Documentary Review

Recently I bought "End Of The Century: The Story Of The Ramones" from someone on amazon.com. Today my copy arrived and I just recently finished watching the movie. End Of The Century is a documentary by Jim Fields and Michael Gramaglia, and according to their imdb profiles, it is the first film that either of them has made. The movie chronicles the whole history of the band from being kids in Queens, to the deaths of Joey and Dee Dee. Through this all, the filmmakers manage to get interviews with Johnny, Dee Dee, Tommy, Marky, members of Blondie, Legs Mcneil, and Joe Strummer, who along with Dee Dee died before the movie was even released. The interviews with Dee Dee are particularly interesting because of this. The whole time I was watching I was speculating that he had shot (not pun intended) the interview while high on heroin, though his weird speech paterns could just be the way he talked. The interviews with Johnny are also great too, because he comes across as such an unsympathetic cocky guy, but in a loveable way. During his interviews, Johnny calls Dee Dee's ex-girlfriend un-flattering names, claims everyone in the band was replaceable but him, labels numerous bands as inferior, and states he basically wouldn't talk with Joey, from the early 80's, up until his death (keep in mind for the majority of this time period, the two were in a band together!). One part that stands out is Johnny talking about Phil Spector. Johnny said when the band worked with Phil, he considered him a washed up producer who hadn't made a hit record in 15 years. He criticsizes Phil's job as a producer, and claimed Phil was nuts, at one time pulling a gun on the band.

The movie also utilisizes a large amount of archive footage compiled of the band from over the years. Some of it is very funny, such as the band arguing during a performance about what song they should play, and Johnny making fun of Blondie.

While the movie kind of skimmed over a lot of the albums the band made, it presented a pretty thorough history over all. Though the ending is abrupt, stating Dee Dee died of a heroin overdose two monthes after the footage was shot, and then rolling the credits along to Rock 'n roll Radio. During the credits though, one of the best parts of the whole film is shown. In a deleted scene from Johnny's interview, he asked what he thinks about the Ramones album "Mondo Bizzaro" too which he replies "I don't like it. I don't like it at all."