SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

SnoopyStyle During the early 80s Reagan era, punk music takes hold as people rebel against pop rock and the last of disco. This chronicles the hardcore punk scene starting from 78 Southern California with many of the fans and musicians involved.It's an exhausting recounting of really angry music. Honestly, it was never my kind of music but it is fascinating to see the story. This is not a music concert. This is a small peek into an outsider community. It uses a long string of talking head and old performance footages. Some of the people are recognizable to any passing music fans. Most are people from bands that only fans would know. They are mostly underground bands and they don't usually get on the radio.

oddlaww This was really bad and this was not a documentary. The directors/creators must have watched a 24-hour marathon of "I love the (insert decade here)" on VH1 and decided it was a good model for this waste of an hour and forty some-odd minutes.American Hardcore watches more like a diary about growing up angry with other angry numb-skulls in a time that remains intentionally forgotten and willfully deserted by the founders themselves and also misunderstood by the idiots who try to replicate these bands today.One of the interviewees said it best, that for the kids in HC in the 70s-80s, it was all about the current time period, and everything was all about "living in the moment". That is the entire thesis of HC and this "movie". It was in the moment, so anyone who lived outside of this moment could either care less or not fully understand why HC is what it is (was).This movie puts up no-name bands on a pedestal as if they somehow mattered or inspired the progression of the HC scene or that they were these "innovators" of music. No, they were not. Only Bad Brains deserve any sort of credit and then yeah, Minor Threat, but I think it is important to note that Minor Threat was significant ONLY because of Ian and nothing else. All these other bands were mentioned that either did not matter or were so local that they were only added for the producers own personal enjoyment or they were actually being interviewed in the film (see the band "Fartz").The interviewer was obviously some guy who was all intimidated by these interviewees and the questions he asked were obviously safe, boring, lame and along the lines of "so...uh, how was being in (insert band name) and what show did you have fun at..?" Bad director, bad momentum, bad graphics, bad music, bad everything.In a nutshell, DO NOT waste your time on this unless you are: a) one of the people being interviewed in the movie or the director himself or b) went to at least five of the shows mentioned in the movie Otherwise, you will not care. People who know nothing about hardcore will understand hardcore even less after watching this and people who like hardcore post-86 will just be all starry-eyed wishing they were around to see all these bands at their "first shows" (and then they broke up a week later).No reference to time frame, no reference to what happened after 86, no reference to um...what the hell all these people are doing...I see some hanging out in front of computers....soo...I assume they are working with something involving the possession of a computer?? It was pretty funny to see Henry Rollins start of using big words that he himself could not even pronounce correctly, and then dumb down to how he really is....just another "dumb jock" who tries to act like he is an intellectual and some sort of commentator on current society.This movie spells out exactly how stupid this entire scene was and shows how it eventually fell apart by HC's own self inflicted "code of conduct". They thought it was fun to punch and kick at first, then other people started doing it other than people in the band or the band's crew, and uh-oh...that's "too much". As Ian said, "I am done with this". TAKE A HINT HC BANDS OF TODAY, GIVE IT UP AND STOP WASTING THE YOUTH'S TIME like somehow being a HC kid will benefit them any more than 2 years from the ages of 15-17.

robprado I think American Hardcore is a good movie to show to people that doesn't have a clue about the roots of hardcore. Mainly here in Brazil, where emocore is kinda dominating the punk/hc scene and the youngest guys thinks Green Day invented hardcore (no joke, I'm serious) and a great injustice was repaired, giving Bad Brains the status they always deserved: one of the most influent bands and co-founders of the style.These were the pro's, now the con's: WHERE IS DK, DRI, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES ON THIS DOCUMENTARY??????? Three of the most seminal bands of the scene (these three between the few ones that stills in activity today) were poorly mentioned, the rising of Bay Area Thrash Metal (heavily influenced by HC) was also ignored and the European bands (that also influenced American bands) were neglected. As far as I know, the scene wasn't just restricted to LA-DC-Boston, and the documentary just ended in a blank note... For those who doesn't know hardcore history, looks like it disappeared in 1986 and had no influence at all on the music produced today.About the political side, sincerely I don't believe 15/16 years old junkies (as the people describe themselves on the documentary) have such political consciousness as they proudly stated; it looked more like angry kids having fun with music, celebrating/living their own lifestyle than a left-wing organized movement (of course there were exceptions)...The chronology looked chaotic to me, although the good footage and some good stories of the past.The veredict is: good, but not that good...PS: I watched American Hardcore right after Dogtown and Z-Boys (a documentary that should be used as template by filmmakers), and I was wandering that Stacy Peralta, Craig Stecyk and Glen Friedman should have been the producers/directors of AHC. Not only for their skills as filmmakers, but because of the involvement of them with the scene (check the book "Fuck You Heroes" produced by Glen Friedman, where he portraits the birth of modern skateboarding at Dogtown, in parallel with the LA hardcore - i.e. Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Suicidal Tendencies first gigs and rehearsals), back when hardcore punk and skateboarding were very closer.

MisterWhiplash American Hardcore isn't the most complete or encyclopedic documentary on the punk scene that had so many tangents and areas to be considered, in a world where three chords was usually enough and attitude was just as important as getting up to play. There was a constant though in the hardcore movement that went something like this: "f*** you, we'll play whatever we want". Because, as seen by those interviewed that were in the bands, they were apart of a whole musical scene with the roughest edge and most violent demeanor. The filmmakers make the main point that hardcore came out of a rebellion against the bog of high-fluent rock and roll of the 70s, and as something even harsher for those who didn't go to the Ramones or Sex Pistols shows. It started with bands like the Germs, a band that almost couldn't play but then, somehow, got the dirtiest, mangiest spirit going when they did take control of the stage. There were other bands too, of course, and the major ones that set off the hardcore scene were Bad Brains, Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, Minor Threat, and later on Agnostic Front. Some of these bands, like the Boston bands, even have ironic sides to them, like in forbidding alcohol from their gritty shows like SS Decontrol.Other bands that one might want to see more of talked about like Agnostic Front or the Beastie Boys or more bands from the Midwest do get their mention, but the filmmakers seem to keep a set number of bands they talk about, and also craft things simply from the interviews. How did they start playing? No explanation needed, as anyone could play, almost (unless if you were part of the bible-thumping 'peace-punks' of the Bad Brain sect). How did they spread the word without record label support? Lots of touring around in vans all over the States, with new bands popping up every time an LA band would go through and churn up bands not seen before. The role of the Police? Instigators and handlers of riots mostly. And, finally, though a little awkwardly, they show how the first wave of hardcore dissipated by a feeling of 'I've had enough' from all of the nearly boring stereotypes coming out of the punk scene, as well as a lessening of fans.All of this is presented in some interesting interviews (there are so many to list here, but I especially liked the Black Flag and Minority Threat interviews, Bad Brains better as a musical act than in interviews), and clips shot very appropriately amateurishly, with mosh-pits going crazy like it's nothing. But all of this is also a little short, or rather some parts are short and other parts get more attention really, and the musical performances, oddly enough, don't get the same time given to the talking. It lacks the complete voracity of the Decline of Western Civilization by putting in the clips of shows as little cliff notes, so to speak, of what the interviewees are talking about. Still, there are some cool pleasures to be had, like seeing the names of obscure punk bands like Eddie and the Subtitles, or the more crafty, dangerous ones like a band promoting cop killing right in its title. There's even, to be sure, some laughs to be had at the low-end of the amateur spectrum, where singers belt out songs in mumbled mouths.How much American Hardcore will appeal to the viewer will depend on their taste in punk music, and non-fans will probably not entirely be converted, and at the least provides a glimpse into a by-gone era of a unique, 'f***-off' underground in the horrid Regean 80s.