synopsis

After seeing a group of young street punks walking down Sunset Boulevard who resembled the kids on the poster for her 1983 film SUBURBIA, Penelope Spheeris was inspired to direct the third and final entry in her DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION series. Unlike the clueless subjects of DECLINE PART TWO, whose lives were devoted to sex, drugs and hairspray, these underground punks sing politically charged songs about police brutality, the negative effects of organized religion, homophobia, and women’s rights. Spheeris documents powerful performances by hardcore bands Final Conflict, Litmus Green, Naked Aggression and The Resistance, and catches up with scene veterans like Flea and the Circle Jerks’ Keith Morris for reflections on what’s changed since DECLINE PART ONE was filmed nearly 20 years prior. But Spheeris spends much less time documenting performances and more on shining a spotlight on her homeless subjects’ lives, the makeshift spaces they inhabit with their chosen families, the histories of abuse that many of them share, and the things they have to do to survive on the streets. Never before released on home video or DVD until now, this HD transfer captures the full power of Spheeris’ moving ode to punk, rebellion, and living on the edge.