The Ramones are one of those bands you either love or you hate. If you hate them, you mock them for their gimmicky unified look and assumed surname, or the fact that their lyrics are ridiculously cartoony or how most their songs consist of the same three regulation barr chords. But if you love them, you fall absolutely head over heels in love with every piece of work they ever did (even the morbidly overproduced Phil Spector comeback vehicle "End of the Century", the album from where this documentary gets its name), regardless of anything any critic could say.
Well, you all know me well enough to know which side I belong in.
This documentary attempts to show us the band as it truly was-- "warts and all". As Eddie Vedder says in their Rockn'roll Hall of Fame induction speech (y'know, when he's not embarrassing himself with the lousy jokes about doing yard work for Johnny Ramone), this is a band that absolutely obliterated the mystique of what it meant to be in a rockn'roll group. They toured constantly from 1974 to 1996, maintaining their hardcore integrity and spirit as the songs only got louder and faster as the years went by. They were what every punk rock band after them aspired to be-- loud, fast and poignant. Inside every simplistic lyric there was the voice of every single outcast in the world who couldn't get a break. Inside every furious down-strum there was the soul of true rebellion against conformity. Against oppression and against boredom. These were four regular guys from New York who just wanted to "have something to do".
And the documentary captures it all. Four people with everything against them-- radio won't play them, MTV won't have them, their relationships were quickly falling apart-- and stuck together because of their passionate love for rockn'roll. The movie starts in New York and tells the story of the formation of the group, with very brief individual members' biographies, mainly focusing on Joey's troubled childhood. Then it shows us the band evolve from local garage band status to earning a cult fan following to full-blown soccer stadium success in places like England, Argentina and Japan-- but never in the US. The documentary shows the frustration of these people and their determination to just keep on playing.
I thought what was most interesting about it was how through brief interview clips the documentary really made you feel like you knew every single member of the band personally. There was Tommy, the original drummer and the brains behind the whole operation; Johnny, the cold-hearted, close-minded right-wing control freak (a true Republican); Dee Dee, the funny, lovable but sadly tragic figure of drug addiction; CJ, the "rookie who can't believe he's playing with the Beatles"; Marky, the second drummer and probably the most likable, "normal" member of the lot; Richie, the third drummer with a grudge; and Joey, who comes off as the most human of them all-- a true rockn'roll hero who was also riddled by insecurity, shyness and had a true kind and caring spirit. All these different personalities blended into the entity known as Ramones.
Another brilliant aspect of the documentary is the way in which you really CARE about the people as people, not just musicians. The Clash documentary, "Westway to the World", made the mistake of treating each member of the Clash as just instruments as opposed to real people-- except for Joe Strummer, possibly, who also appears here in various interview clips talking about the Ramones and what they meant for modern music. But when they tell us the story behind the tension between Johnny and Joey, we feel Joey's pain. When Johnny says he didn't wanna talk to Joey even after finding out he was dying a slow and painful cancer death, we feel nothing but disdain for him. In fact, Johnny pretty much becomes the film's "villain" in the second half of it, and when in his Rockn'roll Hall of Fame acceptance speech he says "God bless President Bush and God bless America", you genuinely want to slap him. Joey, a left-wing liberal Jew, would've been spinning in his grave.
The one thing I kind of disliked about the film was how they just rushed through the band's late years. One minute they're talking about Dee Dee leaving the group and next thing you know it's seven years later, with brief or no mention of the albums that were released during that period. I also feel Richie Ramone could've been given a little more screen time as he was an important member of the band at one point.
All in all, an awesome buy if you're: a) a fan of the Ramones b) a fan of punk rock music c) a fan of rock music in general d) a fan of rock documentaries
Well, you all know me well enough to know which side I belong in.
This documentary attempts to show us the band as it truly was-- "warts and all". As Eddie Vedder says in their Rockn'roll Hall of Fame induction speech (y'know, when he's not embarrassing himself with the lousy jokes about doing yard work for Johnny Ramone), this is a band that absolutely obliterated the mystique of what it meant to be in a rockn'roll group. They toured constantly from 1974 to 1996, maintaining their hardcore integrity and spirit as the songs only got louder and faster as the years went by. They were what every punk rock band after them aspired to be-- loud, fast and poignant. Inside every simplistic lyric there was the voice of every single outcast in the world who couldn't get a break. Inside every furious down-strum there was the soul of true rebellion against conformity. Against oppression and against boredom. These were four regular guys from New York who just wanted to "have something to do".
And the documentary captures it all. Four people with everything against them-- radio won't play them, MTV won't have them, their relationships were quickly falling apart-- and stuck together because of their passionate love for rockn'roll. The movie starts in New York and tells the story of the formation of the group, with very brief individual members' biographies, mainly focusing on Joey's troubled childhood. Then it shows us the band evolve from local garage band status to earning a cult fan following to full-blown soccer stadium success in places like England, Argentina and Japan-- but never in the US. The documentary shows the frustration of these people and their determination to just keep on playing.
I thought what was most interesting about it was how through brief interview clips the documentary really made you feel like you knew every single member of the band personally. There was Tommy, the original drummer and the brains behind the whole operation; Johnny, the cold-hearted, close-minded right-wing control freak (a true Republican); Dee Dee, the funny, lovable but sadly tragic figure of drug addiction; CJ, the "rookie who can't believe he's playing with the Beatles"; Marky, the second drummer and probably the most likable, "normal" member of the lot; Richie, the third drummer with a grudge; and Joey, who comes off as the most human of them all-- a true rockn'roll hero who was also riddled by insecurity, shyness and had a true kind and caring spirit. All these different personalities blended into the entity known as Ramones.
Another brilliant aspect of the documentary is the way in which you really CARE about the people as people, not just musicians. The Clash documentary, "Westway to the World", made the mistake of treating each member of the Clash as just instruments as opposed to real people-- except for Joe Strummer, possibly, who also appears here in various interview clips talking about the Ramones and what they meant for modern music. But when they tell us the story behind the tension between Johnny and Joey, we feel Joey's pain. When Johnny says he didn't wanna talk to Joey even after finding out he was dying a slow and painful cancer death, we feel nothing but disdain for him. In fact, Johnny pretty much becomes the film's "villain" in the second half of it, and when in his Rockn'roll Hall of Fame acceptance speech he says "God bless President Bush and God bless America", you genuinely want to slap him. Joey, a left-wing liberal Jew, would've been spinning in his grave.
The one thing I kind of disliked about the film was how they just rushed through the band's late years. One minute they're talking about Dee Dee leaving the group and next thing you know it's seven years later, with brief or no mention of the albums that were released during that period. I also feel Richie Ramone could've been given a little more screen time as he was an important member of the band at one point.
All in all, an awesome buy if you're: a) a fan of the Ramones b) a fan of punk rock music c) a fan of rock music in general d) a fan of rock documentaries