Punk!

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Movie
German title Punk!
Original title SLC punk!
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1998
length 98 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director James Merendino
script James Merendino
production Sam Mayden ,
Peter Ward
music Melanie Miller
camera Greg Littlewood
cut Esther P. Russel
occupation

SLC punk! is an American subculture study of the everyday life of two punks from Salt Lake City with comedic and dramatic elements by director James Merendino with Matthew Lillard in the lead role. The film was released in Germany on September 24, 1998 (before its American release on January 22, 1999). The German actor Til Schweiger can be seen in a supporting role.

action

Stevo and his best friend Heroin-Bob are the first punks in Salt Lake City in 1985. At the beginning of the film, they are seen escaping from an ambush and beating two men, who they consider rednecks , with metal bars and quickly disappearing.

The story takes place in 1985. The two live in a shabby factory building with political and mostly anarchist slogans on the walls. Bob, who at first gives the impression that he is crazy, hits his hand bloody by breaking a mirror. Since he only sparingly treats the wound with an old T-shirt, it becomes infected. Heroin Bob, ironically nicknamed because he hates drugs, and especially needles, is taken to the doctor by his friends. Another character is introduced in the waiting room: Mike, a friend of the two punks who shares their political views, but does not show it off. Although he is very nice and friendly, a woman sits down with her daughter in order not to have anything to do with the two anarchists.

Looking back, this is followed by a kind of educational monologue about heroin Bob's aversion to drugs and an episode about Sean, a dealer whose own drugs drive him insane. Sean thinks Bob is Jesus in an acid frenzy and tells him that he tried to kill his mother because he thought she was the devil. This is also where the “ Mods ” belonging to another movement are mentioned for the first time.

Meanwhile, Bob is placed in the quarantine station as a life-threatening virus has developed in the infection.

Stevo and Bob are both college graduates. Her plan was to create as much anarchy and chaos there as possible, but Stevo's grades are above average. You don't learn anything about Bob's achievements in chemistry.

Another flashback follows a conversation with Stevo's wealthy parents, which shows that his parents were hippies as young adults. Now they try to explain to their son that they appreciate his political commitment. But you would never understand his appearance on the east coast. Due to the unbelievability of this lecture, Stevo said goodbye at puberty with the words “... but I'm 18 and for the first time in my life I can say: Fuck you!” (“... but I'm 18 and can now go to say for the first time in my life: Fuck You !! ”).

Back in the here and now of 1985 there are more punks on the way. Most of them are just punk for music or fashion. But Stevo and Heroin-Bob no longer stand out from the crowd. Breaking fiction, Stevo now explains the difference between his view of anarchy and that of the “fashion victims”: “You don't live your life by lyrics” (“But you don't live your life by lyrics”). According to his statement, he finds this pretense sad and he distances himself from the American "Hicks".

At a wild punk concert by an English band, Mark, a European friend, is also there, about whom nobody really knows a lot, except that he allegedly lost his family in a plane crash and has been living on the insurance money ever since. Since he always has marijuana and acid, he is tolerated. Heroin Bob starts a brawl, and Mike harasses the band's bodyguard. A mass brawl breaks out, but with the arrival of the police it is directed against the officers. The band announced at the after-show party that they would no longer play in Salt Lake City because the city was too brutal for them, which Bob takes as a compliment. Mark makes fun of the punks' statement at the party when Bob approaches him about his chic shirt.

It's the last day of three weeks of quarantine and heroin Bob's friends are visiting. Nobody else had visited him.

The first of three parties takes place. In Stevo's apartment, he introduces Mark to the audience in more detail. Mark likes to show off the - sometimes pointless - things he buys. Mark only claims to be in Utah because he killed 2 men in Miami. Mark describes the plane crash in his childhood and begins to talk to himself in a rage. He accuses Bob of stealing weed from him and threatens him with a huge revolver. Bob is innocent of course, they make up and steal a car together, only to let it sink in the salt lake, which, to Mark's annoyance, doesn't work.

The narrative continues at the party and Jennifer, Sandy and John The Mod are introduced. Mods and punks generally don't like each other very well. John, however, moves in their circles like a diplomat. When asked where Stevo got the beer from, another episode is inserted:

Since the beer in supermarkets in Utah is incomprehensibly weak for religious reasons, you buy it in "liquor stores", where the punks get into trouble with the cops every time, or in Wyoming . Stevo and Bob drive to Wyoming with Eddie. Eddie looks homosexual and has been beaten up because of it. In truth, he's just trying to make himself more interesting in order to be more successful with women. In the liquor store, the three of them meet the old seller who thinks they are psychiatric inmates. They claim to be from England and are tolerated. You witness a conversation between two other customers discussing Satanism. Stevo feigns a kind of seizure and bares his backside with the tattooed numbers 666. You have to flee from the owner because he wants to shoot you.

The party continues and it becomes clear that Bob is in love with Trish. Rednecks appear and another brawl begins, another episode explains why brawls are a part of life. Individual groups are analyzed from the point of view of the punks and a ranking is established.

Although heroin Bob is against the system, he admires Trish, who owns a head shop. Mark enters the store and explains that he is going back to Florida, but he will certainly be back. Bob falls for Trish more and more, blindly obeys her. At the party, Trish had bought it for $ 36. Stevo continues on his way home alone and meets his father, who drives by in the Porsche, who tells him that he has been accepted at Harvard Law School. Stevo never applied there. They go to eat together. Stevo worries about why, despite his negative and destructive attitude, he always had the ambition to study or at least write off for good grades.

Together with Sandy, Stevo meets Sean, who was previously shown on the street. He's now a beggar and can't remember Stevo. Stevo pretends to be in a hurry so as not to have to look at the sad apparition any longer and it depresses him that he “ignores the truth”. The first doubts arise.

Stevo and Sandy take acid in a park: Conclusion: “Beauty is the end!” (“Beauty is the end!”) At home, Stevo insults Bob as a “poser” because he has fallen in love with Trish. Actually he is tired of always having to differentiate between real punks and posers and it makes him sad to see his own beliefs crumble.

A party at Jennifer's house brings Stevo to Jennifer's brother Chris ("definately a hippie"), who got her to give up her medication. In the apartment, which is like a commune, there are a lot of extraordinary people like for example a young man who wants to prove that evening that there is no Satan. At the party, Stevo finds Sandy in bed with someone else and beats him up. Supposedly not because he loves her, but because his territory has been violated. But he says himself that he did it for Sandy. Break Stevo's ideals and for the first time he says it out loud: “Fuck anarchy!” (“Fuck Anarchy!”)

His self-doubt is now projected onto everything, including his friend Bob, who is going through a similar change, but is not aware of it, he is too blinded by his love for Trish.

The circle of friends falls apart more than Mike announces that he is leaving Utah to study. Stevo is even more shocked that Mike “one of the most freaky, insane hard cores” (“one of the most hardcore sons of bitches”) is now studying botany to “save the rainforest”.

The two friends visit him on Bob's father's birthday. The paranoid, alcoholic father does not recognize his son and mistakes them for CIA agents and shoots them. They flee. Stevo didn't know anything about his best friend's condition for all these years, but now it helps him to understand him better.

Trish wants to introduce Stevo to her friend Brandy and so they finally meet at a party in the house of Brandy's rich parents. Stevo falls in love on the spot. At the party, Brandy devotes himself entirely to Stevo and neglects her other friends. A conversation stimulates Stevo to think further, Brandy lets Stevo share her opinion about punks and sees Stevo only as a uniformed person and therefore not as an individual at all. But Stevo is more interested in whether Brandy likes him. Bob is at the same party and has a headache. Other guests give him pills for the pain. As at the beginning of the film, heroin Bob destroys a mirror in the bathroom (“He goes crazy when he's drunk” - “He gets crazy when he's drunk”). Bob no longer seems to be in control of his senses and is brought home by Stevo. With the words "good night, asshole" he throws it on his mattress.

The next day, Stevo has to find out that his friend Bob is dead. It turns out the headache pills from the celebration were drugs. Stevo is faced with reality. “Only pseudos perish” (“Only Posers die”) seems an empty phrase and he bursts into tears. The carefree youth is over and Stevo is different from now on. He is wearing a suit and tie, his blue hair is shaved off.

A flashback shows how the two friends got into punk. Just like everyone else who had criticized it: Bob had played him a tape of "new" music from California. After all, Stevo goes to Harvard Law School and he knows that like his father he would be part of the system. He realizes that all these years he was no other than a “very shitty, fashionable pseudo-ass” (“god damn trendy ass poser”).

Characters

Stevo

Stevo (Matthew Lillard) is the main character in the film. He is a young punk and the son of rich parents, with whom he has a good relationship, but he cannot conform to their attitudes towards life. He and his best friend Heroin-Bob live in a spartan, unheated house in Salt Lake City. Stevo loves anarchy and chaos, but his attitude changes towards the end of the film. Stevo is initially drawn to Sandy, and later to Brandy. Stevo studied law in Salt Lake City and later continues that degree at Harvard Law School.

bob

Bob (Michael A. Goorjian) is Stevo's best friend and is also punk. He and Stevo have known each other since they were young and came to the punk movement together. Bob's nickname is "Heroin Bob" because he hates drugs and especially needles. Ironically, he eventually dies of a drug overdose. He is a chemistry student. Heroin Bob obeys Trish blindly and says he would do anything for her.

Mike

Likes to smear bread with jam. He mostly hangs out with his friends and plays gigly-ball with them.

mark

Mark (Til Schweiger) plays a supporting role in SLC! Punk. Stevo's sentence "Nobody knows what he has done behind the iron curtain ..." suggests that he comes from the GDR or the former USSR. Mark's entire family was killed in a plane crash and left him a large sum of money, which allows him to enjoy his luxurious lifestyle. Mark is always on drugs and prone to paranoia in certain situations.

Awards

  • 1999: Mar del Plata Film Festival , Matthew Lillard: best actor
  • 1999: Mar del Plata Film Festival, FIPRESCI Award, Special Mention, James Merendino: best film
  • In 2000, James Merendino was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay.

Soundtrack

Punk songs are used in the film as an example, and in places also classical music. This is not included on the official soundtrack.

  1. ECP - Fuck off and die
  2. The Suicide Machines - I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
  3. The Exploited - Sex and Violence
  4. Fear - I Love Living in the City
  5. The Stooges - 1969
  6. The Specials - Too Hot
  7. Ramones - Cretin Hop
  8. Blondie - Dreaming
  9. Generation X - Kiss Me Deadly
  10. The Velvet Underground - Rock and Roll
  11. Moondog - Gasoline Rain
  12. Fifi - Mirror in the Bathroom
  13. Adolescents - Amoeba
  14. The Dead Kennedys - Kill the Poor
  15. The Vandals - Urban Struggle
  16. Adam & The Ants - Beat my guest
  17. Eight Bucks Experiment - One of these Days (Fuck off and Die)
  18. Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata
  19. Holistic Olive - Wrech We 'Em'
  20. The Stooges - We Will Fall
  21. Minor Threat - Look back and Laugh

continuation

For 2014, Punk's Dead: SLC was punk! 2 planned a sequel that will again be directed by James Merendino. According to initial information, the action takes place 18 years after the first part, in 2003. The film finally appeared in 2016.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Punk's Dead: SLC Punk! 2. Retrieved July 10, 2014 .