American Hardcore

2006 "The History of American Punk Rock 1980-1986"
7.3| 1h40m| R| en| More Info
Released: 22 September 2006 Released
Producted By: Envision Films
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.sonyclassics.com/americanhardcore/
Synopsis

Inspired by Steven Blush's book "American Hardcore: A tribal history" Paul Rachman's feature documentary debut is a chronicle of the underground hardcore punk years from 1979 to 1986. Interviews and rare live footage from artists such as Black Flag, Bad Brains, Minor Threat, SS Decontrol and the Dead Kennedys.

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Reviews

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable
TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.
Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
E. Catalan American HARDCORE, the cinematic version of Steven Blush's awesome historical book, is only an incomplete look at the hardcore era at best. While it is obviously understandable that covering such a vast subject, one is always bound to leave somethings out, this film leaves A LOT out. The book was pretty much an accurate (and biased) account of the hardcore days, complete with the era's key players (MINOR THREAT, DEAD KENNEDYS, MISFITS, BLACK FLAG, HUSKER DU, CIRCLE JERKS, D.O.A., M.D.C., BAD RELIGION, TSOL, BAD BRAINS, AGNOSTIC FRONT, CRO-MAGS, etc.)to the extent of devoting entire chapters to some of these bands. The film, which could have been an intense documentary with head and toes in the chronological department, ends up being just a string of interviews with little order and ending on an empty note. While the book's author managed to do interviews with DEAD KENNEDY's Jello Biafra and HUSKER DU's Grant Hart, they are NOWHERE mentioned in the film, save for their brief logo appearances and Henry Rollins mentioning them. MISFITS, who had an entire chapter dedicated to them, are also missing in the film, with just a brief interview with ex guitar player Bobby Steele. The film has loads of interview clips with Henry Rollins, Ian Mcaye, Dave Dictor, Bad Brains' Dr.Know and HR, Bad Religion's Greg Hetson, Brett Gurewitz and Brian Baker, the SSD guys, CRO-MAGS' Harley Flanagan, AGNOSTIC FRONT's Vinnie Stigma, TSOL, ADOLESCENTS, ARTICLES OF FAITH's Vic Bondi and some other, minor players of the HC scene. The interviews are fun and insightful, but the overall look of the documentary lacks cohesion. It ends up being just a documentary about 40 something punk rockers reminiscing about their glory days. What could have been the documentary's saving grace are the live performances, which to this very date, are extremely hard to find, save for the more long standing Hardcore bands. There's some excellent footage of BLACK FLAG playing in what appears to be their final days and it looks and sounds very powerful, almost metal like. But this performances are limited at best.Despite my obvious complaints, American HARDCORE looks like it was a work of people who really love the scene. They just could have put it together more cohesively and in a more chronological order, with maybe a voice-over explaining certain aspects of the hardcore era (much like METAL: A HEADBANGERS JOURNEY, which was put together much better).If you like this type of music ( I happen to LOVE it!), you'll do no wrong in getting a hold of American HARDCORE, but if you want a more in depth and complete look, get the book also.
I_saw_it_happen If I knew absolutely nothing about HC, then this would be a good film to get me interested. As a documentary on the history of HC, it certainly does leave out some seminal bands, and while certainly not everyone's favorite band could have been included, some certainly should have. In many ways, the work is incomplete. The lack of documentation and definition which plagued the whole HC scene becomes a legacy that carries the film. Whether this is a good or bad thing depends on whether you were part of the scene or not, I guess (I wasn't).As a companion piece to 'The Decline of Western Civilization', HC shows an interesting Historiography. The indifference to society shown in TDoWC is re-defined as a passionate desire to reject society. And certainly, both elements were always at work in any punk scene, just as they are today, and have been in any musical scene, or artistic movement, for that matter.What is truly problematic about American Hardcore, and why I only gave it a 6 rather than a 7 or an 8, is that it dismisses the musical legacy of HC. Because HC influenced genres far outside of punk, and this isn't really covered. And the dismissal of modern punk bands by older punks is disheartening and antithetic to a punk ethic. If these bands had been dismissed simply because they dressed weird or they didn't have the best equipment to play on, then nobody would have bothered to see past that and hear their message, which was meaningful. It's equally shallow to dismiss what message a modern punk band might have simply because they dress different and have nicer equipment. The DIY ethic is thriving, and this isn't reflected in AHC. Yes, it was harder to be DIY a long time ago, maybe, but does that mean the end product is any less meaningful? Current punk bands only have what their predecessors left them to build upon. By refusing to let that legacy trade hands, some of the older punk bands have done a disservice to all that which they fought so hard to establish. There are plenty exceptions, fortunately, although the impression AHC leaves you with is that AHC was all about the expression of particular individuals, rather than a particular element in society which is always historically present. I'd say art gains importance socially when it's important to an audience, not the artist. Punk is still important to people, and didn't 'stop' in the mid 80's. It mutated. It expanded. It did what punk music urges everyone to do--- Survive no matter what tries to bring you down.HC survived without those who left it. By denying this, AHC denies that HC was more than a passing fad.Still, with that narrow focus and cruddy ending aside, it's a good documentary, and worth watching.
D A A blistering, frothing era of misfits and outcasts venting their collective frustrations into a punk hardcore genre feels underwhelming here in it's attempt to reminisce about being a part of that anti-musical scene. Interviews with many of the underground's more respected (something I would not have any knowledge to debate) original hardcore members consume the majority of this basically constructed mass recollection, and while the punk attitude (with a side of bitter old geezer) flies fast, proud, and hard in the varied lineup of interviewees, little insight is gleamed during the repetitious bickering- largely made up of many of these "real punks" insisting that they have rocked harder then you ever will. A healthy contempt for mainstream normalcy would obviously be a precursor to any working punk band's ethic, but constant negativity and elitism masking for edgy commentary proves that time has not been kind to many of these rock warriors. Proving the exception to this stereotypically shallow attitude, the filmmakers do manage to find a few contrasting punks who offer to take powerful themes these raw, unbridled, often violent bursts of creative energy they helped pioneer and contextualize it in a way that is actually inspiring to someone who wasn't directly involved in this scene that supposedly died in 1986. Amongst a dazzling (though certainly dizzying as well) wealth of never before seen low quality footage showing these erratic outbursts of sound from numerous bands documented here, an initial grip this music may have around your adrenal gland will slowly become as repetitious as their interview counterparts. An interesting glimpse into a radical time for young American music, but lacking most of the depth to make this truly relevant to all but hardcore Hardcore fans.
Tecun_Uman Growing up in the early 1980s in one of the punk hot spots (Austin), I just had to see this film the first day it was out. I can remember like yesterday seeing the Big Boys, the Dicks, DK and Black Flag at Club Foot, the punk venue. It was a great and unique time. I have aged, but still consider myself a punk at heart. However, I was rather letdown by this film. It seems like the guy wanted to make this definitive documentary over the punk scene in the early '80s, but half the people he asked to interview turned him down. The most glaring flaw with this film is the omission of the Dead Kennedys. Yes, Black Flag and the Circle Jerks were huge during that time, but NOBODY came close to rivaling DK, they were it. Yet, there is nothing in the film about them, nothing. Fear is also ignored and so many other greats are just barely touched on. Yet, we get a ton of stuff on the Cro Mags and TSOL? Look, I know that a documentary filmmaker can only use the sources available to him, but it seems that the sources that were available to him (minus Henry Rollins and Keith Morris) were rather small in comparison to other giants like Jello Biafra and Lee Ving. Moreover, there was not enough music in the film. It opens with a nice Bad Brains' cut and montage and then they kind of go away from anymore montages. As someone that experienced the scene firsthand, I just kind of felt it was a rather thin and sloppy look at a very interesting time. Moreover, they drop Husker Du's name a lot, but then never explore anything about them. The guy could have made a better documentary, a much better one. And he could have shown how the punk scene influenced the creation of future bands like Social Distortion, the Replacments, etc.. And how about a shout-out to the freaking Ramones!?