Very few forms of music elicit as much skepticism from mainstream folks as punk. A sub-genre of rock and roll music, punk took on a life of its own in the mid-1970s with its anti-establishment rhetoric, propelling a subculture heavy on expressions of social discontent, rebellion, and individual freedom. Over the years, many forms of art including poetry and films have expressed punk values, helping to further bring them to a more mainstream reckoning.
Pistol, a lavish six-episode miniseries about one of the foremost punk bands from the UK -- Sex Pistols premieres on May 31. Written by Craig Pearce who has had some success with the much-anticipated Elvis, Pistol takes us on a journey chronicling every pivotal moment in the Pistols’ career. As a tribute to these non-conformist purveyors of rebellion who have dared to do life on their terms, here are some of the best punk movies for your viewing pleasure.
Sid and Nancy
Sid and Nancy is a portrait of the downward spiral of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman) and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb). The intense relationship between these two eccentric characters is a tale of tragic romance powered by drug addiction and an unhealthy co-dependence that eventually wrecks the band and their lives. Directed by Alex Cox, Sid and Nancy was marred with a few historical inconsistencies but generally did a decent job of depicting the punk scene with imaginative photography by cinematographer Roger Deakins.
The Decline of Western Civilization
At the time of its release in 1981, this documentary about the Los Angeles punk scene was received with the sort of shock that only showed the lack of awareness about the culture bubbling beneath the surface in America. The film is the first of a trilogy by Penelope Spheeris that captures some harrowing images of a nascent music scene riddled with heroin overdose, filth, and rebellion. There are amazing live concerts and footage of the regular lives of members of Black Flag, Germs, X, Alice Bag Band, and Catholic Discipline. A favorite amongst musicologists and historians, The Decline of Western Civilization is one of the best overviews of punk folklore available. Some of it might be disturbing, but that is exactly what an honest punk portrait does, it lays the facts bare in a way that provokes introspection.
Jubilee
When Queen Elizabeth I (Jenny Runacre) is magically transported from the 16th century into the London of the 1970s punk era, she is made to witness the breakdown of British society with anarchy and violence in the streets. Her beloved Buckingham palace is now a recording studio for punk musicians under the control of the blind and snooty Borgia Ginz (Jack Birkett). A fascinating social commentary that stretches punks’ anti-establishment rhetoric to the extreme, filmmaker Derek Jarman incorporates excellent musical performances from the likes of Toyah Wilcox, Ari Up, The Banshees, and Wayne County.
Ladies and Gentleman, The Fabulous Stains
Seduced by punk culture, a young restless teenager, Corinne Burns (Diane Lane), forms an all-female punk band (The Stains) and in no time they become overnight sensations. As they get bigger, the unintended consequences of fame soon catch up with the group as they are left to figure out a world they thought they knew. Directed by Lou Adler, Ladies and Gentleman, The Fabulous Stains was released in 1982 and includes cameos from members of popular punk bands like Sex Pistols and The Clash.
Smithereens
Directed by Susan Seidelman and filmed at the epicenter of downtown New York, Smithereens follows the life of a wild teen, Wren (Susan Berman), who relocates from the suburbs of New Jersey to New York in a bid to break into the punk music scene. Armed with no talent and bereft of any plan, she finds herself in several parasitic relationships with members of New York's waning punk scene as a means to survive. Although success eventually eludes Wren and there is a palpable sadness in her story, Smithereens is still a classic that encapsulates the punk movement of the early 80s.
Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten
Directed by Julien Temple, this 2007 documentary chronicles the life and career of Joe Strummer, the lead singer and songwriter of the British punk rock band The Clash. A fast-moving and captivating tale, the film begins with his middle-class upbringing spent globetrotting with his British diplomat father, to his white supremacist brother’s suicide, to his rise to superstardom with The Clash and subsequent struggles with depression. Temple enriches the production further with the use of his own archival footage as someone deep in chronicling the rise of punk. Temple incorporates interviews with John Cusack, Johnny Depp, and Martin Scorsese alongside some of Strummers’ old bandmates.
The Great Rock and Roll Swindle
After the Sex Pistols split acrimoniously, and all its core elements disintegrated amidst the self-generated heat emanating from the combustible characters that made up the band, this is a revisionist take on the band as told by their manager Malcolm McLaren. He narrates the band's formative years and how he put all the pieces in place and turned them into a formidable unit positioned to extort money from the recording industry.
The Great Rock and Roll Swindle is a bona fide cult film despite being fraught with a few historical inconsistencies because of McLaren’s obvious bias and need to rewrite their history according to his personal theories.
The Punk Rock Movie
After Roxy club DJ Don Letts was given a camera as a present by fashion editor Caroline Bake, he decides to record continuously for the next three months. What he ends up with is a collection of live, breakneck footage of some of London’s best punk bands in their infancy. The filming includes footage from Johnny Thunders, Generation X, The Clash, Sex Pistols, Wayne County & the Electric Chairs, The Heartbreakers, and X-Ray Spex.
As you’d imagine, most of the footage is grainy and the sound isn’t top-notch but what you can’t deny is that this is an intimate and explosive front row experience of British punk right before it took off.
Urgh! A Music War
Filmed between August and September 1980, this Derek Burbidge documentary is more or less a performance film that offers a broad cross-section of performances of punk and new wave bands. Lively and thoroughly enjoyable, these performances cut across some of punk’s more overlooked frontliners and a group like Obscure Sex that made just one solo public performance. Other acts featured are Dead Kennedys, The Cramps, Wall of Voodoo, and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.