Review of Epidemic (1987) by John M — 21 May 2010

After watching [i]Sid & Nancy [/i]I decided to drag out a very worn out copy of The [b]Decline of Western Civilization[/b], the 1981 documentary of the late 70's and early 80's LA punk scene. Directed Penelope Spheeris, [i]Decline[/i], moreso than any film, captures everything that was exciting and fresh about punk rock music. The camera is right in the middle of the pit, and you feel like just another audience member in these seedy nightclubs. But it's more than concert footage, Spheeris interviews the bands as well as journalists and the punks themselves, giving viewers an essence of what this punk thing was all about. I was too young to see any shows when this came out, but was fortunate enough two be a part of this scene in the mid 80's before it gave way to another less important wave of punk. Some of the bands featured include X, Black Flag, Fear, Circle Jerks, and the Germs. The violently self-destructive Darby Crash of the Germs makes Sid Vicious seem tame! Worth seeing if you have any interest in the American punk/hardcore scene of the early 80's.

[b]Lars Von Triers Epidemic [/b]is as strange of a picture as I've seen in a long, long time. It's an experimental horror film about a writer/director (Lars von Trier) working on a script about a horror plague. It shifts back and forth from documentary style (von Trier working on the script) to bits where the script is being acted out. It's rather difficult to watch, and I almost shut this thing off. Lars von Trier has an immense imagination and would eventually create some incredibly good films, but [i]Epidemic [/i]feels more like a film school experiment gone terribly wrong, than a fully functional film. Intriguing at times, but too haphazard to appeal to anyone but the hardest of hardcore Lars von Trier fans.