This Week in Cinema (10.23.06)
The Host and American Hardcore
By Beth Capper
Published: October 25th, 2006 | 6:49pm
While George Bush and the current administration seem intent on moving the “War on Terror” in the direction of North Korea, Hollywood should be directing its cinematic rivalry toward South Korea.
Joon-Ho Bong’s The Host, (Gwoemul) is currently touring the film festivals around America, and is receiving critical acclaim all over. It’s a straight-up monster movie revolving around a genetically mutated fish of startling proportions. It opens with an American research scientist directing his Korean assistant to pour a highly volatile and hazardous chemical down the drain and out through the sewer systems into Korea’s Han River (featuring a hilarious panning shot showing just how many bottles got poured out).
From there on, the rest of the film follows Park-Kang-du and his assorted dysfunctional family members, who group together when his daughter Park-Hyun-seo gets captured by the creature. The Host is in equal measures a satirical comedy and a family drama, as well as delivering all the shocks and suspense of a good monster movie. The acting is excellent and the characters are clearly drawn, each with their own intricate quirks, while the monster scenes recall old B-movies and are all the better for it. Although The Host has received a fairly limited cinematic release this time around, it seems destined for another run. However, if there is a film festival coming to a city near you, I highly recommend that you see this film.
As a subject for a music documentary, ‘80s American Hardcore hardly seems like an original topic. Paul Rachman’s originally titled American Hardcore, however, still serves to be the first mainstream documentary about the scene, with past attempts generally failing to shoot beyond the trappings of indie distribution and low budgets.
Bringing together all the likely suspects — including Black Flag’s Henry Rollins, Minor Threat’s Ian MacKaye, Bad Brains’ H.R. Hudson, and Minutemen’s Mike Watt, as well as some less likely ones, such as the members of Boston’s SS Decontrol, John Joseph, lead singer of NYC street punk band Cro-Mags and Flipper’s Bruce Loose — American Hardcore offers a comprehensive look at the scene, the players, the places and the irascible music from this politically charged movement. The only glaring historical omission is Rachman’s decision to leave out the Dead Kennedys, although it seems hardly surprising considering the band is no longer on speaking terms.
American Hardcore is a conventional slice of documentary film-making, interspersing live footage with interviews to delineate the historical route of hardcore, from its inception in 1979 through to its demise in the late-‘80s, taking each state as the scene spread regionally throughout America and into Canada. The most interesting reflection, which serves to move Rachman’s film away from previously covered ground, is the inclusion of queer hardcore with bands like MDC (whose incarnations include Millions of Dead Cops, More Dead Cops, Millions of Dead Children, Multi Death Corporations, Millions of Damn Christians and Missile Destroyed Civilization) and the Dicks in what was a very masculine, and often a very homophobic scene. While American Hardcore as a music movement undoubtedly had its problems, this film serves as a reminder of how inspirational the underground can be.
Issue #35
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