During the early 80s Reagan era, punk music takes hold as people rebel against pop rock and the last of disco. This chronicles the hardcore punk scene starting from 78 Southern California with many of the fans and musicians involved.It's an exhausting recounting of really angry music. Honestly, it was never my kind of music but it is fascinating to see the story. This is not a music concert. This is a small peek into an outsider community. It uses a long string of talking head and old performance footages. Some of the people are recognizable to any passing music fans. Most are people from bands that only fans would know. They are mostly underground bands and they don't usually get on the radio.

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 isn't the most complete or encyclopedic documentary on the punk scene that had so many tangents and areas to be considered, in a world where three chords was usually enough and attitude was just as important as getting up to play. There was a constant though in the hardcore movement that went something like this: "f*** you, we'll play whatever we want". Because, as seen by those interviewed that were in the bands, they were apart of a whole musical scene with the roughest edge and most violent demeanor. The filmmakers make the main point that hardcore came out of a rebellion against the bog of high-fluent rock and roll of the 70s, and as something even harsher for those who didn't go to the Ramones or Sex Pistols shows. It started with bands like the Germs, a band that almost couldn't play but then, somehow, got the dirtiest, mangiest spirit going when they did take control of the stage. There were other bands too, of course, and the major ones that set off the hardcore scene were Bad Brains, Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, Minor Threat, and later on Agnostic Front. Some of these bands, like the Boston bands, even have ironic sides to them, like in forbidding alcohol from their gritty shows like SS Decontrol.Other bands that one might want to see more of talked about like Agnostic Front or the Beastie Boys or more bands from the Midwest do get their mention, but the filmmakers seem to keep a set number of bands they talk about, and also craft things simply from the interviews. How did they start playing? No explanation needed, as anyone could play, almost (unless if you were part of the bible-thumping 'peace-punks' of the Bad Brain sect). How did they spread the word without record label support? Lots of touring around in vans all over the States, with new bands popping up every time an LA band would go through and churn up bands not seen before. The role of the Police? Instigators and handlers of riots mostly. And, finally, though a little awkwardly, they show how the first wave of hardcore dissipated by a feeling of 'I've had enough' from all of the nearly boring stereotypes coming out of the punk scene, as well as a lessening of fans.All of this is presented in some interesting interviews (there are so many to list here, but I especially liked the Black Flag and Minority Threat interviews, Bad Brains better as a musical act than in interviews), and clips shot very appropriately amateurishly, with mosh-pits going crazy like it's nothing. But all of this is also a little short, or rather some parts are short and other parts get more attention really, and the musical performances, oddly enough, don't get the same time given to the talking. It lacks the complete voracity of the Decline of Western Civilization by putting in the clips of shows as little cliff notes, so to speak, of what the interviewees are talking about. Still, there are some cool pleasures to be had, like seeing the names of obscure punk bands like Eddie and the Subtitles, or the more crafty, dangerous ones like a band promoting cop killing right in its title. There's even, to be sure, some laughs to be had at the low-end of the amateur spectrum, where singers belt out songs in mumbled mouths.How much American Hardcore will appeal to the viewer will depend on their taste in punk music, and non-fans will probably not entirely be converted, and at the least provides a glimpse into a by-gone era of a unique, 'f***-off' underground in the horrid Regean 80s.

Growing up in the early 1980s in one of the punk hot spots (Austin), I just had to see this film the first day it was out. I can remember like yesterday seeing the Big Boys, the Dicks, DK and Black Flag at Club Foot, the punk venue. It was a great and unique time. I have aged, but still consider myself a punk at heart. However, I was rather letdown by this film. It seems like the guy wanted to make this definitive documentary over the punk scene in the early '80s, but half the people he asked to interview turned him down. The most glaring flaw with this film is the omission of the Dead Kennedys. Yes, Black Flag and the Circle Jerks were huge during that time, but NOBODY came close to rivaling DK, they were it. Yet, there is nothing in the film about them, nothing. Fear is also ignored and so many other greats are just barely touched on. Yet, we get a ton of stuff on the Cro Mags and TSOL? Look, I know that a documentary filmmaker can only use the sources available to him, but it seems that the sources that were available to him (minus Henry Rollins and Keith Morris) were rather small in comparison to other giants like Jello Biafra and Lee Ving. Moreover, there was not enough music in the film. It opens with a nice Bad Brains' cut and montage and then they kind of go away from anymore montages. As someone that experienced the scene firsthand, I just kind of felt it was a rather thin and sloppy look at a very interesting time. Moreover, they drop Husker Du's name a lot, but then never explore anything about them. The guy could have made a better documentary, a much better one. And he could have shown how the punk scene influenced the creation of future bands like Social Distortion, the Replacments, etc.. And how about a shout-out to the freaking Ramones!?