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Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

i must have seen a different film!!

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Let's spend five minutes with the dictators and only show them playing "search and destroy" and later one up that History of RocknRoll Punk Episode by by skipping the first four years of Black Flag so we can look at a long haired Henry Rollins as we switch back to Minor Threat and immediately wind up turning down interviews with Rolling Stone with Fugasi. Then we can do that same mistake jumping strait to Nirvana...all of a sudden Limp Biscuit was on the screen...That's when I had to change the channel...thinking back now they spent five minutes talking about how every one in England hung out in Don Letts bedroom...it get's a four only for the live footage of Velvet Underground.

I watched this last night and was thoroughly hooked from the first moment to almost the very end. As someone old enough to remember walking down Portobello Road in the summer of 1976 and thinking "something really weird is going on", it was a marvellous exercise in nostalgia for ME, but I was wondering what a young person would make of it all. I think they would find it interesting but I don't know if they would necessarily understand just how revolutionary the whole thing was. It would have been good to have included some short clips of contemporary mainstream acts such as Abba, Yes, Fleetwood Mac etc just to provide some reference points for what Punk was rebelling against. As the man who virtually single-handedly introduced reggae to the punk scene, Letts is admirably modest about his own contribution but in a way it would have been more accurate if he had allowed his many interviewees to sing his praises a little more. I thought Chrissie Hynde was the most insightful (as usual) and the women in general gave more interesting interviews than the men. One aspect of Punk was that it was almost completely un-sexist and this was thoroughly recalled and explained. The more unsavoury aspects of Punk: the neo-fascism, the glorification of hard drugs, the violence - these were rather glossed over, I felt. The despicable inhumanity of the hardcore scene in the US in the early 80s was hardly mentioned, nor were the psychotic antics and subsequent suicide of G G Allin. Neither were the abominable Oi bands mentioned, with their extreme right-wing Nazi leanings. Although I can understand Lett's not wanting to give them any publicity, any history of Punk that fails to acknowledge the extremely dark places that some of it led to is incomplete. Although the film suffers from the usual shortcomings of music documentaries - ie. the vintage clips are too short and the interview clips are too long - as an attempt to celebrate the positive aspects of Punk it is completely successful. Too bad Johnny Rotten and Iggy Pop obviously refused to take part, or Lou Reed for that matter. Never mind. This is a very worthwhile film and anyone who is interested in the Punk phenomenon will find it fascinating.

Letts tops himself, and I didn't think that was possible after his excellent documentary on The Clash. This is the finest broad survey of punk ever. It suggests that punk is an attitude at the heart of rock, which existed before there was a "punk rock" per se. As soon as "punk rock" appears, you have little scenesters making necessities of virtues, imposing orthodoxies that undermine the freedom that the music longed for or expressed. Tons of interviews with the pantheon of punk royalty, but it is often the forgotten geniuses who never made significant commercial indentation that have the most to offer. Punk also has the virtue of many short & tight tunes, so there is less excerpting of musical performances than one sees in 99% of music documentaries. Is there a soundtrack available?

I just got back from the Tribeca Film Festival screening of Punk: Attitude and I was blown away! Don Letts (infamous DJ at The Roxy, member of Big Audio Dynamite, renaissance man extraordinaire) did a fabulous job at presenting a cohesive and highly entertaining piece of nostalgia. I'm homesick for a place that no longer exists! Moreover, he was successful at providing a fantastic source for generations of rebels to come. The current-day interviews were surprisingly intelligent and insightful, cut together with historic footage that flowed really well. (Sorry, I was there, back in the day, I'm surprised that so many of us are still alive!) The audience reaction must have been rewarding for him as well. I'm very glad that I got one of the coveted seats at this screening, and I'm glad that Mr. Letts went to all the trouble to bring us Punk: Attitude. It's not about a period of time, actually, it's an attitude.See it, rent it, buy it!