The Decline of Western Civilization
Women's Work: Essential Films by Female Filmmakers
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1h 40m
Directed by Penelope Spheeris | 100 mins | 1981
Without doubt one of the great rock docs, Penelope Spheeris’s headily discordant portrait of West Coast punk—her directorial debut—showcases such hardcore luminaries as X, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, and Germs. As pure and pungent a time capsule as they come, it’s only fitting that the premiere—a jam-packed and rambunctious affair—was followed by a letter from the Los Angeles Chief of Police requesting that the film never be screened in the city again.
Up Next in Women's Work: Essential Films by Female Filmmakers
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The Decline of Western Civilization P...
Directed by Penelope Spheeris | 93 mins | 1988
The scummy, lightening-in-a-bottle Los Angeles punk scene that Penelope Spheeris captured in the first “Decline of Western Civilization” (1981) had morphed considerably by the time of this second instalment, nearly a decade later: the hair was bigger...
