Advertisement
UPDATE: Karina initially accidentally posted this story under her name, instead of that of Lauren Wissot, who is the author. Please except her apologies for the confusion. Also, Young Karina did have a blue hair, black eyeliner & studded belt phase, but she was fairly careful not to get anywhere near a camera that year.
It was 30 years ago this week that Sid Vicious rang the death knell for punk rock, overdosing on heroin on February 2nd while awaiting trial for the murder of girlfriend Nancy Spungen. So in honor of the spike-haired rebel who was the face (if not the sound) of punk, and whose chaotic life ended at the tender age of 21, I present five punk rock films that really rock.
Suburbia
Suburbia was released in 1983, and though Sid Vicious had flamed out along with punk’s heyday years before, America’s hardcore scene was in overdrive with bands like Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys reinventing the music by playing at the speed of light, pumping up the adrenaline from coast to coast (and causing this minor threat to later consider the Ramones as slowpoke as The Beatles.) Director Penelope Spheeris, best known for docs like Decline of Western Civilization and her later forays into sellout Hollywood, thrillingly applied the original punk DIY ethos to filmmaking, using guerrilla tactics and nonprofessionals to create a time capsule of L.A.’s underground scene. In other words, the film not only documents punk, it is punk – and a must-see for a young punk as much as the latest Bad Brains album was a must-hear. In fact, I must’ve seen this film about a group of runaways who form a punk family a dozen times during my anarchistic teenage years, never sober and usually with my own extended, Mohawk coiffed, leather-and-chain-wearing family. Indeed, the image of lead character Evan kicking at white walls like a trapped animal, futilely trying to fight his way out of society’s cage, often would be the last I’d see before passing out next to a spike-toed Doc.
Repo Man
Emilio Estevez has never been as good as he was in Repo Man. Appropriately released in that Orwellian year of 1984, Alex Cox’s surreal take on the world of mercenary repossession agents is every bit as bizarre as anything Terry Gilliam ever put onscreen. As punk rocker Otto, Estevez stoically faces losing his job, being dumped by his girlfriend, UFOs and government conspiracies – not to mention a quintessentially slimy Harry Dean Stanton as his mentor – all set to a soundtrack featuring everything from Iggy Pop to the Burning Sensations (whose ditty “Pablo Picasso” has some of the punkest lyrics ever written: “All the girls would turn the color of an avocado/ When he’d drive down the street in his El Dorado/ Though he was only five-foot-three girls could not resist his stare/ Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole…not like you”).
Sid & Nancy
I’ve already waxed rhapsodic about Sid & Nancy in my recent Criterion Collection essay at The House Next Door, but suffice to say that this true love story of the Sex Pistols’ bassist Sid Vicious and his junkie groupie-turned-girlfriend Nancy Spungen is anything but your typical tabloid biopic. Alex Cox’s 1986 film is nothing less than a masterful visual translation of the greatest punk rock story ever told. As with Repo Man, the director digs deep, discovering the surreal in the everyday while mining the humanity and even humor of the nihilist 70s. Songs by The Pogues and the late Clash front man Joe Strummer round out the soundtrack. And of course, Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb are equally unforgettable as the leads.
Valley Girl
Martha Coolidge’s 1983 film is basically “Romeo and Juliet” set in the San Fernando Valley with no sword fights, a happy ending and, most importantly, as Sparks would say, “music that you can dance to.” Nicolas Cage plays the punk rock, knight-in-shining-armor Randy to Valley Girl Julie (Deborah Foreman) with just the right mix of lovesickness and weirdness. Equally impressive is the soundtrack, with such classics as Josie Cotton’s “Johnny, Are You Queer Boy?” and songs by virtually every new wave band that mattered, from The Psychedelic Furs to Sparks to The Plimsouls. And as an added bonus, it contains one of the best pickup lines ever, “I like tacos, ’78 Cabernet and my favorite color is magenta.” Totally awesome!
This Is England
My awestruck review pretty much sums up my passion for Shane Meadows’ semi-autobiographical 2007 film about growing up skinhead in the early 80s of Thatcher’s Britain. Defying every cliché with subtlety and specificity Meadows follows 12-year-old Shaun whose dad has been killed fighting in the Falklands War as he discovers a father figure in the leader of the local skins, taking tough love and hard lessons from his new Doc-stomping, Ben Sherman shirt clad family. In fact, This Is England is the perfect companion piece to Spheeris’ Suburbia , released nearly a quarter century before, proving that punk rock really didn’t die with Sid, and that it never lost its heartfelt cool.
Kevin Buist
FLAME + CITRON Review
Christopher Campbell
Happy Halloween Links. Today in Film...
Brandon Harris
5 80s Literary Adaptations Worse Than...
Kevin Kelly
John Krasinski, Brief Interviews With...
Karina Longworth
SpoutBlog, Now Available in Book Form
Paul Moore
October 31, Karina’s Last Day
Lauren Wissot
Sasha Grey Interview
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
filmcouch-114
“I was so bored once that I fucked a dog…”
“Oh, Sidney…how low can you get?…”
I never thought about This is England making a perfect double feature with Suburbia, but you’re totally right. Maybe BAM can do another punk movie retrospective and take care of that.
Also, I want to see photos of you in your punk rock days.
me too. yes to the pictures.
“Pablo Picasso” is a Jonathan Richman song.
Not even a picture of your studded belt? You’re no fun, Karina.;)
Yes, “Pablo Picasso” was covered by the Burning Sensations for Repo Man.
GREAT LIST!
Man, THAT was confusing.
I probably shouldn’t be asking, but I can’t help myself: Wot, no love for “Jubilee”?
How can SLC Punk be left off the list? Honestly…granted it’s an obvious choice but still great great film. Whose soundtrack and script were both well superior to Valley Girl. I mean come on…really?
Sid and Nancy…yes! The story of the bassist who didn’t matter to the music, but was a good friend of…who was that important member who sang in the band and wrote their lyrics? What was his name?
I think he was IN Sid and Nancy, but I seem to recall that they had no %$#%ing clue what Johnny was like.
A slap in the face to punk as music, and a bolster to it as pure IMAGE (and that’s all Sid was, except to his friends, like Johnny). Not a good moment for punk ROCK.
ROCK N ROLL HIGH SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!
SLC PUNK!
Hey! That’s Michael Balzary in the funeral home scene from Suburbia!
Better known as Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers…
“It was 30 years ago this week that Sid Vicious rang the death knell for punk rock…”
Cute intro, but total bullshit. I second the comment tagging Sid & Nancy as style rather than substance. Sid Vicious had very little to do with the Sex Pistols as a band and nothing to do with their music. How the fuckup junky became the poster boy for something he had nothing to do with is probably 100% attributable to this almost entirely fictional movie. Decent movie, but hardly punk.
Suburbia, Repo Man - great picks, but Valley Girl? You said it yourself, Valley Girl is a New Wave movie not a punk movie. I was really disappointed in This is England. It was good enough, but it could have been so much better.
Good call avoiding shit movies like SLC Punk!, Smithereens and Jubilee.
Rude Boy, if for no other reason than it showed at the very beginning exactly why punk in its pure, orignal form could never hold together.
Not exactly punk, but 24 Hour Party People also shows the energy followed by the crashing against the rocks insanity of trying to remain ideologically pure.
Punk was a brillaint moment, followed by doomed attmepts to sustain the explosion. True punk was an attitude, not a style. That’s why the Pogues were punk singing Irish folk songs and why the Hives, for example, are not.
Very well-written article. And rather than argue your picks or waste time debating what is “punk” and what isn’t…
I will simply suggest adding “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains” to this list. To me that movie IS punk rock. Everything that is, or ever was, good AND bad about punk is addressed in that film in some way, shape or form.
And “Join the Professionals” (or whatever the actual title is…) is actually a great punk rock song…
Hey,
I worked on a book coming out later this year called Destroy All Movies: The History of Punks on Film. If you liked this little list than you’ll love this fun boombastic book. Look for it soon!!!
Not a bad list, but you missed one key film that in my ‘umble opinion blows most of these films away: Made in Britain, starring a then unknown Tim Roth as a psychotic skinhead at the dawn of the ’80s. Directed by agent provocateur Alan Clarke, and charged with his usual hard left political agenda, it is a searing condemnation of British society and the nihilistic rampaging of a portion of disaffected working class youth.
The first time I saw this film, I thought it was actually something of a docu-drama, and that Roth was a non-professional who had been plucked off the street to play the lunatic malcontent Trevor. Clarke’s work is not that well known outside the UK, but DVD label/heroes Blue Underground have released all of his work in the US…seek it out!
Sid and Nancy hasn’t really aged that well I have to say…good central performances but romanticising that poor junkie idiot was not a good idea.
This is England is tremendously good though!
And don’t forget the recenrtly released The Fabulous Stains…
SLC PUNK! For sure. Also, I love that part in 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE where they show that tiny Sex Pistols show in Manchester and all the people who attended and who they went on to become. Seeing that gave me chills. Cool moment.
except != accept
Where the hell is “SLC Punk”, “Wassup Rockers”, “A Clockwork Orange”, “What We Do Is Secret”, or “24 Hour Party People”? All those are missing and “Valley Girl” is up here? I think you are confusing New Wave with Punk. If you can’t tell the difference between the two you must have a cock in your ear. Also, the greatest punk rock moments on film have been documentaries. Why watch some rich ass hollywood snobs pretend like they’ve experienced life as a punk when you can watch it first hand. My list (better than your’s) is:
1. Decline of Western Civilization
2. American Hardcore
3. Media Blitz: the Germs Story
4. Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies
5. Instrument
SLC PUnk!
FYSS,
Clockwork Orange is NOT a punk movie. It may be popular with punks, but is not ABOUT punk. It was written before there was any such thing…
What We Do is Secret is a ridiculous whitewashed fiction that has nothing at all to do with the true story of the Germs.
And 24 Hour Party People, like Valley Girl, is more about New Wave than punk.
Also, there is no apostrophe in “yours.”
Or, to put it another way: Shut up.
I agree that SLC and 24 Hour should be on the list…….
But no one thinks to mention Hardcore Logo?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Saying Sid and Nancy is a true story! Did you believe Braveheart was real too? If you are going to use a Sex Pistols movie in this list, try the Great Rock and Roll Swindle. Way crazier, and at least a modicum of truth.
Not to be a stickler, but “Pablo Picasso” was a Modern Lovers song, really. Jonathan Richman wrote it, but it was played by The Modern Lovers. My uncle David was the drummer, so I get a little defensive about it. That said, good list. A few I’d like to add:
1. Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains
2. The Decline of Western Civilization
3. Times Square
You gotta represent the ladies!
“heartfelt cool”…yeah…and what about “Return of the Living Dead”? probably wouldn’t make this list, but hilarious caricatures nonetheless.
I don’t get it.
Where’s “SLC PUNK” in this??
I agree with everything except freakin “VALLEY GIRL”!!!
VALLEY GIRL?? SERIOUSLY??
I insist: where’s SLC PUNK?
I demand SLC PUNK.
SLC Punk should be on the list Matthew Lillard and Devon Sawa introducing Jason Segal. Much better than Sid and Nancy.
The movie about The Gits:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0463028/
is a must-see…truly, genuinely fantastic.
Good list. Also! slc punk doesn’t belong on this list, and I question anybody demanding it’s addition to this list whether they’ve seen the rest of the movies on this list. It’s very much inferior to everything listed, and I’d shitty and predictable. Awesome that you had Suburbia and then Repo Man on the list, as they’re the first ones to come to my mind. …and i love Rock n’ Roll High School as I love the Ramones, but the Ramones themselves probably woulda told you it didn’t belong on the list.
If we’ve gotta do Sex Pistols, Filth and the Fury is the winner for me over Swindle.
Valley Girl?? Punk?? Puhhhh—-leeez. The only good thing about that movie was seeing E.G. Daily’s gorgeous naked rack. And if you’re gonna talk punk movies, where’s the skin-head love people…….Romper Stomper……..American History X…….c’mon now.
Punk was a movement that begot a revolution. That revolution has been desperately marginalized by shitty bands apeing what was. However, in the gutters of any major city and in the shadows of all hipster havens are amazing bands doing what they do. Namely shaking things up and making people redefine what others think of as punk.
Best punk movie…if you want an image Sid and Nancy, Decline Of Western Civilization, Suburbia. etc
That’s what was…it begot people who use the D.I.Y ethic and the “my rules, my way” ethos.
Punk didn’t die with Sid Vicious…it evolved.
3.1.G records puts out all kinds of bands taking chances with music the likes of which were only undertaken by bands like Black Flag, Bad Brains…whatever. Like SST back in the day.
Nothing is ever what it used to be…if it’s worth being what it is.
High Tension is punk rock movie based on its principals. No happy endings, it’s visually shocking and takes no prisoners.
Tetsuo: the iron man- Punk rock not as a snap shot, but as an ethos.
Art at all costs. Truth at all costs. Take no prisoners.
Either your on the ride ’till the end, or this stop is your stop.
That’s punk rock…not what people wore in the ’80’s.
Forbidden Zone is a pretty punk rock movie.
SLC punk was the best I’ve seen so far.
don’t for get SLC Punk, for what it is is fairly good.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains” deserves your consideration. Diane Lane, mebers of the Sex Pistols (sounding awesome), and the inimitable punk anthem “Don’t Put Out!”
Cool list. But I’d toss on there Return of the Living Dead.
Check out this new punk rock web series some friends and I have been working on: http://vimeo.com/6533810