This is filmed between December 1979 to May 1980 in Los Angeles. Filmmaker Penelope Spheeris gets inside the outsider music genre of punk rock with some influential and groundbreaking bands in this corner of America. They're not household names but they are dripping in authenticity. It is a time and a place. It is also a sound and an attitude. These are young people trying to create something new, something rebellious, and something that these young people can call their own. I love the way the movie starts with the bands reading the release form statement. Each one do it their own way and show their inner character. The movie is filled with their performances. Their music is not for the mainstream and only for a small minority. The best performance is FEAR who seem intent on instigating a riot by mocking their own audience. I can do without the music but the audience reactions have such great frenetic energy. That leaves the fans. The most shocking and the most compelling part of the documentary is interviewing the fans. That's the missed opportunity of this movie. They need to walk into the audience, into the club, out into the streets, and witness what's happening in the sweaty masses. The kids are the stars. I'm sure that they could see a lot of drugs and violence. They talk about the cops and it would great to have a few scenes of the cop cars patrolling the area. There is a street energy that is hinted at but the filmmaker really needs to get into the streets. I love that she sat down the kids to do the interviews in black and white. It forces the audience to really listen them. Otherwise, she needs to capture the kinetic energy of the dance floor and the streets. She needs to get knocked down on the dance floor. There are great moments of the audience. I love the guy who wrote on his skinny arm but she just needs to risk getting punched. The crowd is the best part of the performances. Overall, this is an amazing little piece of the music world at a certain time in a certain place.

Penelope Spheeris (of "Wayne's World" fame) made her mark with the documentary "The Decline of Western Civilization", about the LA punk scene in the late '70s and early '80s. Most of the documentary features interviews with the punks and footage of concerts (which often turn violent). Overall, we get to see how the punk movement was a reaction to the hippies: whereas the hippies were into being natural, the punks wanted to have themselves as altered as possible, what with spiked hair and all. But also, we see how they're really disaffected and sometimes becoming skinheads.

Anyway, this is a really great time capsule. We're not really sure whether we want to long for that era or feel repulsed by it. But this is definitely not a documentary that will leave you neutral. Truly worth seeing.

Director Penelope Spheeris captures the incredibly infectious filth and howling savage fury that fueled the Los Angeles punk music scene of the late 1970's and early 1980's with a bracing acuity that ensures that this documentary is both informative and entertaining in equal measure. Moreover, Spheeris neither glorifies nor vilifies the bands and fans featured herein; instead she wisely lets the punks speak for themselves so they can either slit their own throats or state a credible case on punk's behalf. It's also a hoot to see stoked audience members eagerly engage in stage diving and slam dancing. The groups who perform throughout certainly deliver the grungy goods: The Circle Jerks are dynamic and exciting, X seriously smoke, the lead singer of the Germs makes a hilarious clumsy fool of himself on stage by constantly dropping the microphone, Catholic Discipline are hysterically funny, and Black Flag put on a hell of an incendiary show, but it's Fear who clearly cop the top honors by whipping the audience up into a ferocious frenzy thanks to charismatic frontman Lee Ving's exceptional aptitude for pushing people's buttons. Super raw and wild, it's far better and more fun than jabbing needles in your eyes.