The Decline of
Western Civilization Box Set 2015
Penelope Spheeris director
Review by Alexander
Laurence
This DVD box set is finally out. It should have been out in 2000, but at last, we have the three films plus extra footage and commentaries. The best commentary is by Dave Grohl who claims to be related to DJ Bonebreak of X. Penelope Spheeris was smart enough to capture the unbelievable LA scene.
This DVD box set is finally out. It should have been out in 2000, but at last, we have the three films plus extra footage and commentaries. The best commentary is by Dave Grohl who claims to be related to DJ Bonebreak of X. Penelope Spheeris was smart enough to capture the unbelievable LA scene.
I saw the original Decline movie, like most, in the early
1980s, on a worn VCR tape recorded from TV. More importantly I heard the
original soundtrack soon after it came out in early 1981. The soundtrack may
have been more important in the early days of punk, because not many had seen
the actual film. The first time they showed the Decline in a theater, there was
a police riot, and it was therefore banned. At the time, I was 16, and I was
aware of the punk bands from London
and New York , but knew very
little from the LA scene. Very soon, I would attend gigs at the Starwood and
the Fleetwood, and even the Cuckoo’s Nest in Costa Mesa .
I saw Black Flag and The Dickies. I would buy copies of Flipside and Slash
magazine. I would buy import records and punk rock records from Zed Records in Long
Beach . By summer 1981, it was like I had a quick
education in LA Punk Rock 101. I would start hanging out with people who were
in the crowd in the Decline film. I met Michael “X-Head” Miller. It all
happened very fast. I had entered this alternate world with its own ideas of whom
and what was important.
I cannot stress how important the soundtrack to the Decline
was. It triggered this filmic vision in my mind how punk was supposed to be. I
could see it clearly. New York
punk was still too art school and poetic. London
punk was about fashion. All of those bands were still trying to be rock stars,
in the end, and most of these punk rockers still ended up signing to major
labels and being consumed by the rock and roll machine. This LA scene didn’t
give a fuck. They were anti-heroes and villains. They were like a bunch of
crazy people screaming at the top of their lungs on a street corner. It was
bizarre. It had no rock stars and very few of these people could expect to have
a career doing this. Their songs were about the ugly underside of things. They
were a bunch of homeless freaks, a few weeks away from imminent death. Penelope
Spheeris was able to capture this great moment on film.
When I actually saw the actual Decline movie, possibly in
late 1983 or so, it was like having an acid trip. I was no longer listening to
punk music. People had died. Everyone was into new wave and rap. It seemed like
it was an advertisement for Slash Records. They left out some bands like the
Alley Cats, The Screamers, and The Weirdos, and others. X tried to be a
mainstream band. Catholic Discipline wasn’t a real band anyway. I felt like
movies like The Decline and Another State of Mind promoted certain bands over
other bands that were equally important, such as The Gun Club, and a whole
bunch of OC bands.
But the Decline movie stands up to the test of time. Black
Flag and Fear seem as fresh as ever. This movie works like a time capsule. The
last real form of rebellion is expressed before it is stamped out by oncoming
Reaganism, consumer culture, and a lack of vision. Punk rock fizzled out by
1982: it was a five year plan that exploded, and has become an echo chamber for
those who want to inhabit the space. Music culture moved on into reggae, ska,
post-punk noise, no wave, jazz, goth, and new wave. Ex-punkers like Adam Ant
and Billy Idol became stars of the MTV generation. Even TSOL tried to be the
next Duran Duran at some point, and then a hair metal rock outfit.
What was left for punk to do? It went hardcore and went
underground, and was silent during most of the 1980s. Since then it’s become
the default adolescent rebellion music for any young people in the world. Today
old and young punks can pretend that it’s still 1980 and have a beer with Fear.
Their ongoing moshpit is like the circles of hell, and nothing has been solved
and nothing has been explained, and the Ramones are all dead. We can always go
see the statue of Johnny Ramone in the middle of Hollywood .
Punk Rock was more about destruction than construction. It
was more the end of something than a beginning. Its major impulse was “getting
rid of the unnecessary.” It was negative. It was possibly nihilistic. It wasn’t
a style or a fashion statement. I saw the recent Punk Fashion exhibit at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. I agree with Richard Hell who said something like
“Who cares about these sad clothes?”
The Decline film was about a specific time with some cute
bands. You can’t take it out of context, and bring it into the future. It’s
true that each decade creates folk music for that time and their contemporaries.
But most of the time folk artists aren’t really talented and have no interesting
songs to sing. What happened to most of the bands from the first Decline film?
Most of them broke up and are dead now. A few of them do exist mainly on the
retro and heritage circuit.
While punk died in 1982, and music transformed into multiple
genres, the heavy metal kids came of age. In the 1970s, there were people who
liked Kiss and Van Halen. Maybe they even liked punk? This is what the second
Decline film is about. Kids who grew up with heavy metal didn’t want to destroy
things. They wanted to become rock stars themselves. They wanted to drink beer
and get laid. Their needs were simple. They weren’t against the establishment.
They were right wing or apolitical. They didn’t hate the record companies. It’s
like they had read rock bios and wanted to live them out. They wanted to star
in their own rock film.
Whereas the first film is about present tense punk bands and
Slash Magazine, and a few clubs; the second film is rooted in 1970s rock past:
Kiss, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, and Ozzy Osborne. They have a sampling of would
be rock stars: London , Faster
Pussycat, Megadeath, and others. Missing are the two most hedonistic bands of
the time: Guns and Roses and Motley Crue. But Penelope Spheeris gives us a
pretty intense look into the good and the ugly of the mid-1980s scene. This
film is very entertaining, but at the end of the day, it’s empty and hollow.
For me, there are very few memorable songs. There is a lot of wasted talent and
self-destruction. Just selling a lot of records and being the loudest band
doesn’t mean very much to me. Typical of the 1980s: Reagan amnesia and
uninteresting narcissism. I left LA in 1988 for 15 years.
The third Decline film is mostly about homeless punk kids in
1998. It was twenty years after the first wave of punk and what was left of
punk? Unfortunately there are a bunch of kids from broken homes who live in
cars and squats. It’s like they saw the first Decline film and the film Suburbia,
and based their life on that. Penelope Spheeris gives us a good snapshot on the
aftermath of hardcore punk: they have become the cockroaches that drink beer. They
can imagine their own short lives. The music of the third film is pretty
forgettable. There is no music or songs. All the lyrics are anti-establishment
and predictable. Bands like Catholic Discipline were full of personality. In
the 1990s, punk bands decided to emulate bands like Crass and become pure
propagandists. The worst parts of punk: play fast and preach to the converted. They
seem like an unhappy bunch of people with a lack of imagination.
Penelope Spheeris is fine filmmaker. She is either prophet
of doom or a person with a strong vision of the unstoppable slide into
decadence and darkness. There will be screenings of the films in different cities listed below.
Including the films The Decline Of Western Civilization (1980), Part II: The Metal Years (1988), and Part III (1998), a 40-page book, rare stills, extended interviews, new commentaries by Penelope Spheeris, Dave Grohl, and more, this is the first ever official Blu-ray or DVD release of the films, which Spheeris counts among her most rewarding work. The films feature the likes of X, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Germs, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith, Motorhead, and many others. Compelling, revealing and ultimately moving, The Decline of Western Civilization, taken as a whole, is an arresting look at who we were, and who we are.
THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION THEATRICAL SCREENINGS:
June 27: Music Box Theatre, Chicago, IL – Decline Part I, Part II & Part III (Penelope Spheeris Q&A)
Aug 2: Film Streams, Omaha, NE - Decline Part I
Aug 14 & 15: Jacob Burns Film Center: Pleasantville, NY - Decline Part I
Aug. 28 & 29: Jacob Burns Film Center: Pleasantville, NY - Decline Part II
More dates TBA
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