D.O.A.

Features live performances by the Sex Pistols, the Rich Kids, the X-Ray Specs, Sham 69 and Generation X.

Hard to believe that this title is out of print. It's one of the best documentaries of the early Punk rock era.

It's got great interviews with some of the principal people of the time, such as the head of the GLC. And interviews with concert goers outside the Sex Pistols American gigs. And the famous Sid and Nancy bed interview. And a bunch of other stuff.

D.O.A, an shot on-the-run warts and all bands and crowd look at a goid sampling of UK punk (and The Dead Boys for some reason), shows that it's all fun and games and the occasional bottle thrown by a redneck in a Texas town (where the Sex Pistols inexplicably toured in 78) and rock and roll and old stuffy British men criticizing the Pistols (and the other bands the uptight Brit wanker censor couldn't recall)... Until one sees Sid post final SF Winterlabd concert with Nancy totally zonked on heroin (or, sorry, he was just 'tired').

This will obviously be appealing to people who know the bands - or at least have some familiarity with Rotten and the rest (there's even film, which must be the only time it happened, of ex-Pistol Glen Matlock's next band singing 'Pretty Vacant') - but it also has the fascination of opening a buried time capsule. It may also suffer somewhat if one already laps up punk rock docs and movies. I'm one of those who find anything punk related that has just a tinge of quality appealing and will go easy even (ie I know deep down there's not much storywise to Rude Boy, but it's The gddamn Clash playing live for goodness sake), but at the same time I'm coming to this now as opposed to when all the others were readily available as a teen and younger adult. Only now is DOA finally available after years of rights issues, so one comes to it after already lapping up Temple's (really terrific) The Filth and the Fury and Spheeris' Decline movies.

So as I can try to be all objective Mr Critic-Suspender-Pants and say this isn't as cohesive and the main thread of the Pistols on the ill-fated/final tour of the US gets a bit ruptured due to the Vicious/Spungen scenes being cut in well before the end really comes and the context for the band splitting isn't really there (I could be wrong but McClaren isn't mentioned once) ... I can't carp. Every time one sees the Pistols on stage, most especially the wild-eyed quasi-hunchback gonzo Rotten and the almost for today innocent posing by Vicious and the guitarist Steve, it's electric energy and somehow, through the magic if film editing, it even seems as though the American audiences get into the songs live (many being burgeoning punks who have found the real charge from them, yes even in Memphis on Elvis's first birthday post death). Another connection one can make is some of the interviews, done so raggedly and clearly without permission you can see the spit on the lens some if the people hurl, is Heavy Metal Parking Lot, where the interest becomes as much anthropological than anything.

And sure, I don't expect High Times - yes, the effing pot magazine funded this - to be doing Maysles level work. That may be in part why it can't help but compare to that first Decline film, where going from band to band and the Wiseman influence made it a tighter constructed film. But I still give this such a high rating because it is totally compelling and seeing the likes of Sham 69 (perhaps the best punk crowd one gets to see during a live performance, great energy too), Xray Spex (an underrated treasure of 70s female-led punk), Billy Idol(!) in Generation X (doing a song that is better than anything Idol did solo, and I'm not a hater on him), Dead Boys, et al, is often thrilling and sometimes funny - it helps to have some humor when being an aggressive SOB, or trying to - to see what this was all about. The music didn't go away of course, but it didn't stay quite the same as far as the first flood of what it was about.

And, at the end of it all, Spungen and Vicious were dead. One is almost tempted to call exploitation on that part of it (ala one of those Kurt/Courtney docs over the years), but.... High Times? Naahhh.

The film features not only punks and their performances, but also the reactionary times they played in. It's fascinating to see how threatened the powers-that-be felt, threatened by youth culture. (And it's too bad that the reactionary politicos of today are too secure to be threatened by any populist movement...)

FINALLY had a chance to see this raw, indy piece of work. As a punk snob from the era it refreshing to hear the original brit punks that slogged it out for obscure cult status and to be on about a zillion punk compilations, but w/ little else to show for it. Fans of Green Day, Rancid or whatever $$$-making outfit should bow their heads to these folks that would have loved the glory and cash but it was not to be.

A good non-obtrusive film that lets music speak for itself (albeit somewhat out of sync). It was a pleasure to see and hear COMPLETE songs as so many documentaries show perhaps a minute of a song and go back to commentary, etc.

Covers the Sex Pistols tour rather well, both on stage and crowd reaction. About 10 songs in all from the early '78 tour.

Sid and Nancy are there for real and are anything but the shapely, stylish Chloe Webb and Gary Oldman from "Sid and Nancy" from Alex Cox. Rather wrenching to sit through it all.

A tragic highlight was suffering through working-class yob Terry Sylvestre and his 'Terry and the Idiots' outfit that bomb heavily at the local pub.

If you want a double feature, pick up "Decline of Western Civilization" - a bit more polished, but pretty damn raw and worth it for the Fear concert footage.

Firstly, all credit to the makers for having the foresight to capture the Sex Pistols and the punk scene in it's element for future prosperity.

Whether you like punk or not, you can't deny it made a lasting impression on the music scene. This documentary is padded out with lots of additional footage in the form of an artistic montage. I would like to have seen more film depicting the punk scene on the streets and interviews in addition to the bands performing.

I don't think so much footage of 'Terry and the Idiots' adds that much value to the documentary. It would be nice to see an even longer alternative edit of this in restored quality HD. I imagine there's far more unused footage available.

As it stands, it's a unique visual record of the Sex Pistols in the USA but I feel it will mostly appeal to punk fans or curious onlookers. The making of D. O. A documentary is much better.