Selling Out with SLC Punk!
Indie movie class, SLC Punk! Beyond Films (1998). Image by Nick M. W.
By R.J.F.
Growing up sucks.
One would think that a movie about punks living in Salt Lake City, Utah during the 80s wouldn’t provide some questions to ponder about life, or the American government, and even growing up, but it does. SLC Punk! is categorized as a dramedy, and rightly so, but I would say it’s more of a philosophical film. It asks the audience to think about what rebellion means and what that looks like; how the way one dresses can rightfully and wrongfully categorize someone, and what growing up does to our ideologies.
Steven “Stevo” Levy, played by Matthew Lillard, is a punk and anarchist to his core. He hates the American government, capitalism, posers, and anything else that may be seen as average. It doesn’t help that he lives in Salt Lake City, which is a town that he thinks is full of hillbillies and religious hypocrites. Stevo rages against his former hippie parents and their dead, 60s philosophies about peace and love. He and his friends, namely “Heroin” Bob, portrayed by Michael Goorjian, mosh and fight their way through town, have deep conversations that only people their age can have about life and love, and spend a lot of energy epitomizing the punk lifestyle.
Maybe one of the reasons I latched onto this film was because I saw it in the early 2000s when I was in my early 20s, around the same age as Stevo and his friends. I understood the confusion and anger of realizing that the bubble pops when you leave high school, that our government doesn’t give a shit about us, and that most people are assholes, in general. These are some of the main philosophies that Stevo rants about as he points out the fundamental flaws of our society and the people that live in it.
But, as the movie progresses and Stevo experiences love and heartbreak, joy and sorrow, immaturity and growth, he realizes that he will have to be part of the society he loathes. After the untimely death of Bob, which is seriously the saddest scene ever and makes me cry every time, he knows that he will never be the same and that he needs to let go of his former life and lifestyle. Stevo laments:
“You see life is like that. We change, that’s all. You see, the guy I am now is not the guy I was then. If the guy I was then met the guy I am now he’d beat the shit out of me. Those are the facts.”
This is true. The girl I was in my early 20s would probably roll her eyes at the woman I’ve become, think I was a total sellout, and then talk shit about me when I walked away, and I think this is true for most of us.
Although Stevo’s growing up phase happened in a matter of months, as opposed to years, he knew that he would eventually need to cut off his punk, blue hair, go to college, get a job, and give into the ideals that he hates. Sadly, that’s growing up. What SLC Punk! touches upon are the conflicting feelings we all experience as we move forward with our lives; it’s the death of lofty ideals that revolve around fighting the system and eventually giving in to the hamster wheel of life. What a fucking bummer.
You could look at SLC Punk! like it’s just some dramedy from the late 90s about these rebellious kids that are learning tough life lessons and enjoy it simply for its entertainment value, of which there is plenty. Or, you could look at it through the lens of young rebellion dying because we all eventually need to grow the fuck up.
