most grew up to create normal lives although some passed away (including a featured teen who ended up being a victim of Gary Ridgeway, the Green River Killer).

This is one of those documentaries that gets passed over in the list of really noteworthy entries in the form over the past 30 years, but it's rather extraordinary. At the time, runaway kids weren't something new in the news, and homeless kids and urban strife were well known among cities like New York and Detroit and DC. But Bell took his perspective to Seattle- future of the grunge scene, which I'm sure sprung somewhat out of an atmosphere of despair such as this- and embedded himself with a collection of kids, some young as 9 and old as their early 20s, either by some harsh decision out on the streets away from their parents doing petty crimes or because they have no choice by the conditions of life with their respective parents (or lack thereof).Its structure of moving around loosely between several people isn't anything new (I'm reminded of the loose form of Vernon, Florida only with more purpose), and there's a slight sense now in 2008 of it being like an extended episode of MTV's True Life. But it's also like the best episode of the show never made, filmed in large part in a style that can only be compared to the Maysles, who don't even seem to be in the room or setting for most of the time getting these people as they are. And when there are certain moments or scenes that feel 'staged', it's only insomuch as the kids knew they were in a movie or the director may have asked them to say what happened here or there. Not a moment feels inauthentic, not once.And in this unsentimental but sympathetic portrait of these kids- some prostitutes like 14 year old Tiny or hard-bitten fighters Lulu or just without any home or drunk or absent or dead parents- interweaves actual stories with these kids as simple events, conversations, a dramatic bits like 'this is how we eat and shower' or 'I'm checking to see if I have an STD or am pregnant'. All of this is presented frankly enough, but it's when things are stripped away to stark truths that it becomes harrowing: 16 year-old Dewayne, who has tonsillitis and wants to go in the navy someday, visits his father in prison on a 30 year stretch, and the way the conversation goes- the way his father talks strong but lovingly- brought me to tears.Its a very direct portrait, and it doesn't judge them like "these kids are bad because...", because there's too much to already crush the audience to get into preachiness. It is what it is, and it has many unforgettable moments, even just a bit with an old bum playing the song 'Teddy Bear's Picnic' or a "playboy" watching Star Wars while trying to fit in with drying died black hair. It's so moving that I can only really point out one minor liability- ironic since it's the reason I sought out the movie in the first place- which is a lack of Tom Waits music; one might think he scores the entire movie, but only two songs are in the film. And yet when they come up, they're approximately heartbreaking and somber in that way Waits can only do. It's a small underground classic.

I first saw this film the night before I left for Navy boot camp October 7th 1986. I watched it 4 times that night and was blown away. I had just turned 18 and had been living on the streets for a year and just returned home. My dad and I watched it together he asked me if I had ever hustled my body for money and I truthfully told him no. (I seen a lot of guys do sick stuff for cash.) This film reminded me of so many people I left behind who are locked up, or dead. There are very interesting scenes, such as the doctor or nurse speaking to Tiny does not try to push condom use, the tattoo artist wears no gloves, and the young man Jimmy who turns tricks is donating Plasma. Wow! Talk about high risk. Since the Navy I have been working the streets of the United States as a bounty Hunter for 15 years. I have been in several documentaries and have been asked to redo a conversation or take another shot on several occasions. It's a fact that when the cameras are around things change to an extent you have to accept that, and if it seems too good to be true remember the magic is in the editing. I have also been told to kick doors and get the fugitives violent. I seen thousands of kids like this and it breaks your heart. I get so sick of seeing 15 year old girls in Camden or Philly nodding off on heroin while they are in the streets tricking. A friend of mine from Turkey told me that the lowest form of life in his country is a pimp. The time I spent on the streets is what made me into a good bounty hunter because I would treat everyone with compassion, respect, and understanding. I don't think for one minute that this was scripted here is some proof. Tiny answers her mother with "Whatever" before it became popular ten years later. All of these kids have been talking street since they said their first words. Except for Kimberly who you could tell came from a better situation. Anyone who comes in daily contact with the streets knows this was for real. Every city of the United States has its own street lingo. Street terms for drugs, sex, cops, snitches and prostitution vary from city to city. If this was scripted the director from the UK would have not known the local slang and dialect. These kids were pure street, they were also masters of street psychology something that cannot be learned through a book, or film class. This has to be one of the best films ever. Why did it not take with the main stream media? Well I will answer this. Timing... America was not ready to face its demons. The Polo shirt wearing execs that controlled the film industry shoving coke up there noses in massive amounts figured that America was more obsessed and better represented by John Hughes suburban brat packers, Family Ties, and Karate Kid than the castaways of the trailer parks and projects. Had this film came out ten or more years later on HBO it would have had inspired a series. The filmmakers new they had something explosive but there was no internet or mass media delivery other than the conventional channels. Simply put before it's time. This was generation X at its youth. Ask your self this..b was Quentin Tarantino influenced by this movie? There is some one named Alabama on the credits! True Romance featured Alabama as call girl from the south. We need to know not through websites but through another documentary exactly where the survivors are and how they are living. Rat, Tina, and LuLu were the most likable. I could care less for the pimps. Watch this then watch celebrity rehab with Dr. Drew. It will make the celebrities look more like the whining babies they actually are. This was the first reality show! Plus I would love to see the outtakes from the first one! A second Streetwise would generate a lot of dough and I'm sure that Erin and her husband with all those kids could use the cash, and Rat probably wouldn't mind extra dough either right. Some one contact the film maker and get this project started.