The decline of western civilisation - a film review

I had been wanting to see this film for years. I eventually obtained a copy from those nice people on ebay and I was well impressed. The decline of western civilisation is a documentary by Penelopee Spheeris who later made her fortune as the director of Waynes World. The documentary examines the Los Angeles hardcore punk subculture of the late '70s/early '80s including one of my adolescent favourite bands Black Flag.

The west coast hardcore scene of the time seems to have been a pretty unpleasant place. Everything I have read about the scene highlights its violence. The punks spent a lot of time kicking the shit out of each other. Some of the punks in the film seem to be un-nice people. Darby Crash, the doomed singer of the Germs, and his girlfriend come across as stupid or immature.

Darby was a Sid Vicious clone who died of a heroin overdose between the end of filming and the release of the documentary. His image is on the cover of the soundtrack CD. The live footage of the Germs in the film is terrible. Darby could not sing and he seemed to have problems walking at times. He would injure himself on stage and fight the crowd. It is not pleasant to watch.

Some of the music that the Germs made was great. Lexicon devil, Media Blitz and Communist Eyes are all hardcore classics and it is worth tracking down. Pat Smear, the guitarist, played in the terminal line up of Nirvana and female rock singer Belinda Carlisle was their original drummer (really).

Black Flag are a much more serious deal in the film. The live footage is tighter that a gnats chuff. This was pre-Rollins Black Flag when they were fast and deadly with Ron Reyes singing. They sound as good as they did on their early seven inches and they look fucking amazing. I was ready to start jumping around my bedroom. If I had this DVD at age 14 I would have injured myself.

The Flag appear to be intelligent in the interview segment. Gregg Ginn and Gary McDaniels (aka Chuck Dukowski) make sense. It is clear that these guys could read. History underlines this impression when you consider the subsequent success of SST and Black Flag.

X are the other outstanding band in the film. They seem intelligent and interesting. Their music is good. Nausea, from their Los Angeles album, plays during the opening credits and creates a suitable atmosphere of unease. I have now been on ebay to pick up some of their other CDs.

Circle Jerks and Fear both give good performances. Fear were very antagonistic towards their audience and nearly started a riot. The other bands in the film were shit although the footage from Slash magazine was interesting.

As I mentioned before, Spheeris went on to direct Waynes World but you should also track down The Decline of Western Civilisation part II - the metal years which has some comedy Ozzy Osbourne footage.