American Hardcore Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)October 9th, 2006
AMERICAN HARDCORE
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2006 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
AMERICAN HARDCORE covers the birth and death of the hardcore punk rock movement. Unlike the more successful HYPE!, the 1996 film which chronicled the birth of grunge rock in Seattle, AMERICAN HARDCORE starts promisingly enough, but, by the half hour mark, it settles into a repetitive pattern of talking heads repeating the same mantra, interspersed with brief clips of barely visible old film footage.
Most people probably have never heard of any of the bands, such as "Millions of Dead Cops," "Dead Kennedys," and "Black Flag," but they probably remember the style, which celebrated violence as an art form and screaming as a singing technique. Most of all, it was a rebellion, which is a theme always popular in the music scene.
The documentary starts with the inauguration of Ronald Reagan as president. We are told that his administration represented "repression" and "the end of civil liberties." People in the hardcore punk movement rejected anything that had to do with family values, and they saw the new president as the personification of everything they despised. Ridiculing his campaign slogan, they said "It wasn't morning in America. It was f***in' midnight!" The groups relished their anger and their fighting, so President Reagan was just what they needed, someone they could truly loathe.
The initial comments about repression of minority rights proved somewhat ironic since the bands and their fans were almost exclusively young white males. The filmmakers work hard to interview some minority members, but the footage shows how narrow the demographics really were of these groups who were so proud that they "weren't Fleetwood Mac." As one musician put it about their music, "The less it was a song; the more we loved it."
"This is so good," one of their fans told them. "You speak for the white man." The musician who related this quote was clearly upset to have heard it. The reelection of President Reagan to a second term marked the end of hardcore punk's brief era.
AMERICAN HARDCORE runs too long at 1:40. It is rated R for "pervasive language including sex and drug references" and would be acceptable for teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, October 13, 2006. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the Camera Cinemas.
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