Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal years

3 is very good, but it doesn’t focus quite so much on L.A.’s music scene, though several punk bands are featured. Spheeris took a larger view of the “gutter punk” lifestyle of homeless kids in the city. It’s moving and sometimes sad, but set on a different frequency than the first two films.

 

It seems to have a more serious and sad tone than the previous, right?

 

Absolutely.

 

I didnt know there was a part 3. I will have to check it out. Looks to be less about music though.

 

Decline ...II is overrated but it's the best we've got, I suppose. A bunch of unknowns with a few metal stars. Nobody else stepped up to the plate to make a better documentary.

I watched Decline I in the early 90s and remember it to be more informative, at least for me.

Didn't even know Odin was in Pt. II. Their guitarist has been in Jon Bush's Armored Saint for decades. Odin should've been a 1-hit wonder. Although the album title probably killed then, this song ain't bad:

 

3 was barely released to theaters, though I remember a brief run in Manhattan. It wasn’t released to home video at all until Shout Factory put together the Decline box set. Penelope Spheeris couldn’t get a distribution deal unless she signed over the rights to the first two movies, which she wisely refused to do.

 

To put things in perspective, somebody should make a follow-up : "The Rap Years"

 

Unusual for me, but some heavy metal videos I’ve stumbled across posted in odd random places, I’ve enjoyed a lot and I’ve been watching and listening to them. I had only heard some of it in passing and seen some hair metal videos on mtv and maybe vh1 in the past, but bought no heavy metal albums.

 

Amen..highly neglected on the forum but I only know some of it but really enjoyed what I heard.

 

Stupidity is a part of metal's charm.

 

As a musician who played in rock/metal bands from '82-'91, this is an accurate documentary.

 

I remember seeing that interview way back when. It's interesting that he couldn't come up with his own bevy of attractive girls.

 

As much as I like the first two Western Civilization movies, both of them depicted a scene (punk and metal, respectively) after it had already peaked and was on a downward slide. An L.A. punk documentary made in 1977 or an L.A. metal documentary shot in 1983 might have looked differently.

 

Who would be in a 1977 LA Punk doc? The Germs, maybe Panic, and a few strays?

 

Weirdos, Dickies, maybe the Dils, Black Randy, TSOL, Screamers, Angry Samoans??
i think the first movie was actually filmed at least partially in 78 or 79

 

Just looked it up, and most of it was filmed in '79-'80. IIRC, most of the key LA bands hadn't formed or progressed beyond rehearsals until 1978 (including TSOL).

 

Just watched this now as I read through this thread, and the movie is a terrible representation of 'metal'. The extremely myopic presentation of the LA metal scene is laughable. I thought the editing was disjointed and nonsensical - why the schtick with Ozzy's breakfast? That whole scene was an obvious set up, and in no way a documentary of reality. The same with frisking of the kids for 'metal' paraphernalia or whatever that was supposed to be.

The dance contest was a waste of film, again in no way representative of metal. The sound effects used sporadically through the movie would have been fitting in ann 80s era sit-com or teenage comedy, but seemed completely out of place in an alleged 'documentary'. The nonsense with Paul Stanley's interview, the insignificance of anything Gene Simmons contrubuted, just a waste of time.

The only person who had anything of interest to add was Lemmy, and he was treated with very little respect by Spheeris.

I think Part 1 was fairly interesting, but this is a total mess and a waste of time.

 

Never a metal fan of any sort, but in retrospect I have had to admit that hair metal kept rock and roll alive in the mainstream through a very slick and synthy 80s. My son, who still dabbles in all things metawl, recently linked me to a Poison song that he rightly pointed out could have passed for power pop with different lyrics and minus the forced "outrageousness" of the video.

The 80s, of course, was the beginning of the monetization of all things and everything was about Making It, meaning, Making a Ton of Money. The poor kids in The Metal Years were children of their time and, for all their foolishness and vulgarity, I have nothing but pity and sorrow for them now.