Best movies like The Decline of Western Civilization

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A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Decline of Western Civilization Starring Eugene Tatu, Alice Bag, Claude Bessy, Dinah Cancer, and more. If you liked The Decline of Western Civilization then you may also like: 1991: The Year Punk Broke, X: The Unheard Music, Urgh! A Music War, Wattstax, Revolution and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

The Los Angeles punk music scene circa 1980 is the focus of this film. With Alice Bag Band, Black Flag, Catholic Discipline, Circle Jerks, Fear, Germs, and X.

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1991: The Year Punk Broke

David Markey's documentary of life on the road with Sonic Youth and Nirvana during their tour of Europe in late 1991. Also featuring live performances by Dinosaur Jr, Babes in Toyland, The Ramones and Gumball.

X: The Unheard Music

A documentary about the band X. Includes live and studio performances and interviews with the band members.

Urgh! A Music War

Urgh! A Music War is a British film released in 1982 featuring performances by punk rock, new wave, and post-punk acts, filmed in 1980. Among the artists featured in the movie are Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), Magazine, The Go-Go's, Toyah Willcox, The Fleshtones, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, X, XTC, Devo, The Cramps, Oingo Boingo, Dead Kennedys, Gary Numan, Klaus Nomi, Wall of Voodoo, Pere Ubu, Steel Pulse, Surf Punks, 999, UB40, Echo & the Bunnymen and The Police. These were many of the most popular groups on the New Wave scene; in keeping with the spirit of the scene, the film also features several less famous acts, and one completely obscure group, Invisible Sex, in what appears to be their only public performance.

Wattstax

A documentary film about the Afro-American Woodstock concert held in Los Angeles seven years after the Watts riots. Director Mel Stuart mixes footage from the concert with footage of the living conditions in the current day Watts neighborhood. The film won the Golden Globe for Best Documentary Film.

Revolution

The San Francisco scene in 1967-68. Documentary about hippies shot during the height of the movement . Viewpoints from many kinds of people. Music by Steve Miller Band, Mother Earth, Quicksilver Messenger Service and others.

Rock 'n' Roll High School

A group of rock-music-loving students, with the help of the Ramones, take over their school to combat its newly installed oppressive administration.

Border Radio

Two musicians and a roadie take money that is owed to them from a job. One flees to Mexico, and everyone has questions.

Prey for Rock & Roll

Prey for Rock & Roll is set in the Los Angeles club scene of the late 1980s and follows the story of Jacki (Gershon) and her all-girl punk rock band, Clam Dandy. On the verge of turning 40, Jacki decides that if the band's one last shot at the big time is unsuccessful, she will give up her dreams of stardom. Along the way, the women are rocked by personal tragedies that threaten to break up the band before they can get their last shot at success.

The Filth and the Fury

Julien Temple's second documentary profiling punk rock pioneers the Sex Pistols is an enlightening, entertaining trip back to a time when the punk movement was just discovering itself. Featuring archival footage, never-before-seen performances, rehearsals, and recording sessions as well as interviews with group members who lived to tell the tale--including the one and only John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten).

Fubar

Terry and Dean are lifelong friends who have grown-up together: shotgunning their first beers, forming their first garage band, and growing the great Canadian mullet known as "hockey hair". Now the lives of these Alberta everymen are brought to the big screen by documentarian Ferral Mitchener in an exploration of the depths of friendship, the fragility of life, growing up gracefully and the art and science of drinking beer like a man.

Suburbia

When household tensions and a sense of worthlessness overcome Evan, he finds escape when he clings with the orphans of a throw-away society. The runaways hold on to each other like a family until a tragedy tears them apart.

Punk in London

A visual record of London punk life in the late '70s, filled with never-before-seen live concert footage and commentary from the Clash, the Jam, X-Ray Spex and the Electric Chairs.

Hard Core Logo

Bruce Macdonald follows punk bank Hard Core Logo on a harrowing last-gasp reunion tour throughout Western Canada. As magnetic lead-singer Joe Dick holds the whole magilla together through sheer force of will, all the tensions and pitfalls of life on the road come bubbling to the surface.

Hype!

This documentary examines the Seattle scene as it became the focus of a merging of punk rock, heavy metal, and innovation. Building from the grass roots, self-promoted and self-recorded until break-out success of bands like Nirvana brought the record industry to the Pacific Northwest, a phenomenon was born.

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin is a double DVD set first released in 2003. It represents the first official video release of Led Zeppelin's live material since 1976's The Song Remains the Same. The recording of the DVD spans the years from 1969 to 1979 and includes performances from the Royal Albert Hall in 1970, Madison Square Garden in 1973, Earls Court in 1975, and Knebworth in 1979. Extras provided on the set include a 1969 promo film for Communication Breakdown, a short performance on the French TV show 'Tous En Scene' in 1969, a short performance on the Danish TV Show 'TV-Byen' in 1969, a performance on the British TV shoe 'Supershow' in 1969, a performance of Immigrant Song from the band's show at the Sydney Showground in February 1972, an interview with the NYC Press Conference in 1970, an Australian press conference in 1972, an interview with The Old Grey Whistle Test, the Over The Hills And Far Away promo (1990) and the Travelling Riverside Blues promo (1990).

Sid and Nancy

January 1978. After their success in England, the punk rock band Sex Pistols venture out on their tour of the southern United States. Temperamental bassist Sid Vicious is forced by his band mates to travel without his troubled girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, who will meet him in New York. When the band breaks up and Sid begins his solo career in a hostile city, the turbulent couple definitely falls into the depths of drug addiction.

Spidarlings

Poverty stricken lovers Eden and Matilda have enough trouble just getting through the days, but when Eden buys a pet spider the real troubles start.

CBGB

A look at New York's dynamic punk rock scene through the lens of the ground-breaking Lower East Side club started by eccentric Hilly Kristal in 1973 which launched thousands of bands.

Alpha Males Experiment

When Ethan, the needy nice guy, is dumped by his fiancée, he asks his misogynist older brother, Kyle, to help him win her back.

Bukowski: Born Into This

Director John Dullaghan’s biographical documentary about infamous poet Charles Bukowski, Bukowski: Born Into This, is as much a touching portrait of the author as it is an exposé of his sordid lifestyle. Interspersed between ample vintage footage of Bukowski’s poetry readings are interviews with the poet’s fans including such legendary figures such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joyce Fante (wife of John), Bono, and Harry Dean Stanton. Filmed in grainy black and white by Bukowski’s friend, Taylor Hackford, due to lack of funding, the old films edited into this movie paint Bukowski’s life of boozing and brawling romantically, securing Bukowski’s legendary status.

Breaking Glass

Breaking Glass is the story of punk singer Kate and her meteoric rise to stardom. Starting out in the rock pubs of London, Kate, assisted by her manager Danny, becomes a huge star overnight. Once at the top the pressure is immense as Kate's band are squeezed out and she is left to cope alone in the spotlight.

The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years

An exploration of the heavy metal scene in Los Angeles, with particular emphasis on glam metal. It features concert footage and interviews of legendary heavy metal and hard rock bands and artists such as Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Megadeth, Motörhead, Ozzy Osbourne and W.A.S.P..

The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle

A rather incoherent post-breakup Sex Pistols "documentary", told from the point of view of Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, whose (arguable) position is that the Sex Pistols in particular and punk rock in general were an elaborate scam perpetrated by him in order to make "a million pounds."

Gangsta Rap: The Glockumentary

The hardest group you've never heard of is back. Gangsta Rap is a mockumentary based on a group of over the hill gangster rappers (circa NWA), trying to make a comeback. Its a hilarious look at the soft underbelly of hard core hip hop.

D.O.A.

Documentary chronicaling the rise and fall of the punk movement with rare interview footage of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen. Also concert and news footage.

Blank Generation

Nada, a beautiful French journalist on assignment in New York, records the life and work of an up and coming punk rock star, Billy. Soon she enters into a volatile relationship with him and must decide whether to continue with it, or return to her lover, a fellow journalist trying to track down the elusive Andy Warhol.

Bob and the Monster

Six years in the making, this documentary film follows outspoken indie-rock hero Bob Forrest, through his life-threatening struggle with addiction, to his transformation into one of the most influential and controversial drug counselors in the US today. BOB AND THE MONSTER crafts contemporary footage, animation and compelling interviews with archival performances and personal videos from Bob's past to reveal the complex layers of this troubled, but hopeful soul. Testimony from his peers, including Courtney Love, Anthony Kiedis and Flea add texture, but it's the depth of Bob's music, interwoven throughout the film, that illuminates this unforgettable and inspirational story.

What We Do Is Secret

The true-life story of Darby Crash, who became an L.A. punk icon with his band The Germs. Along with Lorna Doom, Pat Smear, and Don Bolles, Darby Crash completely transformed the L.A. punk scene, while sacrificing everyone he loved, his career, and ultimately his life.

The Runnin' Kind

As next in line to take over his father's law firm, Ohio rich kid Joey's life is all planned out. But a chance encounter with a gorgeous, free-spirited female rock drummer inspires Joey to chuck his plans and move to Los Angeles, where he hooks up with an all-girl rock band and learns the ins and outs of the L.A. music underground.

Rude Boy

Rude Boy is a semi-documentary, part character study, part 'rockumentary', featuring a British punk band, The Clash. The script includes the story of a fictional fan juxtposed with actual public events of the day, including political demonstrations and Clash concerts.

Oi for England

In the Moss Side, Manchester "race riots" of 1981 a struggling punk band are tempted by a sinister entrepreneur to perform at a major gig in support of British extreme Right political organizations.

Girls in Bands at the BBC

Compilation celebrating some guitar band performances at the BBC that feature some of the best female musicians in rock. Beginning with the oft-forgotten American group Fanny performing You're the One, it's a journey along rock's spectrum from the 1970s to now. The selection includes the powerful vocals of Elkie Brooks on Vinegar Joe's Proud to Be a Honky Woman, the mesmerising poetry of Patti Smith's Horses and the upbeat energy of the Go-Go's on We Got the Beat. Mighty basslines come courtesy of Tina Weymouth on Psycho Killer and Kim Gordon on Sugar Kane, whilst we trace the line of indie rock from the Au Pairs through Lush, Elastica and Garbage to current band Savages.

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