The Blank Generation

This is a great, atmospheric, you might say "cinema-verite" film of a selection of the bands that made up the mid-70s CBGBs New York Punk scene. It was shot on a single 16mm camera, largely live at the club, but also with some "out in the street" sequences, and is a vital, rare document of exciting and vibrant music. And OK, let me get this over to ya now, the film doesn't have the benefit of sync sound. I'd guess the audio, which is a mixture of live tapes and commercially available records, was dubbed on later when the film makers had cut their footage together. So it's all pretty jumbled up, and the visuals don't match up a lot of the time, but I reckon that's a feature, not a fault. It all just adds to the rough-n-ready quality. Maybe those negative IMDb reviews came from folks who just didn't "get it" and expected something more slick, more MTV (yuk). Well isn't that ironic, since MTV and its nauseous ilk are forever trying to ape old-school underground film makers, and they usually fall way short of the mark simply because unlike these guys, MTV are clueless.

Some of the bands you'll see here went on to commercial success (check the very early footage of Talking Heads and Blondie) and some are still propping up the "influential" lists thirty years on (Television and Patti Smith just played sold-out painfully hip gigs in London last month) and some verge on performance art (Wayne/Jayne County) and some are just plain forgotten (Marbles, Tuff Darts). But none of the 12 or so segments here are over-long and the Ramones footage is worth the price of admission alone. Music fans should be happy someone bothered to capture the CBGBs scene while it still was a scene. Essential, x10.

A quick description of this would lead me to think that it's right up my alley. So many of the right words. Grainy, black and white. Cinema verite. 70s New York punk scene. Television. Voidoids.

Unfortunately, it's godawful. Bordering on unwatchable. There is an important difference between gritty realism and watching someone's home videos, and this is definitely the latter. Apparently, the film was taken silent, and then demos and other recordings were played over it. Which is pretty damn annoying, especially considering that half of the time it's a completely different song being played. Christ, for all I can tell it's a different band, as outside of a couple of bands that would become famous, these people are mostly forgotten.

And since most of these bands are so obscure, wouldn't it be nice to have some kind of title cards to introduce us? No, we (sort of) just see some band we've never heard of and a demo of their song playing in the background. Like the song, and want to know more about them. You're out of luck. If the filmmakers are still alive, maybe you can hunt them down and they'll tell you. Otherwise you're screwed.

So, in summation, this film is not entertaining, not particularly beautiful, and it can't possibly teach you anything you didn't already know. In other words, it's absolutely useless.

This is so disappointing - all of these punk rock stars right there at the edge of the New York music explosion, on film. Unfortunately, although they had a camera they did not have a microphone, and all of the music of the raw performances is now lost forever. What could've been one of the best music documentaries ever becomes a film school project.

Worse, they decided to put demo recordings over the concert footage. This is completely unsatisfying, worse than just silence, which would've forced viewers to focus on the differences in performance and facial expressions. It's the worst sort of compromise.

Was there ever such a vibrant, exciting music scene as that of the punk/new wave CBGBs explosion?

Amos Poe has made history by capturing some of the leading lights of the genre in their natural performing habitat well before they hit the big time.

Filmed on wonderful, grainy 16mm silent film savour the sights of luminaries such as Talking Heads, Wayne County, Patti Smith, Blondie, Tuff Darts, New York Dolls and the Ramones complemented with dubbed live tracks/demos to provide the soundtrack.

Ironic, that on any punk compilation a track from all of the above artists features, and yet here they are all in the same place and possibly all on the same night. A treat for all punk/CBGB fans - Poe has really captured the wonderfully inventive, innovative and spontaneous atmosphere of the era here.

Thanks Amos.

I have an old VHS copy of this, but now I'm definitely going to snatch it up on DVD. "The Blank Generation" (attention, previous reviewer: the title of the film comes from the Heartbreakers/Richard Hell song of the same name, which is played TWICE at the end; maybe you didn't enjoy this film much because you didn't know anything about the bands or the music they played) is loaded with atmosphere. It's a perfect snapshot of the CBGBs scene of the mid-to-late '70s. Yes, you could complain about the herky-jerky camera-work (I think they were going for an Andy Warhol sort of feel) or the fact that image and sound are out of sync with one another...but why would you? This is the only document of its kind, the only visual testament to the early genius of the Ramones, Television, Patti Smith, and Talking Heads. Even the obscurities (like the Harry Toledo song, 'Knots') are great! Amos Poe and Ivan Kral couldn't have captured the spirit of the New York "punk" era any more accurately; I always thought the vibe of the film was enhanced by its poor technical quality. Oh, one thing more: the bands *are* identified at the end of the film.