The Punk Rock Movie

Don Lett's Punk Rock Movie is just like the music it captures, crude but effective. Lett's (who would later become a member of Big Audio Dynamite) shot this movie on Super8mm. He was friends with many of the punk bands because he was their reggae connection (there was an interesting punk/reggae connection in London during that time). The footage of the Sex Pistols is priceless and worth the price of the tape itself. The Clash and the other major players are featured in this documentary. An interesting watch. I also recommend U.K. Decay as a follow up.

Be on the look out for a young Shane Mac Gowan (The Pogues). He was a huge punk back in the late seventies before he re-invented himself as a hard edged Irish folk musician. He went on to combine the two elements and create a new sound.

Highly recommended!

There's no doubt about it. Punk was a sorely needed antidote to the pathetic drivel that made up (most of)the music of the mid to late 70's. Okay, I know you're going to bellyache about the rampant self destructive behavior of both the bands, as well as their audience, but the music (which in itself was born of boredom,anger,disillusionment,as well as rampant unemployment in the U.K. in the mid to late 70's)acted as an call to arms to a generation that was sick to death of the hyper slick,over produced dreck of the era. This film captures the spirit of the time with performances of some of the best (or worst,depending on your view of this kind of music & sub culture)talent that was out there (The Sex Pistols,The Clash,Generation X,with Billy Idol,Alternative TV, etc.). Besides the music,it also manages to capture a cinema verite window into the culture of the era,as well (there is some footage shot in Malcolm McLaren's shop,Sex). This film is a classic example of the whole kitchen sink, do it yourself (D.I.Y.) approach of the whole punk phenomena (it was shot on the old school Super 8 film stock, giving it a grainy,gritty look that does service to the films raw punk texture). This film is/was made available some years back on VHS (on an equally cheap & cheesy video stock quality that was sold in cut rate department stores for about five bucks). Perhaps it will one day resurface on DVD for a generation of punks who were not around back in the day.

Basically as others have said, it's a time capsule of Punk Rock at the time. While it's nice to see some familiar faces in their formative years like Billy Idol, The Clash etc it's mostly unknown bands from the time. If you're expecting to see The Sex Pistols in all their glory, you'll be sadly disappointed as theres a small bit at the start. Probably the most interesting part is The Clash being taught to play Reggae. But mostly clips of bands playing extremely bad and fly on the wall interviews. The footage is also pretty bad and hard to makeout faces sometimes.

Worth a look, although you'd only watch it once then move on.

Don Letts deejayed at London's Roxy Club during its brief but enormously significant existence (one hundred days), and was therefore in the perfect position to capture the creativity, the opportunism and the madness on his super 8mm camera. And he documented not only what was happening at the Roxy (X-Ray Spex, Slaughter and the Dogs, Eater with their ridiculous pig's head routine) but also the Heartbreakers, the Clash, the Slits, et al. on tour. The grand finale is footage of the Sex Pistols at Screen on the Green on April 3, 1977, marking the debut of Sid Vicious as the band's bassist. Through it all Letts eschews commentary, allowing the action to speak for itself, and the non-musical interludes (shooting up in the Roxy's restroom, police shutting down an "obscene" window display at London punk boutique BOY, various tour bus antics) give "The Punk Rock Movie" an extra patina of ghostly authenticity. This is true rock history right before your eyes and ears.

Complete, uninterrupted live performances include 'Cranked Up Really High' by Slaughter and the Dogs, 'Walking in the City' ('This Heat') by Generation X, 'Cream in My Jeans' by Wayne County and the Electric Chairs, 'No Brain' by Eater, 'Chinese Rocks' by the Heartbreakers, 'Bad Shape' and 'Limblessly in Love' by Siouxsie and the Banshees, 'Oh, Bondage Up Yours!' by X-Ray Spex, and 'Seventeen' and 'God Save the Queen' by the Sex Pistols.

I just got copy of this on DVD, and its worst quality video I've seen, its like EMI took the VHS version that was recorded on EP speed and transferred it to DVD. From looking at the video you can hardly see the faces on artists a lot of blurring and out of focus, looks like artist don't have eyes thats how bad it is. The sound track also is very bad, this could be that when they originally filmed it wasn't always good, a lot of songs on here you cant hardly hear the artist vocals just the music even at that the music still sounds like the Mic was down the hall, when the band on stage was playing. The only thing this video redeems from is you get to see a lot of punk bands from British wave in 70's, If your looking for at least good audio and video of British punk bands, there's a lot better then this out there in compilations out in DVDs with same bands on here, Like Old Grey Whistle Test or Rude Boy for Clash or Ramones Raw is a lot better.