As someone who lived through the original punk era (late 1970's) as a teenager myself, I was looking forward to this reworking of punk as it appeared in the 1990's. I thought it may be reflective of this second wave of teenage nihilism and rebellion. Sadly, it wasn't.
I know the real story of what happened in Amarillo and the outcome for those involved (no spoilers from me). But, truth of the matter is, as the film progressed, it became more and more like this was just The Magnificent Seven with Mohican haircuts. Except, unlike that classic western/Japanese story, the characters herein are not developed in a way which makes the viewer care all that much about what happens to them.
For sure Dave Davis as Brian does an excellent job as the central protagonist but he's the only one with any chops in this movie. The remainder of the cast spend most of the film shouting loud obscenities, (badly) pretending to be drunk and swivel-eyed 'look at me, I'm so different' fakery. This was repeated over and over again in more or less each scene to the point where, as other reviewers here have commented, you could skip from minute 10 to minute 118 and not miss anything of any importance. It is very monochrome in that regard.
All that said, it's a 6 out of 10 film for me. This film would have worked much better had it been cut to an hour maximum. It needed to focus on Dave Davis' Brian more. It needed more of his family background, how and why he became a punk (when punk had been dead 20 years by this time anyway) and it needed to just tell the story without forcing sentimentality in our faces.
I know the real story of what happened in Amarillo and the outcome for those involved (no spoilers from me). But, truth of the matter is, as the film progressed, it became more and more like this was just The Magnificent Seven with Mohican haircuts. Except, unlike that classic western/Japanese story, the characters herein are not developed in a way which makes the viewer care all that much about what happens to them.
For sure Dave Davis as Brian does an excellent job as the central protagonist but he's the only one with any chops in this movie. The remainder of the cast spend most of the film shouting loud obscenities, (badly) pretending to be drunk and swivel-eyed 'look at me, I'm so different' fakery. This was repeated over and over again in more or less each scene to the point where, as other reviewers here have commented, you could skip from minute 10 to minute 118 and not miss anything of any importance. It is very monochrome in that regard.
All that said, it's a 6 out of 10 film for me. This film would have worked much better had it been cut to an hour maximum. It needed to focus on Dave Davis' Brian more. It needed more of his family background, how and why he became a punk (when punk had been dead 20 years by this time anyway) and it needed to just tell the story without forcing sentimentality in our faces.