I like things like this because they don't count as movies in the traditional sense. It doesn't really have a plot, unless you count the establishment and evolution of a particular genre of music as a story. This documentary is about the punk music scene in LA in the early 80s. The film wastes no time in showing the viewer how obscene this new genre is, with most of the songs played having at least one expletive in them. As I was watching this, I couldn't help but draw comparisons between how people must have felt about punk rock back then compared to music now that is said to encourage negative behavior. People who weren't fans of punk music were making roughly the same complaints that would later be made about things like rap, such as how it has no melody, has violent lyrics, and how the band members themselves are people who couldn't care less about being arrested. They interview a whole bunch of different punk musicians and show them performing, such as Black Flag, Catholic Discipline, Fear, Germs, and X. Many of the fans of punk music shown in the movie also display the same defiant and intentionally shocking attitudes that their idols encourage them to show off, and many people attending the concerts have swastikas tattooed on their arms. I don't think that most people who get into this genre of music do things like that intent on provoking everybody. They do it just because they think it's cool, and they look up to the band's disdainful view of society. This is shown later on when they interview some band members, and some of them, for lack of a better term, behave like sociopaths. When they interview members of the band Germs, the singer's girlfriend says how there was a dead person in their backyard one time, who probably fell off the balcony and wasn't found for days afterward. She says she didn't care that he died because she "hates window cleaners" or something. After seeing this, it's easy to see why some people would hate this genre of music, since the fans of it are very often unstable. They also interview a probation officer who says she tries to get fans of the genre to stop liking it, but all it accomplishes is making the kids hate cops more, thus fueling the genre's rebellious attitude. The band performances in this movie are also extremely energetic, and it gets to the point where you start to wonder how their vocal chords still work afterwards. There's also the dance that has become an icon of punk music, the pogo, which just looks like a bunch of nervously shaking people slamming into each other (basically what it is). To summarize, The Decline of Western Civilization is an interesting and often shocking look at how punk music struck a chord (no pun intended) with people considered losers by society, and gave them some consolation knowing that the band members were often just as lonely and unhappy as they were.
