American Hardcore (2006)

Pretty Good

i must have seen a different film!!

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This movie depicted the American hardcore punk scene from 79 to 86, where people rebelled from the system, and had a great time doing it. a common misconception was that these hardcore punks were completely criminals, so they got used to the label and stuck with it. band like circle jerks, cro mags, and others would talk about the drug use in punk music, with the exception of minor threat, it was controlled, but it was an important aspect. bands like black flag, seven seconds, and the numerous bands from dischord were mentioned, and i bow down to these hardcore gods. understand this movie is not about the dead kennedy's or any of those 70's punk bands, this movie was strictly about the hardcore, in your face bands.

I just watched American Hardcore last night and while the film was good I was a bit sad to see some luminaries glossed over or not even mentioned. Also the gist of the film is a bit odd where everyone agrees that the scene just ended one day. While that is a good story to have in a documentary it just wasn't true. Hardcore evolved with a second generation of bands coming in to play. In New York alone there was NYHC with acts like the Gorilla Bisquits and BioHazard. Also for whatever reason (licensing?) there was very little on Misfits, Dead Kennedy's and Adolescents. Another sad point is the terrible audio quality for the shows, most of these bands sounded better live than is shown here but I understand the reason for the bad audio, these events were tiny. Personally I would have overdubbed some of the shows but what do I know. Still not a bad piece of work and it was fun for me to return to the music of my youth.

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.

American Hardcore is a relatively thorough examination of the hardcore punk movement in this country from 1980 through 1986. Set against Reagan's 50's vision of the 1980's, these bands – from SoCal to Vancouver, Minneapolis to New York, D.C. to Boston – channeled their youthful rage into an industrial buzzsaw angst that politicized American homogeneity, and paved the way for the triumph of Nirvana and the "alternative nation" of the nineties.Paul Rachman's documentary, based on Steven Blush's book American Hardcore: A Tribal History, plays a lot like the music sounds: lo-fi, blurry, energetic, confused, and often very funny. A lot of screen time is given to two of the best bands from the movement – SoCal's Black Flag and D.C.'s Bad Brains – but the live performance clips, most of them from lo-tech sources, don't give the lockstep rhythms and passionate intensity of the music its due. The grungy footage is distant, historical; it places a gauze around the chaos of the time. Considered in perspective, too many of the bands sound similar, the effect monochromatic and, ultimately, uninteresting. Which is too bad, because many of the major players from that period – the two mentioned above, as well as Flipper, Minor Threat and Hüsker Dü – left behind seminal work. If the filmmakers could have used snippets of the actual recordings, the movie might have been more cohesive and involving, and envisioned the next phase of this endlessly regenerating culture. Documentaries, regardless of subject, should expand their subject. American Hardcore often feels as insular as the underground community of dissenters it features. But for music lovers – who should include this subgenre on their list of interests – it's refreshing to be reminded how technical expertise and craft can pale in the face of true passion.