Customer Reviews

Punk Rock Movie [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love this film, as I'm sure any fan of early British punk rock will be, but one of the standout groups who perform are Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers, arguably at their peak around this time... My favorite moment in this movie is watching a pretty, yet bored, young girl watch a somewhat lackluster Brit band practice a reggae tune over and over again, only to perk up at the first sounds of 'Chinese Rocks' from the stage and remark "finally, some REAL music."
Overall, this is a fine time capsule giving us a look into a period that is imitated time and again by fashion-conscious bands and fans who completely miss out on the energy, joy and yes, even innocence of the original scene...

This movie is great, with live performances and backstage silliness featuring a who's who of the Brit Punk scene.
Siouxsie & the Sex Pistols are featured plus appearances by GenX, the Slits, Wayne County& the Electric Chairs, Slaughter & the Dogs, The Clash, Eater, & the Heartbreakers.

Watch for SEX getting busted for body parts in the window !

It's high time Rhino released this on DVD, are you listening Rhino?

It's worth having anyway & [the price] is a steal!

Don Letts, all of 21 years old during the filming, takes his trusty Super 8 and scenster cool into the world of London punk in a way that hasn't been captured before or since. This is a completely all access and uncensored look at a scene that was rapidly changing as the mainstream media got hold of it. These are very young kids doing what kids do and some of what they shouldn't be doing, but it's all here at it's rawest. This film catches the tiny window of time before the media onslaught of the UK punk scene and after the scene developed its bands/style/culture. That Don knew these kids and scene well is evident in their comfort with his camera. In other words, this film is where the rubber meets the road.

Punk is notoriously on and on about "posers" and who started what 1st and where...this film is one of the few things that let the viewers decide for themselves. There are many surprises here (at least for me). The audiences were incredibly diverse, you even see "square" kids with long hair and flares among the bondage gear, Union jackets, and badges. This early scene has all manner of fashion and people. One thing I couldn't make out much here was the phenomenon of "gobbing" (ie the audience/band spitting on each other). This was the era when gobbing was at it's height, so I attribute not being able to see it down to the very primitive film equipment. The now nearly extinct "pogo" dancing is front and center.

The biggest fault this film has is the sound quality. The camera isn't the main problem overall, but the venue sound systems were problematic. Many times Letts actually includes lyrics as a crawl because they can't be made out in the live performances. This is a film that would benefit from subtitles/closed captioning, not only for the accents but because the audio quality is generally so poor.

Where Letts really excels is in the editing. He really juxtaposed the images effectively into a thoughtful and comprehensive whole. In that way, it will remind one of "The Last Waltz" (which was released around the same time as Punk Rock Movie...1978) and "The Kids Are Alright" in 1979. In an interview I've read, Don Letts said Martin Scorsese requested and got a screening of this film from Mr. Letts personally. Upon watching it, this makes perfect sense.

Unlike his later film "Punk:Attitude" (2005), this film makes no attempt to "explain" the scene in any way. You are simply shown the acts, audiences, their culture, and the venues they played. The future breakout stars/bands clearly shine even as early as this, but there are a number of lesser acts too. The scene was a very mixed bag in terms of talent and overall style, but it was a shared scene. The acts range from the relatively "old" Americans Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers (the best musicians featured, IMHO) to the extremely young (15 years old) and precocious Ari Up and the Slits. The "Bromely Contingent" is well represented...Siouxsie and The Banshees and a very young Billy Idol (pre spikes and bondage, but already sporting white hair) with his group Generation X along with others of their number. Other scensters such as Mark P and the dreadlocked Roxy staff are seen throughout the film. Last but not least, The Clash and The Pistols with Sid get face and stage time. (Quite a bit of this film's footage was used in the later film "Punk:Attitude" but it's here uncut.)

All in all, the extremely primitive nature of this film is a positive selling point. It's the film version of the Mark P. fanzine "Sniffin' Glue"...an authentic experience that slick production values would undermine. At present, this film is only available for NTSC/R1 in VHS format. If you are have a VCR or are a VHS enthusiast, this is another little gem for you that might never see R1 DVD distribution. If you are a DVD only person, this film IS already out on DVD, but in R2/PAL format. Look at Ebay, Xploited Cinema, etc...and it's out there for a reasonable price. Your DVD player must be able to handle multiregion discs to play it however.