This post contains all the spoilers and discusses the movie with the assumption that you've seen it. It's not so much a review but more an analysis and commentary on the ideas presented in the film. You can watch the trailer at the bottom of this post. This film is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
The Credits
Suburbia (1984) is written and directed by Penelope Spheeris, and stars Bill Coyne, Chris Pedersen, Jennifer Clay, Timothy Eric O'Brien, Wade Walston (bassist of U.S. Bombs) and Flea (bassist from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, credited as Mike B. the Flea). This is not to confused with Richard Linklater's SubUrbia (1996), which is an unrelated film.
The Plot
Evan(Coyne) runs away from home due to emotional abuse by his alcoholic mother. He winds up at a punk show where D.I. is playing. He meets Jack (Pederdon), who brings him back to the T.R. (the Rejected) house outside Los Angeles, where a number of runaway punk teens are squatting. It is located in an abandoned development, bought by the county, presumably evicting the original tenants due to some kind of environmental contamination.The otherwise empty neighborhood is overrun by wild dogs who kill a young toddler early in the film.The TR kids also include Sheila (Clay), who has scars on her back from her abusive father. She is kind of dating Joe Schmoe (Walston) who is upset that he lives with his gay father, which is really a silly reason to run away from home. Skinner (O'Brien) is the skinhead in the group, which is a pretty unoriginal name. It's kind of odd that a skinhead would be hanging with this group rather than with other skinheads. Razzle (Flea) is the animal lover, taking in a rat and two wild dogs as is pets. There are about 10 in total. Evan's younger brother Ethan (who appears to be around 8 or 9 years old) joins them after their mother is arrested for drunk driving.
The T.R. teens sustain themselves by raiding refrigerators in unlocked garages. They are increasingly seen as a nuisance in the neighborhood as they get blamed for fights that others pick with them. Sheila kills herself with an intentional heroin overdose. The teens get in a fight at her funeral when Joe Schmoe confronts her father with accusations of sexual assault against his deceased daughter.
Jack's stepfather is a cop who tries to warn them to leave the house before vigilantes escalate the conflicts into deadly violence. They decide to stand up for themselves and fight off two men who arrive with guns. The men drive away but suddenly return ramming their car full speed into the teens, killing Ethan as he sits on his big wheel. The film ends with the sound of police sirens approaching.
Thoughts on the Film
In the 80s, most film and television representations of punks depicted them as violent criminals, often completely separated from the music scene. While Spheeris still depicted them as lower class vandals, she also manages to show them as real people, damaged youth who find each other through the punk music scene. I grew up in the punk scene. It saved me. I didn't relate to kids in my school but made a ton of new friends when I discovered the punk and hardcore scenes. We would watch this film at parties. Some punks may have acted more like this, but I was more aligned with the political types.
The film is kind of problematic as some of these kids come off as racist and homophobic. Joe runs away because he is disgusted that his father is gay. Jack doesn't like that his stepdad is a cop but is most upset that his stepdad is black. Jack is the leader of the group yet he seems to have the best home life. For a cop, his stepdad is awful nice. He even gave Jack his old car. He seems more worried about him than anything else. Maybe he could be a little more aggressive even. If he knows they're likely to be violently confronted, why not do a little more than plead for them to leave the property on which they are trespassing? If anything Jack takes advantage of his stepdad's kindness.
Evan and Ethan have troubled home lives in comparison. They probably would end up in foster homes after their mother goes to jail. Skinner claims to be a product of the fostering system. Sheila has the worst home life depicted. She has scars on her back and confides to Joe that her father raped her.
The film features actual Southern California punk bands D.I., T.S.O.L. and The Vandals. The T.R. kids go to see each of these bands throughout the film. I wasn't around in 1984 but I certainly never saw anyone stand around at a punk show while people stripped a girl's clothes off her. This scene is disturbing, as it's meant to be. But perhaps it does make a statement about the historically testosterone heavy mostly male makeup of not just the punk scene, but the metal and hardcore scenes as well. That it took a female director to actually depict the punk scene says something. Male directors seemed to focus even more on violent rage. Of course a lot of teens are driven to this scene exactly because of the aggressive elements in the music itself.
This film is very 80s in its themes of questioning the suburban American dream, as the growth eventually led to economic collapse and decay. Environmental contamination is mentioned many times in the form of acid rain and mutations. Not addressed but well within the thoughts of the time are the fear of nuclear war ending the world as we know it. These are the children who grew up in a "suburban utopia" without the wonderful life they saw on television. They didn't see much promise of a better future and so embraced the destruction as seen in their choice of music and fashion.
There are certainly many who had it worse. These are the white kids from the suburbs. But they are the throwaways, the rejected ones who made their own family together.
This trailer is the property of New World Pictures.
