Punk the Capital: Building a Sound Movement Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Punk the Capital: Building a Sound Movement Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 17, 2021

There are probably untold millions of people from every possible spectrum of American politics who consider most of the "professionals" in Washington, D.C. to be unrepentant punks, but aside from sidebars including people like someone named Ronald Reagan or something like that, Punk the Capital deals with the weighty issues of people's lives not through the prism of policy, but provocative music and lyrics. Punk the Capital: Building a Sound Movement does in fact kinda sorta get political in a way as it discusses the perceived difficulty of even starting a "punk movement" in the staid, some might say fetid, environment of our nation's capital.

Punk the Capital: Building a Sound Movement takes a more or less chronological look at its subject, beginning in the late seventies as the Jimmy Carter era was giving way to the Reagan presidency. The "upstart" nascent punks are documented, and while some talking heads, like Henry Rollins, will probably be easily recognizable to a lot of people even if they're not particular fans of punk, there are a host of other interview subjects who most likely won't be that well known, but who offer an "up close and personal" assessment of what it was like to be on the "cutting edge" of music (and, maybe, fashion) back in the day.

There is some smart editing in this piece, which is frankly unabashedly comic at times, with the often rude young punks contrasted with "upright" folks supposedly running the government. The band Bad Brains comes in for some extended screen time, and other interview subjects include Cynthia Connolly, Jello Biafra, and Joe Keithley.

Punk the Capital: Building a Sound Movement Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Punk the Capital: Building a Sound Movement is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of PTC International and Passion River with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080i transfer in a variety of aspect ratios, but with the contemporary interviews segments in 1.78:1. This came to me as a BD-R, which is how I'm assuming retail copies will also ship, and aside from actual video quality issues, I had some playback issues as well which I'm mentioning in case anyone else encounters them. The disc absolutely refused to even load on one of my standalone players, and while it loaded on another one, it encountered significant freezing every few seconds, sometimes returning to playback after a moment, but also on occasion staying "stuck" until I fast forwarded or chapter skipped ahead. The disc seemed to do better in my PC drive, where it played back without incident. In terms of the actual video quality, there's the typical variance in clarity and detail levels that frequently accompanies documentaries culled from so many different sources. The contemporary interview segments fare a good deal better than some of the archival video, with at least decent detail levels. A lot of the presentation seems overly bright, with anemic contrast, including a lot of the contemporary interview material.

Punk the Capital: Building a Sound Movement Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Maybe we're all being "punk'd" by a Blu-ray release about punk music that only features lossy audio, but this disc features Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 mixes. Those choices probably suffice perfectly well for all of the talking head and voiceover material, which admittedly is the bulk of this enterprise, but there is a lot of music on tap here, albeit often used as interstitials or virtual "underscore" (if a punk tune can be considered "under" anything), and lossless audio would have arguably noticeably increased the energy of those aspects. Optional subtitles in a variety of languages are available.

Punk the Capital: Building a Sound Movement Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

All of the following supplements are billed as "From the Punk the Capital Archives", and offer unseen or extended interviews and vignettes with various people and/or bands.

• Void and Friends (HD; 11:26)


• Scream Meets the Hangmen (HD; 15:42)


• The Slickee Boys (HD; 11:28)


• The Seminal WGBT Concert (HD; 10:04)

Punk the Capital: Building a Sound Movement Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Punk the Capital: Building a Sound Movement is a freewheeling and often acerbic look at a "culture" that was kind of anti-culture in a way, leading to an almost inherent irony. There is a ton of fantastic archival video in this piece, some of which is admittedly in very ragged condition, but which serves as arguably important "fly on the wall" documentation of a chaotic but epochal time. A lot of the contemporary interview segments are fascinating and at times quite funny. There are some technical issues I encountered with this BD-R, and the fact that it only features lossy audio may disappoint some music fans, for those who are considering a purchase.