Film Review – The Damned: Don’t You Wish That We Were Dead
The Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Ramones have all had their documentaries and The Damned were just as vital as any of those bands so it’s their time to for them to become the subject of a feature-length doc. The Damned’s chaotic career ranged from garage punks to psych-punk to eventual goth punk along with countless break-ups and a revolving door of members but have always had lead singer Dave Vanian. Director Wes Orshoski previously made the brilliantly funny documentary on Motorhead’s lead singer Lemmy who is featured again here because he was a short-lived member of The Damned.
The documentary has criticised by some as too American for such a British band and I think that’s there is a point there but at the same time it’s the interpretation by a filmmaker on the band’s history who happens to be a Yank. There is a lot of footage of them on recent American tours for obvious logistic reasons but the film used a vast array of archive footage from early days to the most recent tours and was shot in a many countries over the last 4 years. The film focuses on the initial punk explosion which their classic album Damned Damned Damned came out of, their comeback and possibly finest record Machine Gun Etiquette, their commercial success and eventually break up in the mid to late 80s and the revitalised line-up featuring original members Dave Vanian and the Anarchist comedian Captain Sensible.
Some hardcore fans will be disappointed by the lack of mention for their proto-indie pop classic Strawberries and fleeting mention of their psych-goth classic The Black Album (an obvious pun of the Beatles’ White Album) but the film is full of humour and insightful interviews with current members to ex-members. Captain Sensible comes out a wanker but in the most charming way and openly admits it “I can’t stop myself, I’m an asshole.” but all the current members and ex-members come out as flawed individuals. It’s however not some therapy session like that notorious Metallica documentary, it’s a celebration of one of most innovative daring bands to come out of the initial ’76/’77 punk explosion.
For a band who have split up at least 3 times on the top of my head they are stilling going strong and remain one of the few original British punk bands who have kept their sense of humour. They have an arsenal of songs that rivals any of their contemporaries and are still a blast to see live. The documentary is certainly a DIY job, it was mostly filmed by the director himself Wes Orshoski who put up his own money to fund it. It does suffer from a focus on their most famous eras and does drag a bit during the last 30 minutes and could have probably used a tighter edit but nevermind the Sex Pistols, here’s The Damned.
[rating=4]
Ian Schultz
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