Boring

A different way of telling a story

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

During the early 80s Reagan era, punk music takes hold as people rebel against pop rock and the last of disco. This chronicles the hardcore punk scene starting from 78 Southern California with many of the fans and musicians involved.It's an exhausting recounting of really angry music. Honestly, it was never my kind of music but it is fascinating to see the story. This is not a music concert. This is a small peek into an outsider community. It uses a long string of talking head and old performance footages. Some of the people are recognizable to any passing music fans. Most are people from bands that only fans would know. They are mostly underground bands and they don't usually get on the radio.

This film puts you on the stage with (almost) all the protagonists of the scene. Now, I saw the efforts in the production: many interviews, many concerts, however, in the end, I cannot hide that it's remained in me a feeling of disappointment. There are many, too many bands ignored in this documentary that, according to its presentation, should talk about history of hardcore in the USA. Well, for example, I haven't heard of the Dead Kennedys even once. This is only one of the many absences (for me, the worst) that have petrified me. It's a good film and everyone who like this musical genre should watch it in my opinion, but what a pity.

I was a regular LA clubgoer starting in 1979, when I was 17 years old. I never got into the hardcore scene, preferring artier bands like Monitor, BPeople, Catholic Discipline, The Deadbeats, and The Weirdos, but I did see my fair share of the bands depicted in this film. For me, American Hardcore correctly identifies the first band to exemplify the style, The Middle Class, and accurately traces the developments that followed. The hardcore scene overwhelmingly comprised very young and alienated working class white kids, whilst the 'art punk' bands were a bit older, a bit wiser, and tended to live in LA or Hollywood (with a few folks out in the Valley for good measure). So I don't have any complaints about the film's sins of omission: The Germs were a great band, but certainly not hardcore; likewise the DKs, who were far too melodic for the style--heck, they even played sixties stuff like The Boy From New York City on occasion! For my money, American Hardcore very wisely keeps the focus narrow: there are a hundred films that could (and arguably should) be made about the American punk explosion, and trying to do it all in one would have done everyone a disservice. For anyone who grew up with '70s punk, this is required viewing. Now, who amongst us has the wherewithal to produce The Nervous Gender Story, All About The Screamers, or Black Randy: He Slept In An Arcade?? The footage is out there...

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.