Synopsis
The Los Angeles punk music scene circa 1980 is the focus of this film. With Alice Bag Band, Black Flag, Catholic Discipline, Circle Jerks, Fear, Germs, and X.
The Decline of Western Civilization
1981 Directed by Penelope Spheeris
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Pretty much anyone who was ever into punk rock has some boring story about how it affected them personally. Here's mine (nobody has to read this, but this movie welled up a bunch of old memories and feelings so I feel compelled to exorcise them here):
Last time I saw this movie I was 14 or 15-years-old, sitting on a musty couch with Mary Blackwell in the basement of her aunt and uncles' house in Candler Park. Mary was a senior in high school, and I was a freshman. We met because in some morning period class she would graffiti her desk, and later in the day when the room was used for a completely different class, I would come… -
here's my punk story: in high school there was a cool crowd of punk dudes who said i was a poser bitch for claiming i was punk when i wasn't. but i never said i was punk. for whatever reason they really hated me. so to get back at them i wrote a poem about how their rich parents bought all their expensive equipment and got them gigs and sent it anonymously to the literary magazine. everybody knew it was me, though.
eventually i got into the late 80's/early 90's california stuff. when i was 16 i went to a guttermouth show and the then-30ish year old singer hit on me relentlessly and pretty soon after that i started listening… -
There's a slender thread here, and some would probably say in the DNA of punk itself, of creepy shit like white supremacy, homophobia, and genuinely antisocial and violent behavior (as opposed to the cool kind) that to the movie's credit isn't brushed under the rug but isn't quite the subject of serious exploration either. Contrast that with the often straight-ahead mockery of Part II and you have quite a study in how subtle differences in presentation can make a huge difference in material. It's also a study in how much shittier music apparently got in less than ten years.
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"Personally, I've been through one too many youth movements."
As always with concert films, mileage will vary depending on one's connection to the music on display. As someone who, when tasked with writing an 8th grade history report on any era of human existence, chose this very scene, the hardcore punk scene in Southern California at the dawn of the 1980s, this is catnip to me.
As Mike Watt wrote and D. Boon sang as part of the greatest punk band of all time, "We learned punk rock in Hollywood, drove up from Pedro. We were fucking corndogs. We'd go drink and pogo." That is this movie.
It's been years since I've seen this and it's interesting to see which…
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My band is thinking of doing a bunch of Germs covers, since everyone in the band is so untalented and inebriated that it's inevitable that we'll sound better than the original.
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Hell yeah!
Solid doc that gets to the heart of the hardcore scene at the time.
Not always a comfortable watch but great just the same.
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Great doc.
I felt really comfortable when the featured band was a frontman who got on stage blitzed out of his mind and just slurred lyrics. Hope he's still ok.
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It doesn't get better or closer to the scene than this. Some great camera work and cinematic editing really elevate this movie to one of the great music documentaries. Unfortunately, its a reminder of late 70's racism and homophobia when that shit was way more casual.
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Some thoughts while watching this film:
- A personal opinion, however popular or unpopular, I don't care - pogo dancing looks stupid and is stupid
- I suppose I'm much more of a NYC/London punk
- Darby, oh Darby...
- Exene is a doll
- Most of the kids interviewed in the middle are pissing me off
- Fuck racism, homophobia, and misogyny - that's not punk at all!
- Yay, Alice Bag!
- But dammit, no "Babylonian Gorgon," my favorite Bags tune
- The Club 88 owners are the best and the sweetest!!
- Fear's "performance" - my reactions told in the form of Bianca Del Rio & Michelle Visage GIFs - 1, 2, 3, & 4.
- Let me reiterate - racism, homophobia, and misogyny are not punk. End of discussion.
- I'll continue getting my punk from the likes of The Damned, The Cramps, The Ramones, and X Ray Spex. Grrr.
- Argh... -
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An amazing, engaging and interesting look into the punk world of the 80s with a focus on the music. The best parts of this documentary are the interviews with punk rockers and the bands, with the sections concerning Black Flag and X being highlights. The movie has an amazing way of making a point and introducing a band based on stage presence alone. The primary example here is Fear, which includes no narration or interviews, just edited shots of the band communicating with the audience and playing their set. The only negative of relying so much on the music is that the movie lags a little bit in the end and middle due to the sheer length of some of the performances. Overall, its one of the best documentaries I've seen.
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***EDIT (March 30, 2014)*** Wow! I never would have expected that I'd get anywhere close to 100 likes on this…