technicolour yawn
Before I watched Hard Core Logo, I was warned by all and sundry that it was a difficult and depressing film and that it emotionally affected a lot of people. When I watched it, I was surprised at how un-difficult I found it to watch. Sure there's drugs, there's violence and someone kills theirself onscreen, but it's not that bad....right? Maybe I'm emotionally detached. Maybe I just haven't been shaken up by enough traumatic life events to really understand and flinch away from the events depicted onscreen in HCL. Or maybe I've just watched too many punk movies....
What is a punk movie? Well, loosely speaking a punk movie is any movie about punks, or any movie that has a strong punk sensibility, and punk is diverse so punk movies are diverse. But there is also a specific genre of punk movie. Arguably tipping into punksploitation, these are movies form the late 70s and early 80s that capitalize on punk post-Sid Vicious notoriety. Films about punk youth that depict the squalor and danger of punk life, often with a moral warning about the consequences of punk nihilism and decadence.
- Suburbia
- The Great Rock N' Roll Swindle
- Times Square
- Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains
- Jubilee
- Breaking Glass
- Another State of Mind
- Open Your Mouth And Say....Mr Chi Pig
- The Decline And Fall Of Western Civilization, Part 1
- Out Of The Blue
- Sid and Nancy
- The Clash: Rude Boy
- Hedwig + The Angry Itch
LINK TO HCL: Virtually none. But it is kind of the archetypal punk movie, the one against all others must be measured in terms of achievement and horror.
LINK TO HCL: Joe quotes one of the 10 Commandments of the Rock and Roll Swindle right at the end of Hard Core Logo.
LINK TO HCL: Someone way back in the depths of one of the HCL livejournal communities said that they thought the characters in Times Square were like Billy and Joe. I don't actually agree, but I like this movie a lot so I wanted to include it anyway.
LINK TO HCL: Filmed in Vancouver, with some of the cast from The Great RnR Swindle coming along for the ride.
Two BYO bands tour America and some of Canada. Features some scary insights into the bleak lives of Montreal street punks.
LINK TO HCL: Hard Core Logo begins in Vancouver but ends in Edmonton. Fear Uasal Chi Pig was the lead singer of SNFU, a band that started in Edmonton and effectively ended in Vancouver. Also one of the few gay hardcore frontmen.
LINK TO HCL: This was filmed in Canada and features extended footage of Vancouver punk and news wave bands as well as scenes featuring Vancouver punks as extras.
Additional Resources
Destroy All Movies is a very comprehensive guide to punk movies and punks in movies, including Hard Core Logo. Their review? "The film captures the aimless, pathetic state of punk in the late '90s... whether or not that was the intent."