| Interesting but shallow |
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| written by sethbecky |
November 23, 2007 - 12:27 PM PST |
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5 out of 5 members found this review helpful
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You can see Henry Rollins talk about his opinions and views anywhere, even on his TV show, but seeing him specifically talk about the hardcore punk movement and what it means (now) to him is fascinating. American Hardcore is long on retrospective interviews and on live footage captured by hand held home cameras in dingy clubs in the early 80s, all of which is fun to watch and educational for anyone who missed the scene, even second-hand.
The documentary focuses on where hardcore bands appeared and how the style and ethic traveled from location to location, comprising great analysis of the cross-pollination of musical style, politics, and audience behavior that is the core of any small music scene.
Unfortunately, the director glosses over violence, drugs, sex, and egos, trying instead to paint the overall scene as highly political and carrying a message of social responsibility. He demonstrates that some bands were these things: Bad Brains definitely insisted on social messages in many of their songs, and the "I hate everything" nihilism of the angry young men who created the scene (pulling the older and more skilled groups like Bad Brains in) did include simplistic political messages against Ronald Reagan. But the documentary returns repeatedly to the idea that these 15 year-old punks would not have created the music and culture they did without a reaction to Reagan's "Morning in America" campaign. In the interviews, only HR from Bad Brains and Henry Rollins--punk's resident intellectual pundits--speak credibly about politics or social missions, and Rollins has never been one to sugar coat his opinions or hide the testosterone-infused mania that drove the scene.
Instead of any insight into how common youthful anger was directed into this scene and the good and bad of it, American Hardcore paints a picture of the joys of punching people without rancor while preaching a message against drug use and Ronald Reagan, with the idea that these 13-18 year old musicians were socially sophisticated enough to live in squalor so they could continue their campaign.
The interviews are interesting, for what they are. We've all heard stories of bands driving cross-country to sleep on another band's floor just to play one gig and learn from each other how they play music, how their management works, and how their audiences react. The stories from the hardcore band members--presumably cleaned up to remove references to drugs, sex, and most violence--are as interesting for the stories (and many fun stories are included) as they are for the middle-class suburban homes they are conducted in and the mainstream bands the kids went on to join.
American Hardcore is worth a watch. It does give a great overview of the major bands in the scene and how they inspired one another and it includes some fabulous concert footage. Just don't take it as very complete and it's a fun survey course in hardcore punk. |
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