The Decline of Western Civilization

The Decline of Western Civilization
Film poster depicting Germs singer Darby Crash
Directed by	Penelope Spheeris
Produced by	Jeff Prettyman Penelope Spheeris
Written by	Penelope Spheeris
Cinematography	Steve Conant
Editing by	Charlie Mullin
Distributed by	Media Home Entertainment
Release date(s)	July 1, 1981 (United States)
Running time	100 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

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).

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 legendary 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.

The promotional poster for The Decline (and the record cover of the soundtrack album) featured a close-up frame of Germs singer Darby Crash supine on stage with his eyes closed. Crash died from a heroin-induced suicide shortly before the film was released (the poster was designed before his death).

Bands included are Black Flag, Germs, X, Alice Bag Band, Circle Jerks, Catholic Discipline, and Fear. The Germs' performance was replicated in the film What We Do Is Secret biopic, as well as a replication of the image on the soundtrack's front cover.

Performances

• Alice Bag Band
  • "Gluttony"
  • "Prowlers in the Night"
• Black Flag
  • "Depression"
  • "Revenge"
  • "White Minority"
• Circle Jerks
  • "Back Against the Wall"
  • "Beverly Hills"
  • "I Just Want Some Skank"
  • "Red Tape"
  • "Wasted"
• Catholic Discipline
  • "Barbee Doll Lust"
  • "Underground Babylon"
• Fear
  • "Beef Bologna"
  • "I Don't Care About You"
  • "I Love Living in the City"
  • "Let's Have a War"
  • "Fear Anthem"
• Germs
  • "Manimal"
  • "Shutdown"
• X
  • "Beyond and Back"
  • "Johnny Hit and Run Paulene"
  • "Nausea"
  • "Unheard Music"
  • "We're Desperate"

Soundtrack

The Decline of Western Civilization
Soundtrack album by Various Artists
Released	January, 1981
Genre	Punk rock
Label	Slash
Producer	Gary Hirstius and Alan Kutner

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic

The soundtrack was released in December 1980 by Slash Records on LP. In the late 1990s it was released on CD as well. It is currently out of print. Germs singer Darby Crash appears on the soundtrack album cover. He died shortly before the film was released, though the promotional images for the film and album release had been designed before his death.

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Artist	Length
1.	"White Minority"	Greg Ginn	Black Flag
2.	"Depression"	Ginn	Black Flag
3.	"Revenge"	Ginn	Black Flag
4.	"Manimal"	Darby Crash	Germs
5.	"Underground Babylon"		Catholic Discipline
6.	"Beyond and Back"	John Doe, Exene Cervenka	X
7.	"Johnny Hit and Run Paulene"	Doe, Cervenka	X
8.	"We're Desperate"	Doe, Cervenka	X
9.	"Red Tape"	Keith Morris, Greg Hetson	Circle Jerks
10.	"Back Against the Wall"	Morris, Hetson, Roger Rogerson, Lucky Lehrer	Circle Jerks
11.	"I Just Want Some Skank"	Morris, Hetson, Rogerson, Lehrer	Circle Jerks
12.	"Beverly Hills"	Morris, Rogerson	Circle Jerks
13.	"Gluttony"		Alice Bag Band
14.	"I Don't Care About You"	Lee Ving	Fear
15.	"I Love Livin' in the City"	Ving	Fear
16.	"Fear Anthem"	Ving	Fear

External links

• The Decline of Western Civilization
• The Decline of Western Civilization at the Internet Movie Database
• The Decline of Western Civilization at AllRovi