Also seen in my recent movie catch-up was Punk: Attitude, a documentary by Don Letts. Who was a club DJ in London in the 70s, spinning roots reggae for the punks. Former member of Big Audio Dynamite. And other stuff. This is actually his 2nd dip into the pool -- he also directed the Clash docu Westway to the World. Like that film, Punk: Attitude has some amazing archival footage. Arguably better since he's spread his net so much wider. Along with the usuals (Pistols in America, Clash on the Grundy show) he's got early performance footage of Ramones, Television, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Buzzcocks, the Damned, Patti Smith, the Slits, Minor Threat, even the Pop Group. Very cool to see if you are or were a fan. Format is roughly similar to Westway -- contemporary interviews intercut with archival footage to illustrate/illuminate. But since he's got a wider range of subjects than just the members of the Clash, there's more diversity and disagreement. Particularly amusing early on is the range of opinions on the late 60s, hippies, and the anti-war movement. Which, now that I think about it, may have something to do with UK hippies being more of a fashion statement than a political statement.
(this is getting long, so -- cont'd after the jump)
Again, along with the more obvious choices (David Jo, Tommy (Ramone) Erdelyi, Chrissie Hynde, Siouxsie Sioux, Paul Simonon, Mick Jones, Rollins), Letts has gotten a wide range of people to sit down and talk, inc. Captain Sensible, Howard Devoto, Hilly Kristal (owner of CBGB), Wayne Kramer (MC5), John Cooper Clarke, Ari Up (the Slits), Thurston Moore, Glenn Branca, Jello Biafra, James Chance. There are a few points when the absence of a interviewee seems kinda glaring, moments when several are people are talking about, say, John Lydon, or Arto Lindsay, or Ian MacKaye, or Richard Hell. But even then, when the narrative really calls out for the missing interview, Letts keeps the story going. Of course he's bit off way more story than he can tell in one movie. The London and New York parts of the story seemed very solid. Either because he's on familiar ground or because I am. Altho it was interesting to hear from the owner of legendary LA club the Masque, and about some bands other than Germs, I thought leaving Darby Crash and Germs out of the movie completely was an odd choice. As was completely failing to mention X. No movie that includes Agnostic Front but excludes X can ever be considered definitive on punk in any way. Letts' other major mis-step comes when trying to explore links between early 80s punk and hip hop. More accurately that would be postpunk at that point but whatever. All well and good and true. I think he's got Thurston Moore talking about it. But then he illustrates the point with clips from Beastie Boys "Fight for Your Right to Party" video. Wrong! Doesn't matter that Beasties started as a hardcore band. At the time he's talking about they didn't exist and any sort of punk/postpunk crossover with hiphop -- which was going on, at places like Mudd Club, Pyramid, etc -- would be better illustrated by... I dunno... Konk or A Certain Ratio.
Even with those short-comings (and the more forgivable fact that Letts doesn't have time to get to the rest of the US outside of NYC and LA) this movie's definitely worth checking out. Probably I'd recommend watching Westway to the World and Julien Temple's the Filth and the Fury first, as they go deeper into the story of the Clash and the Sex Pistols and the world/scene they sprang from and provide deeper context for some of the stuff you see in Punk: Attitude. I also recommend Jon Savage's book England's Dreaming. (I haven't read Please Kill Me yet altho I've heard it's pretty definitive on NYC punk scene)
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