SLC PUNK!

'''SLC Punk!''' (1998) is an independent film directed by James Merendino; ''SLC'' is an acronym for Salt Lake City. The movie is about a young punk called Stevo (although his license shows his real name to be Steven Levy), who is an "anarchist" (in the sense of advocating chaos, with no relation to actual anarcho-punk culture) in the mid 1980s.
The story is based on real characters; many events in the movie, including party scenes, drug-crazed characters, and others are allegedly based on real events, although these may have been exaggerated.

Contents

Plot

Salt Lake City

The Tribes

Cast

Soundtrack

External links

Plot

The film outlines the daily lives of the seemingly only two punks in Salt Lake City, Stevo, who narrates the film from a distant future, and Heroin Bob, his best friend. The nickname is ironic since Bob is scared of needles and actually believes that any scheduled drug is inherently dangerous. The film is shot in documentary style with frequent soliloquies by Stevo. Steve-o and Bob, along with the rest of their friends, were once Dungeons & Dragons nerds who listened to Rush and John Denver; it is revealed toward the end of the film that Bob was the one who introduced anarchy and punk rock into their lives. Despite this, it is Steve-o who always claims that Bob is a poseur. Bob eventually falls in love with Trish, a girl who runs a bong shop, and his father is revealed to be insane. Rich kid Steve-o, despite trying not to care, mangaes to receive great grades throughout high school and college (where he studied pre-law). His father sends an application to Harvard and Steve-o is accepted; he nevertheless rejects it because of his beliefs. He casually dates a girl named Sandy and becomes angry when she sees others people. Throughout the movie, Steve-o becomes more and more depressed as several of his friends leave for a better life outside Salt Lake and as he finds out an old classmate from highschool is now homeless. At a party, Trish and Bob set Steve-o up with a rich girl Brandy with whom Steve-o is immediately taken. She is one of several people throughout the movie who help him realize his path in life; Brandy, herself a normal person without a label, asks Steve-o why he tries so hard to be rebellious. The day after the same wild party, Stevo's life changes when he discovers that Bob has died from an accidental drug overdose on alcohol and percodan that he took the night before for a head ache (it's noted as ironic because the first time ever Bob voluntarily takes drugs it does prove fatal, as he always believed). At Bob's funeral, Stevo is seen with a shaved head, whereas previously his hair was died bright blue, and he reveals he has decided to take his father's persistent advice to attend law school.
The film is interesting in that no distinguishable timeline is given for the events leading up to the climax. The key events could have taken place over a matter of days, months, or even a few years. Flashback scenes are plentiful, sometimes with flashbacks containing flashbacks, and the only references to the time are the date given at the beginning (1985) and Stevo's reference to Bob's release from the hospital as the start of the "Fall of Hate." The movie is driven by characters and not plot developments. Also, the narration is told from Steve-o's point of view in the future. The future Steven is insinuted to be successful and actually married to Brandy, the girl he met at the party where Bob overdosed. He says that if himself from then could see himself now, his past self would kick his future self's ass.
The character of Stevo is based on the life of writer/director James Merendino, so the movie is semi-autobiographical, although he is named after Stephen Egerton, originally known as Stephen O'Rielly, or ''Steve-o'' who played for the Salt Lake punk band Massacre Guys and eventually joined the L.A. bands Descendents and ALL.

Salt Lake City

The entire film was shot on location in Salt Lake City, Utah, because the directors wanted the title to coincide with the location. Numerous scenes took place in locally well-known areas:

★ Stevo's high school, which he calls "Southeast High", is actually West High School and is near downtown Salt Lake City.

★ The scene wherein Heroin Bob chastises Stevo for being wasted takes place atop "Presidents Circle" at the University of Utah.

★ Stevo introduces the "posers" and gives his "Who Started Punk Rock?" speech at the Cottonwood mall.

★ Stevo and his girlfriend drop acid at Memory Grove Park, a World War I memorial park.

★ Many exterior street scenes occur just north of the Frank E. Moss Federal Courthouse in the downtown area.

★ The band portraying ECP at the SLC Indian Center is 8 Bucks Experiment.

★ The scenes depicting Heroin Bob's Funeral were shot inside and outside The Cathedral of the Madeleine. The cathedral is located just east of downtown Salt Lake City.

The Tribes

The film has several cliques known as "tribes" in the film. The film focuses primarily on the Punk tribe, but mentions and features several other tribes as well:

★ Punks: Punk rockers. Stevo, Bob, and Mike belong to this tribe, although Mike doesn't dress the part. The Punks are the traditional rivals of the Mods, but also dislike the Nazis and the rednecks.

★ Mods: Mods wear suits and ties and they ride scooters. They're generally the rivals of the Punks, but the character John the Mod acts as a diplomat that "freely moves between the tribes." In the beginning of the movie, they're trying to buy acid from Sean.

★ Rednecks: Rednecks are rural Utah folk who wear blue jeans and flannel and drive around in big trucks. Punks dislike them for their conservative values.

★ Nazis: Nazis are Neo-Nazi skinheads who wear pseudo-military fatigues and Nazi armbands. Punks and Mods are shown to be predatory towards the Nazis.

★ The Heavy Metal Guys: Rocker types with long hair and flannel. Not much else is known about them, except that Stevo explains that Nazis were predatory towards them.

★ New Wavers : People who dressed like New Romantics and are said to be the least threatening of the tribes. Described as being "the new hippies."

Cast

★ Matthew Lillard as Stevo

★ Michael A. Goorjian as Heroin Bob

★ Annabeth Gish as Trish

★ Jennifer Lien as Sandy

★ Christopher McDonald as Stevo's dad

★ Devon Sawa as Sean

★ Jason Segel as Mike

★ Adam Pascal as Eddie

★ Til Schweiger as Mark

★ James Duval as John the Mod

★ Summer Phoenix as Brandy

★ Chiara Barzini as Jennifer

★ Kevin Breznahan as Chris

★ Christina Karras as Jamie

★ Russell Peacock as Jones

Soundtrack

# "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" – The Suicide Machines (originally performed by Lynn Anderson)
# "Sex And Violence" – The Exploited
# "I Love Livin' In The City" – Fear
# "1969" – The Stooges
# "Gangsters" – The Specials
# "Cretin Hop" – Ramones
# "Dreaming" – Blondie
# "Kiss Me Deadly" – Generation X
# "Rock N' Roll" – The Velvet Underground
# "Gasoline" – Moondogg
# "Mirror in the Bathroom" – Fifi (originally performed by The English Beat)
# "Amoeba" – The Adolescents
# "Kill the Poor" – Dead Kennedys
# "Look Back and Laugh" – Minor Threat

External links

★ Official website

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★ ''SLC Punk!'' and the Finer Points of Anarchism by Alexander S. Peak