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The Decline of Western Civilization is a american film of genre Documentary directed by Penelope Spheeris released in USA on 1 july 1981 with John Doe

The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)

The Decline of Western Civilization
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Released in USA 1 july 1981
Length 1h40
Directed by
OriginUSA
Genres Documentary,    Musical
Rating74% 3.744193.744193.744193.744193.74419

The Decline of Western Civilization is an American documentary film filmed through 1979 and 1980. The movie is about the Los Angeles punk rock scene and was directed by Penelope Spheeris. In 1981, the LAPD Chief of Police Daryl Gates wrote a letter demanding the film not be shown again in L.A. Over the years the film has gained cult status.

The film's title is possibly a reference to famous music critic Lester Bangs' 1970 two-part review of The Stooges' Fun House for Creem magazine, where Bangs quotes a friend who had said the popularity of The Stooges signaled "the decline of Western civilization". Another possibility is that the title refers to Darby Crash's reading of Oswald Spengler's Der Untergang des Abendlandes (The Decline of the West). In We Got the Neutron Bomb, an oral history of the L.A. punk rock scene collected by Mark Spitz, Claude Bessy claims that he came up with the title.

The film is the opening act of a trilogy by Spheeris depicting life in Los Angeles at various points. The second film The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years covers the Los Angeles heavy metal scene of 1986-1988. The third film The Decline of Western Civilization III chronicles the gutter punk lifestyle of homeless teenagers in the late 1990s.

Synopsis

Featuring concert footage of Los Angeles punk bands and interviews both with band members, the publishers of Slash fanzine, and with the punks who made up their audience, the film offers a look into a subculture that was largely ignored by the rock music press of the time.

Actors

John Doe

(Self)Lee Ving

(Self)Penelope Spheeris

(Self)
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