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The Decline of Western Civilization

1981

Penelope Spheeris

Documentary

6.9

186

Documentary The Decline of Western Civilization is an American documentary film filmed through 1979 and 1980. The movie was directed by Penelope Spheeris about the Los Angeles punk rock scene

	Author	Review
United States	David Fear Rolling Stone	"The performance footage alone makes this worthy of study by musicologists and historians. There are too many great scenes to mention."	POS
United States	Janet Maslin The New York Times	"A shrewd and engrossing documentary even for audiences who have absolutely no patience for the music it includes."	POS
United States	Variety Staff Variety	"A bracing, stimulating and technically superb close-up look at the LA punk scene, pic is pitched at a perfect distance to allow for simultaneous engagement in the music and spectacle"	POS
Canada	The Globe and Mail	"A movie so pungent and filled with sweaty intensity that you can practically smell the rank body odour of the film's subjects as they hurl their bodies against each other in a frenzy of aggression"	POS
United States	Jack Hamilton Slate	"'The Decline of Western Civilization' is the finest cinematic distillation of punk ever made, not simply as music but as ethos."	POS
United States	J.R. Jones Chicago Reader	"The live sets by X, Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, the Germs, and Fear, recorded between December 1979 and May 1980, still thunder after all these years; unfortunately so do the scene's racism, queer baiting, and utter despair."	POS
United Kingdom	Time Out	"It's far from unmissable, but it's valuable rock history with some great noise."	POS
United States	TV Guide	"Creatively edited and as insightful as any film can be about the lowest rungs of the music scene, this overview expertly captures the time and place."	POS

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