American Hardcore

With a fitting DIY rough-hewn aesthetic and fanzine passion, “American Hardcore” is an archaeological dig into the “lost subculture” defined by its subtitle: “The History of American Punk Rock 1980-1986.” Though it's evident that hardcore prefigured grunge, director Paul Rachman isn't interested in sweeping conclusions about the scene and its legacy -- he lets the punks themselves, now middle-aged, provide the commentary. The docu interweaves home-video footage of underground shows, much of which hasn't been seen publicly before, and excerpts from more than 100 interviews. Most of the material was gathered in a five-year cross-country trek that shadows the network of crash pads these musicians relied upon in their no-budget travels. The resourceful film will stir up a mosh pit of appreciation among aficionados while providing an intriguing, if not always compelling, overview for those less acquainted with the music.

These were the kids, many of them middle-class suburbanites, who would not go gentle into that good “Morning in America” of Reaganomics and '80s careerism. Making it up as they went along, pissed-off teens thrashed out their own version of punk, opting not for the ebullience of the Ramones or the junkie sideshow of Sid Vicious but for 30-second blasts of song that had more to do with adrenaline than songcraft. Bands like Millions of Dead Cops, Circle Jerks and Bad Religion weren't aiming for radio play or courting the star-making machinery, and their music wasn't meant to be a digestible commodity but an experience.

Rachman's film captures that experience in all its sweaty, often violent glory, through excavated personal stashes of blurry performance footage shot on VHS and Super 8. Historical evidence of the grassroots movement also includes posters, fliers, stills and album sleeves -- some of them hand-cut, folded and pasted by the musicians. Not a ProTools in sight for these four-track devotees. Non-fans likely will find the music itself uninteresting and largely indistinguishable from band to band. The key exception is the influential Bad Brains, who will be a revelation for those unacquainted with their melodic and complex offerings.

Inspired by journalist/DJ/promoter Steven Blush's 2001 book “American Hardcore: A Tribal History,” Rachman honors his subject by not forcing an interpretation on the music. But he and writer/co-producer Blush do shape the material to put hardcore within its time and place: With an organizational void on the political left, it tapped into what elder statesman Henry Rollins calls a global hatred of Reagan. It's left to future films and books to delve deeper, though. When Black Flag bass player Kira Roessler offers the docu's only questioning remarks about the scene's attitude toward women, her observations are quickly countered by those of two female non-musicians who felt right at home on the circuit. But all the evidence here tells a different story, one in which testosterone ruled.

Directed by Paul Rachman. Written by Steven Blush. Produced by Steven Blush and Paul Rachman. A Sony Pictures Classics release. Documentary. Rated R for pervasive language including sex and drug references. Running time: 99 min.