“You’ve been changing so much lately I don’t even know who you are anymore”

My brother told me this today, and it almost killed me. In his eyes, I knew this change was positive, but I am a person prone to inertia so this really bothered me. Why change when everything was fine before?

This made me reflect on all the changes I made in the short period of my existence. In middle school I went straight from the punk phase with the pink hair to the gothic phase with black lipstick (I still regret having both). One thing that hasn’t changed though is my taste in music.

During this rebellious phase I saw a movie that I found so striking (although not as much now). It is entitled SLC Punk! and it is about two punk fans in Salt Lake City, Utah. While the movie gives insight into the lives of two friends, Stevo and Bob, it also is a perfect example of different cultures in Utah in the 1980s. The film was based on the writer/director’s experience growing up in Salt Lake City, and introduces different groups present at the time (although I think there as a bit of exaggeration): there are the punks, Nazis (skinheads), rednecks, heavy metal guys, and other cliques. I think the clothing of the movie is also a way the movie preserves a culture, because it distinguishes between each group. Attitudes were reflected in clothing, and I could easily tell each group apart. The movie appealed to me at the time because it was edgy and it focused mainly on the punk clique. Now I am more interested in the way the characters change as the movie progressed.

The character Stevo is based on the director’s life, and this movie is an attempt to highlight his experience growing up. He says of the film, “…during this period there was the constant threat of nuclear war…parents were always talking about how the world could be destroyed. There was no hope, no future.” This hopelessness is reflected in the attitude of the punks, and how they put no thought into their future.

Also in the movie were landmark sites in Salt Lake City. Although I only discovered this when researching the movie I found it interesting because by using such well-known sites the director is showing that punk culture was not just an underground trend during this time. Using landmarks also introduces a New Yorker like me into the culture of a place I normally wouldn’t care about.

The movie narrates the story of two friends, but it does so in a manner that encapsulates the ideology of the punk culture, and its tensions between other groups. It is quite intriguing. The punks fought with the Nazis and they in turn fought with the metal heads. Punks were the rebellious ones and treated the corporate world with disdain.

The protagonist, Stevo is accepted to Harvard Law School but rejects the offer because he does not want to become a sell out like his father. At a party, his best friend Bob has a headache and is given medicine, which he consumes with alcohol. It was so sad how this ends up killing him. It is ironic because he is the one character in the movie that avoids drugs. When Bob dies, Stevo has a complete breakdown. He then pulls his life together and goes to Harvard, admitting in the end that he was just another poser.

The ending was by far the best part of the movie. The film depicts a time many people have forgotten and an area many are not too familiar with and thus immortalizes this area in time. The hopeful attitude towards the end left me feeling optimistic for the future, and it made me wonder if I was also a mere poser. Like Stevo, my old self would totally want to kick my ass right now, but that’s ok because things are getting better. We can document the past, but after that there is no point to remaining in it.

Citation:

http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/slcpunk/production.html