With its arresting fashion style, incendiary antics, and violent flame-outs, it is no wonder that the punk scene has managed to leave indelible claw-marks on the face of film history. Let us take a look at how punk music and its scenesters have influenced cinema.
Of course, there are the documentaries which look at punk musicians themselves. These would include The Great American Swindle, which doubles as account and self-promotion for seminal punk band The Sex Pistols. If you prefer more of a retrospective account, try The Filth and the Fury. For something from the other side of the pond (and giving information on multiple bands), check out the first part of Penelope Spheen’s trilogy The Decline of Western Civilization. This movie is about L.A. punk bands.
Narrative films have also featured the punk scene. Sid and Nancy, starring Gary Oldman as the eponymous bassist, depicts the lead-up to the even that surely led to the implosion of the first wave of British punk. There is also the film What We Do Is Secret, which is about a much more obscure band called The Germs. (Incidentally, they were featured in Spheen’s movie, and their vocalist died shortly after filming on it wrapped).
However, punk is also about form, not just content. It may be argued that some of these movies “about” punk also represent punk artists selling out or being anti-punk, just from the fact of making movies promoting themselves. Punk is also an approach—one that can form a movie as well as a song. One such movie is Derek Jarman’s 1978 horror show (get the Clockwork Orange reference, droogs, since that film has some punk elements in it, too?) Jubilee. This was made on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II’s jubilee, and can be called the filmic twin of the Sex Pistols’ infamous barge incident. It shows the first Queen Elizabeth transported to a dystopian near-future Britain. The movie both celebrates and sends up punk—which is itself very punk, since the punk spirit is both aggressive and self-destructive.
We have already discussed punk’s influence on movies in terms of theme, approach, and subject matter. But what about punk’s contribution in terms of personnel? Are there famous actors who are or were part of the punk scene?
Actually, there are, though you might never guess it to look at the persons concerned now. One of the most famous is Elizabeth Hurley, a British actress and model known for her elegant bearing and past relationship to—of all people for an ex-punk to get together with—Hugh Grant. For a younger example, we may look to up-and-coming actress Katie McGrath. After going through a stage in her life when she sported the bright, deliberately outrageous hairstyles of the punk scene, she suddenly switched to a more gothic look: long, dark hair and pale skin. On TV, she plays Morgana (Morgan Le Fay) in a show based on Arthurian legend. A dark princess: how Goth! McGrath’s change from punk to medieval Goth “looks” amusingly mirrors the development of alternative music. After all, Goth did evolve from the post-punk movement.