Very well executed

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

I've not seen this movie, but i remember it got trashed in reviews in the late 1970s when it was shown. i fully agree that it was exceptionally dumb (pardon the pun) of the filmmakers to make a music documentary without any sound. at least we have the footage. if they hadn't done this we might be saying 'if only there was some footage of the ramones in 1976.....' at least we have that. and i'm sure the filmmakers did not think that people would be griping about paying full price for it 35 years later i do recall the intention was to shoot with synchronised sound and the sound didn't get recorded or something - may be i'm wrong it has to go down as one of the great heroic failures of the music world along with the guy who shot 10 minutes or so of the Beatles last concert,but used all of his film on shooting footage of people building the stage in an empty stadium.

Yes, this film is all but unwatchable. The unsynched video and audio make for one of the most unsatisfying experiences ever. This is supposed to be a documentary, but what did I learn from this film? If there was a band I didn't recognize, I wasn't told who they were. I don't know when the performance was shot, or where, or who the musicians are, or what their influences were. We don't learn why this generation was called blank by the filmmakers. There are no shots of the audience, so we don't learn what effect the music was having on those who were actually there. This isn't a documentary, it's being trapped at someone's house who you don't like and they pull out their home movies of their kids.

Many people will dismiss this film because it is basically soundless home movies with live music tracks from other performances dubbed over. The film was shot in grainy B/W, the camera is usually static with only a zoom lens to pan in and out, and we hear only bits and pieces of songs. Well, I think that's excusable for a film of this subject. The first roots of the punk/new wave scene were ‘real' garage bands. MTV was still four years away. The rock music scene was comprised of mega-bands (like Yes, Pink Floyd, and Jethro Tull) that filled stadiums and promised little other than a good light show and a contact high from grass. Another alternative was the leisure suit/gold-chain disco scene, which was completely void of soul despite the R&B origins from which it sprang. Then there was the worst of the worst. I was in high school at the time and I chose the 40-minute walk home most days (and there were no walkmans in those days!) rather than have to listen to Barry Manilow and Linda Ronstadt on the school bus's radio. Needless to say, music in 1976 was either nauseatingly bad or overproduced to the max, and the music scene was saturated in cocaine, hot tubs, and Quaaludes. Enter this new scene – so new that it didn't even have a name (it was first coined `punk' when it reached England and was embraced by working class kids). The attitude with these new bands was disenchantment, the music was simplistic, and the performances were raw and unpolished. This new American music never really was `punk' because it lacked the energy to even be about being against everything (with the exception of Patti Smith). It wasn't angry, or expressive or flashy. If one could call it anything in fact, it would probably be Loud Inertia. So, if one is to make a documentary about loud inertia and stay truthful to its form, it would have to be as stagnant, simplistic, raw, and unrefined as the music. Most of the bands in this film had not yet signed to a label at this time, and few of them ever played outside of NYC. Their audiences were what one might call the riff-raff of society. So, who had the money to buy a video camera or even a sound camera? Ivan Kral and Amos Poe obviously had the insight to record the performances on their 8mm home movie cameras and probably something like a cheap cassette recorder. I doubt they ever considered their efforts to be as directors. They were simply fans with cameras, and that makes this film an uncultivated document of a seed that would sprout into a whole movement. I can't say I enjoyed watching this film or that it even captured many of the aspects of what made some of these bands great (by the time I saw most of these bands in '77 & '78, they had already developed somewhat musically). However, this film is in itself something unpretentious, uncompromising, and far, far away from what would soon be labeled, packaged and manufactured by record companies and music videos. There are other documentaries that are more entertaining, and that fully explain the phenomenon of this new music scene. But I think the music and images this of film candidly show what the real essence of this era was all about. It may look static, but it's pure, original, and sincere which let's face it, is the antithesis of MTV and most music today.

Was there ever such a vibrant, exciting music scene as that of the punk/new wave CBGBs explosion?Amos Poe has made history by capturing some of the leading lights of the genre in their natural performing habitat well before they hit the big time. Filmed on wonderful, grainy 16mm silent film savour the sights of luminaries such as Talking Heads, Wayne County, Patti Smith, Blondie, Tuff Darts, New York Dolls and the Ramones complemented with dubbed live tracks/demos to provide the soundtrack.Ironic, that on any punk compilation a track from all of the above artists features, and yet here they are all in the same place and possibly all on the same night. A treat for all punk/CBGB fans - Poe has really captured the wonderfully inventive, innovative and spontaneous atmosphere of the era here.Thanks Amos.