Hard Core Logo

Hard Core Logo is a classic Canadian mockumentary based on the novel of the same name by author Michael Turner. Director Bruce McDonald illustrates the self-destruction of punk rock.

The film, released in 1996, documents a once-popular punk band, Hard Core Logo. The band is composed of suicidal lead singer Joe Dick (Hugh Dillon), fame-tempted guitarist Billy Talent (Callum Keith Rennie), schizophrenic bass player John Oxenberger (John Pyper-Ferguson) and drummer Pipefitter (Bernie Coulson).

Julian Ritchings plays Bucky Haight, Dick's idol. Molly Parker plays a member of the riot grrrl band Jenifur.

Several notable punk musicians, including Art Bergmann, Joey Shithead and Joey Ramone, play themselves in cameos. Canadian television personality Terry David Mulligan also has a cameo, playing a fictionalized version of himself.

Synopsis

Punk aficionados (see also Transients) can't help but see a little bit of themselves in each character.

MacDonald demonstrates the death of punk through the course of events portrayed in the film. Just as transplanting wildflowers guarantees their destruction, the desperation with which lead singer Joe Dick tries to recapture the glory days of Hard Core Logo literally kills punk. The circumstances are void of the dynamics which spawn the culture, and to keep a semblance of the spirit alive, Joe resorts to incanting the name of his role model, punk demigod, Bucky Haight. He claims that Haight has been the victim of gun violence - losing one (or both) of his legs - and gives the impetus for going on this last tour a romantic, even noble appearance.

Bucky Haight represents original punk. He did not pursue a lifestyle which showcased benchmark characteristics of the culture, but was rather an individual who lived through the formative circumstances, and was able to translate the experience into music. His alleged mutilation is Joe Dick's way of acknowledging that the original punk culture has ceased to exist.

In fact, Bucky Haight has retired to a life of comfortable solitude. He has matured past punk, and lives on a farm. He expresses anger toward Dick for claiming he has been shot. To illustrate his lack of sentiment toward the past, he gives Hard Core Logo guitarist, Billy Tallent, his famous Stratocaster, in an offhand way. It is as if, rather than passing a torch, Haight is ridding himself of rubbish, as he communicates clear disdain for Tallent when he tells him to keep the guitar. It is not a mentorship; punk is dead.

There are die hards who cannot let go of their affinity for their chaotic days within the culture. For them, the film may well be a harbinger of things to come. Their inability to adapt to the times very well may end tragically, either in suicide, or commercial franchise. It is this certainty which is picked up by MacDonald, and has made Hard Core Logo a touchstone of Generation X's obsession with itself.

MacDonald leaves the ending void of morality, which is congruent with punk culture, and allows viewers not familiar with its internal tensions to experience some of the gut emotions which foster it.

Soundtrack

Although music figures heavily in the film, a conventional soundtrack album was not initially released; instead, McDonald had several notable Canadian bands record covers of the songs in the film, and packaged them as if they were a tribute album to a real band. That album, A Tribute to Hard Core Logo, was also released in 1996. (A proper soundtrack album was released later in 1998 on Velvel Records.)

Other Trivia

A Canadian punk band of the 2000s, Billy Talent, is named for Hard Core Logo's guitarist.

Michael Turner was earlier in a band called Hard Rock Miners.

See also: SLC Punk.