The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)
(On Cable TV, December 2020) In retrospect, even mildly successful documentaries can be ennobled by the passage of time if they capture something that can no longer be experienced in later years. In this light, The Decline of Western Civilization is a much better documentary now than it was at its release because its insider’s look at the 1980 Los Angeles punk scene is now the stuff of legend, never again to be recreated. To be clear, The Decline of Western Civilization was never a bad movie: much of what it chronicles, in between generous concert footage and revealing interviews with various punk scene members, was under-covered at the time. Director Penelope Spheeris (best known for Wayne’s World) was a member of the scene at the time, and was able to use her friendships to set up the interviews and film the performances. The result is a document for the ages – a good punk anthology, complemented by a description of the scene by the scene members themselves. I’m not that familiar with punk nor any of the bands here (although I do recognize Black Flag, even if that’s more due to the later presence of Henry Rollins than anything else) but I had a good time listening to much of The Decline of Western Civilization while doing something else.
