#The decline of western civilization movie

'Well, tell him to sing into the microphone.' 'I put a guy in the hospital a little while back,' says Michael, an interviewed fan. 'We try to tell him to do that,' Nicole, the Germs manager, says dryly of Darby Crash. And a lot of this comes down to Spheeris’ editing and the juxtaposition with how seriously fans take punk but how unseriously the musicians take it. As it’s aged, what is remarkable is how hilarious it is. But in the sold-out audience at BAM last week it became clear that there was really nothing tough about Decline’s cast. As a young teenager watching the film, I was entranced by the violence of the scene.

#The decline of western civilization movie

But, this movie is also an accidental comedy. Spheeris lets the camera linger on the faces and thoughts, giving us comprehensive sense of what kind of kids trekked out to see these spectacles.

punk scene, from Darby Crash slurring his way through 'Lexicon Devil' to how the world was beginning to perceive punk through the editor’s letters to Slash magazine. 'I might kill a hippie though,' he snorts.ĭecline is, on one level, a well-directed document of the fomenting L.A. 'It’s not like I’m going to go out and kill a Jew,' says one punk teen wearing a Swastika-emblazoned t-shirt. It’s a gritty blueprint of young, white, male aggression, dudes smashing into each other and retorting vocal fry-laden 'Fuck, I don’t know's when asked why exactly they 'dance' like that. Bands talk of holding girls by their 'holes' like six-packs, Whiskey a Go Go security talks of audiences trying to rip Exene Cervenka’s dress off her body, skinheads rattle off racist diatribes. So does Decline glamorize heathens, as that one outspoken audience member cried at its first debut? The documentary is, like the scene it documents, bloody, sexist, and racist. Between hectic, screaming live performances from the bands, often fitted with lyrics for viewers to follow along, Spheeris talks to these bands about how they make money, fans about what the music means, and if people get scared of them when they walk down the street.

Respectively, the bands featured were Germs, Black Flag, Fear, Circle Jerks, X, Catholic Discipline, and Alice Bag Band, along with features on Slash magazine and club owners like Bill Gazzarri. 'And I thought, ‘she’s right.’'Ī feature-length glimpse at some of Los Angeles’ most compelling punk acts circa 1979, Decline was a down-in-the-dirt look into the chaos of mosh-pits, stage antics, and shit-faced music that the general public was just beginning to grasp. and this woman stood up and said, ‘How dare you glorify these heathens!’' says Penelope Spheeris following the screening of her newly restored punk rock documentary The Decline of Western Civilization at Brooklyn Academy of Music. there's no such thing as New Wave.'The first time we screened the film was at the Writers Guild in L.A. His gritty voice delivers one of the best soliloquies ever captured on film: 'I have excellent news for the world. And who can't love the commentary of the little French dude who used to be the 'singer' for Catholic Discipline (of which Phranc was a member). How many unheard of bands do you know that aren't trying like the dickens to get a record deal? These guys just didn't care. Then again, it's not as easy to come by $16/month former-church closets like Chavez of Black Flag does. The band interviews reveal an honest approach to the music that really doesn't exist anymore. But also it turns the camera's POV into that of tourist, passing through this alien world. As the bands play, Spheeris prints the lyrics in subtitles, which is of course necessary if one really wants to know what the guy is screaming into the microphone. It really is a great illumination of the burgeoning punk scene in LA in 1980. Kind of a guilty indulgence nowadays, this used to be required watching when i was in high school.