CHARMS OF `HARDCORE' FALL ON DEAF EARS.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

Nostalgia eventually catches up with everybody.

But while it may sound ironic -- maybe even a little pathetic -- to hear the most rebellious of punk rockers wax fond about the old days, the documentary ``American Hardcore'' makes a persuasive case for looking back.

Hardcore punk, to distinguish it from the more listenable strains, was a direct reaction to the new conservative establishment ushered in by Ronald Reagan's 1980 election. Mainstream rock had been toothlessly decadent for nearly a decade, most of the significant punk fury came from faraway England or was too jokey, like the Ramones, and young guys who didn't fit in their suburban teenage wastelands just had to share their frustrations.

So bands such as Black Flag and the Minutemen came spewing out of Southern California. Somewhat more erudite outfits -- Bad Brains, Minor Threat -- led the fertile D.C. scene. There were vital thrashing, stage-diving scenes in Boston, Austin and Vancouver, among many other places, that are also lovingly examined by director Paul Rachman, a music video veteran who was there throughout hardcore's brief run.

Death wish did it in

The movement, never very big to begin with, expired due to its own, built-in death wish -- what started as a ``fun'' tendency of fans to throw punches while dancing degenerated into mindless concert violence -- by 1985. But Rachman, with the aid of former promoter-turned-writer Steven Blush, shows us how idealistic and bizarrely positive the movement's underpinnings were.

In interview after interview with a surprisingly lucid and witty gaggle of veterans (and how many music docs can that be said about?), we're told how they truly viewed themselves as the last cultural insurgents in a time of soulless conformity. Many of the bands rejected the drugs-and-drunkenness lifestyle other rockers and even punkers celebrated. And they sure weren't in it for the money. Tour accommodations were often the apartment floors of local bands, venues were basements and abandoned businesses, records were labeled and shipped by hand. Violence or not, hardcore probably would've died anyway when these guys reached the age when they had to make a decent living.

Unintelligible cacophony

Not incidentally, the music sounded pretty awful. Rachman doesn't pussyfoot around that inarguable fact; most of the concert footage in the film was shot with early consumer video technology and poor sound. That renders most of the music into an indistinguishable mash of speed guitar chords and unintelligibly shouted lyrics.

Which is, of course, aesthetically apt. And probably just as well. Some of us have always wondered why these talent-challenged wonders were making this noise when truly inspired punk bands such as L.A.'s X were actually creating art. The answer, which ``American Hardcore'' quite effectively argues, is that DIY, damn-notions-of-quality radicalism is itself a vital creative expression. And even if this movie is mainly for the aging fans who dug the scene at the time, almost anyone who's had enough of the purposeless, processed pop that passes for entertainment today will nod their heads in emphatic agreement with what the film says -- when you're not covering your ears, anyway.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

[e-mail]

AMERICAN HARDCORE - Three stars

(R: violence, language)

Director: Paul Rachman.

Running time: 1 hr. 40 min.

Playing: Nuart, West L.A.; University Town Center 6, Irvine.

In a nutshell: Documentary about hardcore punk rock music is funny, informative and noisy.

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Crowd-surfing, anyone? The documentary ``American Hardcore'' charts the ear-splitting history of hardcore punk rock music.