During my teen years, which was ironically during the time this film was made, I never really knew how pervasive the conservative, buttoned world was. I was trained to follow the usual path, get a job, worry about college, find someone to get married and share a life with and reproduce. As I worked at a Jack in the Box during this time, I met a group of homeless kids that called themselves "Gutter Punks." They had tattoos, piercings and looked like general reprobates. They raided our trash can frequently and the police had to chase them off frequently. Never in my life did I ever think I would become those "losers."
I ultimately did become one of them, developing a drinking problem in my late 20s when I realized the same thing they did....the world we live in is not built for free thinkers. At that point in my life, I had too many obligations and was thus forced to continue the life I had morphed into. While there are positives to the mainstream world, there is nothing really spectacular about selling paint, having a car payment and having to buy bulk stuff at Costco because it is cost effective for my monthly budget. The words of the kids from this movie made me think how freeing it would have been just to say "screw it" to the main stream and run away.
The biggest thing about this film was not necessarily the music, much like in the previous entries in the Decline series, but how trauma and despair hits you so much harder at an age where you are not capable of processing those feelings due to a lack of experience. I go to punk shows still while in my 40s and joke with the "old heads" that actually lived that lifestyle of drinking and reckless abandon. Much like the kids in this movie, many of them truly did not believe they would make it to 50. Even in a great Circle Jerks song-which the members are now in their 60s-they had a line stating they wouldn't make it to 60.
Either way, this is ultimately a pretty tragic look at a subculture of people in the 1990s that didn't fit into the "Clintonian" mindset of free market capitalism and massive police and military spending increases. The ending is especially twisted in a lot of ways, so be prepared for that.
I ultimately did become one of them, developing a drinking problem in my late 20s when I realized the same thing they did....the world we live in is not built for free thinkers. At that point in my life, I had too many obligations and was thus forced to continue the life I had morphed into. While there are positives to the mainstream world, there is nothing really spectacular about selling paint, having a car payment and having to buy bulk stuff at Costco because it is cost effective for my monthly budget. The words of the kids from this movie made me think how freeing it would have been just to say "screw it" to the main stream and run away.
The biggest thing about this film was not necessarily the music, much like in the previous entries in the Decline series, but how trauma and despair hits you so much harder at an age where you are not capable of processing those feelings due to a lack of experience. I go to punk shows still while in my 40s and joke with the "old heads" that actually lived that lifestyle of drinking and reckless abandon. Much like the kids in this movie, many of them truly did not believe they would make it to 50. Even in a great Circle Jerks song-which the members are now in their 60s-they had a line stating they wouldn't make it to 60.
Either way, this is ultimately a pretty tragic look at a subculture of people in the 1990s that didn't fit into the "Clintonian" mindset of free market capitalism and massive police and military spending increases. The ending is especially twisted in a lot of ways, so be prepared for that.