Devoted fans of early hardcore will inevitably hate this new documentary. It's snotty and opinionated and paints some broad and ugly strokes. Hey, just like the music it sets out to document! The Misfits aren't even mentioned in the film and hugely influential bands like Negative Approach, Big Boys, and Agnostic Front get mere seconds of screen time. Who the fuck cares about Phil Anselmo's retarded opinion? Those precious minutes could've been filled with more live Cro Mags footage! Still, I enjoyed American Hardcore (the book and the movie) for what it is. And I hope everybody who complains about the film will go out and make their own documentary so that eventually a more comprehensive perspective will emerge of this powerful music. A highlight of the film for me was NYHC artist Sean Taggart getting his 15 seconds of fame and using it to make some intelligent observations. Here's a photo of Sean Taggart and me moshing silly for the camera at his home in New York a few years ago. Apparently I never got the memo that hardcore ended in 1984. Whoops. I'm always the last person to know everything...
1 comments:
I agree on many counts. For a movie about hardcore they spent very little time talking about the NYHC scene as a whole and spent more time talking about LA punk bands. I feel they shouldv'e spent more time on interviews with Vinnie, Jimmy and Harley to talk about what it was like back in the early days of the New York scene.
Another sticking point I had with this flick I have as a native of the Texas scene, is that they spent a good of time talking about MDC and the scene in Texas (particularly Austin) but no mention at all of the Butthole Surfers. I know what they did transcended hardcore nevertheless they had a huge impact on the hardcore scene particularly in the Lone Star State.
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