Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows FanStore News Showtimes

American Hardcore

Play trailer Poster for American Hardcore R Released Jan 20, 2006 1h 40m Documentary History Drama Music Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
72% Tomatometer 60 Reviews 78% Popcornmeter 25,000+ Ratings
Filmmaker Paul Rachman recalls the 1980s American punk-rock movement. The retrospective features interviews and performance footage with such bands as Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Bad Brains, Jerry's Kids, Gang Green, Poison Idea, Flipper and SS Decontrol.
Watch on Fandango at Home Buy Now

Where to Watch

American Hardcore

American Hardcore

What to Know

Critics Consensus

American Hardcore is an informative and highly entertaining look at the heyday of punk in the early 1980s.

Read Critics Reviews

Critics Reviews

View All (60) Critics Reviews
Michael Senft Arizona Republic ... an enjoyable if incomplete nostalgia trip. Rated: 3.5/5 Dec 7, 2006 Full Review Marc Savlov Austin Chronicle Crammed with grainy, shot-on-the-fly mid-Eighties video footage, recent interviews, and a genuine love for its subject, American Hardcore encapsulates a largely forgotten moment in maximum rock & roll history. Rated: 3/4 Nov 17, 2006 Full Review Dan DeLuca Philadelphia Inquirer American Hardcore, Paul Rachman's impressively thorough documentary, tells of the second-generation punk rockers who learned from the Sex Pistols and Ramones and then did their DIY thing. Rated: 3/4 Nov 10, 2006 Full Review Cole Smithey ColeSmithey.com For a documentary ostensibly about the history of the hardcore punk music movement that reigned in America during the '80s, director Paul Rachman and writer Steven Blush indefensibly omit the genre's most talented and high-profile band (The Dead Kennedys) Rated: C- Apr 26, 2009 Full Review Joe Lozito Big Picture Big Sound Rated: 3/4 Jul 14, 2007 Full Review Matthew Smith Film Journal International Struggles under the weight of its own ambition. Mar 1, 2007 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (620) audience reviews
StephenPaul C The greatest 01 hour: and 40 minutes with real footage from 1980s concerts playing punk rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 06/26/23 Full Review Audience Member Being someone who spend time in the hardcore punk scene in the late 90s and early 2000's I was obviously very excited to see this documentary. As the documentary will show you this music scene is more than just a music genre, but a full fledged culture and family. Things have obviously changed a bit since the eighties, but there is still that sense of family in the scene today. American Hardcore is more of a history lesson from some of the pioneers than a full fledged documentary about the entire scene. I though the movie was going to really show the full scope of not only the beginnings of hardcore and punk but also show how it has evolved over the years. This documentary really lacks overall though. It is good to see a movie even made about the subject, especially for someone who is not that familiar with the music and wants to learn about it. But for a lifelong fan of the music who already knows a lot of the history, I found it to honestly be a little boring. I think an updated version of this movie would be better suited, why stop in the eighties ? Hardcore and punk are still really strong today in cities across America. You can bring the entire thing together and end the movie in present time. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review Audience Member this documentary is absolutely amazing Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Pretty interesting if you grew up listening to this stuff. The movement was going on before my time but I grew up listening to punk and hardcore and a few of these bands were still around when I was going to shows. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Audience Member I highly recommend this to any fans of hardcore Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member Less the story of the whole scene than it is the story of the closet racist, spoiled suburban brat Ian MacKaye's Minor Threat, with some ode to Bad Brains. not even mentioned are the Dead Kennedys, Bad Religion, the Adolescents, etc. a real let down. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews
American Hardcore

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

Cocaine Cowboys 71% 79% Cocaine Cowboys Watchlist CSNY: Deja Vu 68% 71% CSNY: Deja Vu Watchlist Festival Express 96% 85% Festival Express Watchlist Joy Division 100% 92% Joy Division Watchlist Korengal 87% 64% Korengal Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis Filmmaker Paul Rachman recalls the 1980s American punk-rock movement. The retrospective features interviews and performance footage with such bands as Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Bad Brains, Jerry's Kids, Gang Green, Poison Idea, Flipper and SS Decontrol.
Director
Paul Rachman
Producer
Paul Rachman, Steven Blush
Screenwriter
Steven Blush
Production Co
EnVision Films
Rating
R (Sex and Drug References|Pervasive Language)
Genre
Documentary, History, Drama, Music
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jan 20, 2006, Original
Rerelease Date (Theaters)
Sep 22, 2006
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 16, 2012
Box Office (Gross USA)
$278.8K
Runtime
1h 40m
Most Popular at Home Now