New Wave Outpost Forum

Just rewatching Don Letts' Punk:Attitude documentary. Kinda interesting to listen to Captain Sensible's recollection of Chrissie Hind briefly being a part of an early Damned incarnation. The good Captain also says that Chrissie originally wanted the band to called "Mike Hunts Honorable Discharge"...nowhere near as cool as The Damned but kinda funny regardless. Man, I hope everyone's seen this vid...completely engrossing.

Thanks for the info Blir. I am going to have to rent that one.

Meh, here's the review I wrote of it 2 years ago, and I stand by it:


The Whole Truth About Don Letts’ Film Punk:Attitude
By jaded old man and punk rock expert Ollie Stench

Much hype and accolades have been heaped on the new punk rock documentary written and produced by former B.A.D. member and Super 8 camera owner Don Letts. If I’m not mistaken, Punk:attitude is punk documentary #4 for Herr Letts (The Punk Rock Movie, Westway To The World, Making of 'London Calling': The Last Testament) and it offers nothing new to even the most casual fan of the punk rock.

The cast of characters ranged from the glaringly obvious (Steve Jones, Siouxsie, Legs McNeil) to the obscure and forgotten (John Cooper Clarke, Glen Branca, Martin Rev, Howard Devoto). However, the majority of screen time was taken up with Professional Punks like Henry Rollins, Chrissy Hynde, Jello Biafra, and Thurston Moore. People who really haven’t done anything of note in the last 15 years aside from appearing in Punk Rock documentaries and on television shows about Punk Rock talking about Punk Rock. These Professional Punks go on and on pontificating about “What Punk Rock Was”, regurgitating the same stories over and over. Bob Gruen talks about Patti Smith. David Johansen (complete with pink nail polish due to the NY Dolls reunion) talks about how no one was doing it before them, Arturo Vega and Tommy Ramone talk about how misunderstood The Ramones were in America blah blah blah blah. Aside from the short snippet of interview with Martin Rev and the breif detour by Jello Biafra about The Screamers I found nothing that held my attention for the time it was on the screen.

An hour into this film and the only footage I hadn’t seen before was the Suicide video, and the actual moving images of the Slits covered in mud. Other than that it was all rehashed footage from Amos Poe’s “Blank Generation” and outtakes from Don Letts’ “The Punk Rock Movie”. Footage of The Pop Group was new to me, but not being a fan of that genre of music I really didn’t care. Footage from the Letts collection taken at his home with various stragglers looking for a free spliff was new to me, but nothing to write home about.

My overall impression of Punk:Attitude was of a film that was made solely to cash in on the retro-chic status Punk Rock is experiencing right now. There was no need for this film as everything in it had already been covered in other films (Letts’ first fly-on-the-wall “The Punk Rock Movie”, the BBC’s 10 part series from 2004, the great MuchMusic special from the mid 90’s “Punk 76-79”). There was no great “unanswered question” that needed closure, no new revelations to be made (aside from the fact that according to everyone in the film there was no punk rock from 1981 until Nirvana [who was never a punk band] hit in 1991). 45 minutes into Punk:Attitude I found myself wondering why I was wasting my time with yet another boring film filled with once exuberant but now boring people talking endlessly about what they did 30 years ago. A film by Professional Punks with nothing better to do. My already low expectations were not even met by this film.

Suggested Viewing: (in chronological order by time period covered)

Blank Generation
The Punk Rock Movie
Raw Energy
Punk 76-79
The Last Pogo
Rude Boy (not a doc. But very good at capturing the spirit of the time)
Rough Cut and Ready Dubbed
Made In Sheffield

[quote][i]Originally posted by Ollie Stench[/i]
<br>The Whole Truth About Don Letts’ Film Punk:Attitude
By jaded old man and punk rock expert Ollie Stench
[/quote]
Interesting that one of the things that either helped kill punk or just turned people off to punk was a certain dogmatism that developed about expected punk behavior, dress, attitudes, music...thus the rise of post-punk. Ollie, you sound very punk here. [;)]