AllMovie

While the American punk rock revolution started on the East Coast in the mid-'70s, by 1978 California boasted once of the most interesting and important punk scenes in the world, spawning a number of great bands who would change the shape of underground rock & roll and blaze the trails for the independent music community of the '80s and '90s. Rage: 20 Years of Punk Rock West Coast Style is a documentary that offers a brief but telling glimpse of the formative days of California punk, with film clips of important early bands such as the Germs, the Screamers, and the Weirdos and interviews with important scene figures who discuss the long journey of California punk from an outcast artists community to a sound co-opted by the mainstream record industry in the wake of the multi-platinum success of Green Day. Interview subjects include Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys, Keith Morris of the Circle Jerks and Black Flag, Don Bolles of the Germs, Jack Grisham of TSOL, and Harold Bronson of Rhino Records.