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American Hardcore
Sony Pictures Classics


8.1

based on 21 reviews
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based on 14 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for pervasive language including sex and drug references

Starring Adolescents, Bad Brains, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, D.O.A., and The Replacements

Generally unheralded at the time, the early 1980s hardcore punk rock scene gave birth to much of the rock music and culture that followed. Hardcore was more than music -- it was a social movement created by Reagan-era misfit kids. The participants constituted a tribe unto themselves -- some finding a voiced, others an escape in the hard-edged music. Ans while some sought a better world, others were just angry and wanted to raise hell. American Hardcore traces this lost subculture, from its early roots in 1980 to its initial flameout in 1986. (Sony Pictures Classics)

GENRE(S):	Documentary \| Musical
WRITTEN BY:	Steven Blush
DIRECTED BY:	Paul Rachman
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 20, 2007 Theatrical: September 22, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	100 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Variety Dennis Harvey

Excellent documentary American Hardcore chronicles the short-lived but influential musical moment when a defiantly anti-commercial underground put a distinctive U.S. stamp on the hitherto Brit-driven punk movement.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The triumph of American Hardcore is that it convinces general audiences that there were vast underground reservoirs of angst and anguish to be tapped.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Stands as a valuable chronicle of a brief and snarling musical movement.

Village Voice Rob Nelson

The story of American punk rock (1980–1986) isn't a lot easier to summarize than that of any other major war, but it's quite a bit funnier, as this belated documentary overview--based on Steven Blush's like-titled tome--proves in each of its 90 exuberantly irritable minutes.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Messed up as it is, you can't tear your eyes away from this explosion of brutal sounds and images.

Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirshling

Illuminating nostalgia, stuffed with all the right tattooed talking heads (like Black Flag's Henry Rollins), plus grim-looking concert footage of wailing skinny guys.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

A raucous, relevant documentary, capturing the mood of the times and the participants' best anecdotes.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

Hardcore remains, in the words of Minor Threat's Ian MacKaye, the voice of "kids who refuse to be slotted into generic kids roles," so fans of current groups such as Disturbed may feel shortchanged by allegations that it was all over by 1986.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A first-rate documentary on this subgenre of punk rock, which flourished roughly between 1982 and 1986 as an anarchistic response to Ronald Reagan and the disco era.

Los Angeles Times Scott Martelle

The documentary is an enlightening journey to a dark corner of contemporary punk's dank little basement. It also will surprise some to hear how articulately some of the former performers explain the dark impulses that propelled them.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Some of American Hardcore is amusing -- many of the aging punks Rachman and Blush track down have turned into highly ordinary middle-aged Americans -- and some is profoundly disturbing.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

A toned-down cinematic equivalent of the music: fast and loud, but not too loud. The movie scrambles to cover so much territory that there is room only for musical shards and slivers; few complete songs are heard, and no signature anthems stand out.

Film Threat Sally Foster

Not only documents a fascinating part of American history, but also leaves us wondering how (and if) this era's youth will manage to find a voice of their own.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

American Hardcore encapsulates a largely forgotten (by the mainstream, that is) moment in maximum rock & roll history.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Hardcore might have been confused and crude, but it was never guilty of being tepid, like this film.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

A sloppy mosh note to the genre, with its own excesses and oversights. It's like a flier for a band you've never heard of: torn, soaked with beer, itchy with aggression.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

In a better work, the filmmaker would talk to hardcore punks about their parents, affairs, regrets, dreams and day jobs in an effort to explore the fledgling movement. Here, however, we get little more than a marathon MTV rap session, as Rachman drives about North America, yakking with aging punk heroes about the good ol' bad ol' days.

Chicago Tribune Louis R. Carlozo

Exhaustive and at turns exhausting.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Fans will dig the abundant performance video and commentary from Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye; everyone else should steer clear of the mosh pit.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Twenty-five years on, hardcore continues to be the soundtrack of choice for extreme, white-supremacist groups hoping to tap into teenage rage. With no one on hand to counter the argument, this may go down as hardcore's lasting legacy.

San Francisco Chronicle Will Crain

There's a lot of interesting material here, but Rachman doesn't offer any real analysis of his own, and the film suffers from a lack of narrative focus.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 14 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad S. gave it a7:
Punk rock never quite made it to Hawaii. We had Frank Orrall, whose first band was called Hat Makes the Man. Orrall, of course, is the brainchild behind Poi Dog Pondering, Hawaii's sole contribution to the "alternative" music scene during college radio's heyday. What Blue Oyster Cult did for the cowbell("Don't Fear the Reaper"), Poi Dog Pondering did for the tin whistle("Living with the Dreaming Body"). Needless to say, I was listening to Gary Numan at the start of the hardcore movement("Here in my car, I feel safest of all"), and moved on to China Crisis("Difficult Shapes and Passive Rhythms" is underrated, man!) when Black Flag called it quits. "American Hardcore" is only as good as the music they're covering, and since this documentary insists on being a comprehensive one, the film drags a bit when the film shines the spotlight on the midwest. Things pick up again when the film covers the advent of SST Records, because Henry Rollins and Ian McKaye are brought back as testifiers to this, yes, ancedotal, but entertaining oral history. On IFC, Rollins talks about his renewed love for ELO, and all things classic rock, but his contemporaries are diehards, apparently, still ragging on those dinosaur acts like Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles. Foghat? Why pick on Foghat? I'd love to hear Vic Bondi(Articles of Faith) comment about Jack Johnson. According to the British, hardcore never existed. After The Sex Pistols disbanded, the era between 1978-1984 is commonly labeled as post-punk. You can probably play "Holiday in the Sun" to a mixed audience with a minimal amount of agitation from the MOR-jetset, but that's not the case with Bad Brains' "Pay to Cum". So, is punk rock dead? Don't tell that to Les Savy Fav, who kicked everybody's ass on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" during the writers' strike. I've lived in Hawaii my entire life and I had no idea Dan Inouye's son played in Marginal Man.

Jesse O. gave it a9:
One of the best films of the 80's true punk evolution really liked the interviews of some of those most resposible for it all.

Remi S. gave it a4:
Lacks focus. They don't even try to explain "hardcore" let alone "american hardcore". Movie should have been titled "My life in the 80s". You are presented a loose collection of a narrow recollection of a select few of the "punk" music scene of the early 80s. No analysis, no introspection- just anecdotes.

Keith M. gave it a7:
I cant believe how out of touch some of the big media reviewers are.. This was first wave hardcore after punk hit the US. This film just scratched the surface on what many people consider an important part of their lives today or yesteryear.. Its interesting how few judgments were made.. either about sexist & rapist remarkst. Things were just stated and that was it. For better or for worse its an after math of decline of western civilization part 1.. Just not quite as psychoanalytic (unfortunately). I for one would've liked some more explanation of why people were so overtly violent.. "We were just f* ups" seems to be lacking. And who said the skinhead thing had anything to do with racists? Theres more variety in race of skinheads than their are white power skins.. but thats a whole other movie.

Alana gave it a7:
I wasn't particularly blown away by this documentary, more specifically after the first 45 minutes I was relatively disappointed. It's been mentioned that the misogynist message of hardcore was brought up... just barely. Roessler actually accuses black flag for hating women and this is never investigated further.. As for the criticism regarding white supremacy, yeah there was a lot of mix up of white skin head supremacists in the punk scene.. but the documentary seemed to draw a very fine line between the skin heads and the punks. I just felt like it should have dug in to punk culture a lot more.. it was a very superficial film, although it did improve towards the end. Yeah you got the shit kicked out of you at bad brains show in the early eighties, what difference does it make if henry rollins tells us about it or some misfit kid who broke his arm in the pit. I was anticipating more.

George W. gave it a9:
Though it dragged in spots, this was a helluva documentary for my wife and myself as we lived the SF hardcore scene in the early eighties. I kept expecting to see myself or her thrashing about or hanging in the audience. If there had been more from SF, this may have happened. I could forgive the lack of SF coverage as the main protaginists, the DKs are now at each other's throats. All in all an important work that I always wondered if anyone would make.

E. S. gave it a7:
Decent documentary, perhaps a little wanting at some points, but it did successfully tell the story of a musical movement with some interesting historical context. I'm mainly posting this in response to the TV Guide review, however: I can't believe how misguided the reviewer, Ken Fox, is when he refers to this music as having a racist legacy. As Ian MacKaye points out in his interview, that's not what he meant his songs to become, and it's terribly off-base considering the diverse nature of many of the bands, particularly Bad Brains, but quite a few others. The misogynist message of hardcore, particularly in relation to Black Flag, is brought up in the movie as well and not in a particularly positive light. It seems to me that Mr. Fox was in a different movie from the rest of us.

American Hardcore Sony Pictures Classics

American Hardcore
Sony Pictures Classics