Main Cast: Alice Bag Band, Black Flag, Catholic Discipline, The Circle Jerks, Fear
Release Year: 1981
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
The performers, attitudes, and music of late '70s, early '80s Los Angeles punk scene are documented in this film by director Penelope Spheeris. Not merely a compilation of concert footage, The Decline of Western Civilization compiles numerous viewpoints on the meanings of the punk movement, from journalists -- one of whom calls punk the folk music of the 1980s -- to club security guards, to the punks themselves. The center of the film, however, is the music, which is fast, loud, and abrasive and often played with purposeful ineptitude; the lyrics are intentionally controversial and shocking, often seeming to embrace violence, sexism, racism, and even Nazism, though usually in an ironic manner. The performances, by bands such as Black Flag, X, The Circle Jerks, and Fear, are mostly shot from within the audience, where the camera often becomes an unwitting participant in the crowd's slam dancing. Especially fascinating are the performances by The Germs, thanks to the antics of their violently self-destructive lead singer Darby Crash, who would later die of a drug overdose and gain a martyr status within the punk community. The film was followed several years later by a sequel focusing on the world of heavy metal. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
The film's title is possibly a reference to famous music critic Lester Bangs' 1970 two-part review of The Stooges' Fun House for Creem Magazine, where Bang quotes a friend who had said the popularity of The Stooges signaled "the decline of Western civilization." Another possibility is that the title refers to Darby Crash' reading of Oswald Spengler's "Der Untergang des Abendlandes" ("The Decline of the West")[2].
Featuring concert footage of legendary Los Angeles punk bands, and interviews both with band members, the publishers of Slash, and with the punks who made up their audience, the film offers a look into a subculture that was largely ignored by the rock music press of the time.
Eerily, the promotional poster for The Decline (and the record cover of the soundtrack album) featured a close-up frame of Germs singer Darby Crashsupine on stage with his eyes closed. Crash died from a heroin-induced suicide shortly before the film was released (the poster was designed before his death).
The soundtrack was released in December 1981 by Slash Records on LP. The soundtrack was released in the late 1990s on CD as well. It is out of print. Germs singer Darby Crash appears on the soundtrack album cover. He died shortly before the film was released, though the promotional images for the film and album release had been designed before his death.
