Barnes & Noble

Punk rock, as we know it, probably wouldn't sound the same had it not been for Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee, and Tommy. Other bands like the Stooges, New York Dolls, and the MC5 may have come before, but the Ramones' distilled approach -- three chords played at breakneck speed, with an attitude as loud as the amps -- served as a blueprint for the bands that followed, from the Sex Pistols to Green Day. There are a hundred movies you could make about the Ramones: Who, for instance, wouldn’t want to see one solely about the infamous clashes with gun-loving producer Phil Spector during the making of their 1981 album End of the Century? But Jim Fields and Michael Gramaglia take the documentary route, summing up the band's 30-year career and legacy with appropriate intensity. They draw fascinating stories from just about everyone ever involved in the band, including the four original Ramones; subsequent members Marky, C.J., and Richie; punk journalist Legs McNeil; Sire Records founder Seymour Stein; Clash frontman Joe Strummer; Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Clem Burke; Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore; and others. (The DVD offers additional interview footage.) The film is at its best when covering the early years, when the band’s youthful energy and us-against-the-world attitude was fresh, and when drummer Tommy Ramone was producing the first four albums, all essential. The second half is the story we hear again and again in rock docs: infighting, drug addition, desperate stabs at commercial appeal, and untimely death (Tommy is the only living original member). Still, with the band’s cooperation, Fields and Gramaglia manage to make this more than your average episode of Behind the Music, and anyone who thinks they know all there is know about punk shouldn't say so until they've seen this. Bill Pearis

All Movie Guide

Filmmaker Michael Gramaglia's years-in-the-making biography of the legendary punk band the Ramones entitled End of the Century traces nearly all the various and sundry peaks and valleys which the seminal rockers experienced over the course of its 20-plus year career before disbanding in 1995. Beginning with the band's first concert performances in the mid-'70s, Gramaglia explores the eccentric and highly volatile band members -- in all the various line-ups that were presented over the years -- as the Ramones slowly gained fame for their high energy and high-tempo style of music that would later influence generations of punk rockers around the world. Mixing archival interviews with new interviews of the various surviving bandmembers, as well as interviews with a number of the Ramones' contemporaries, End of the Century encapsulates the East Coast underground music atmosphere of the 1970s and '80s that the band inadvertently shocked into existence. Ryan Shriver

Product Details

• UPC: 603497039920
• Source: RHINO / WEA
• Aspect Ratio: Alternate Wide Screen (1.78:1)
• Presentation: Letterbox
• Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English
• Time: 2:30:00
• Sales Rank: 19,461

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