Godspeed You! Black Emperor, 1976 - ★★★★
REVIEWED
Viewed as part of my *Beware the Docs of March Marathon 1.Legendary cult b&w documentary following the rise in rebellious youth bikers in 70's Tokyo, Japan. Its still fascinating close to 40 years later.
Not perfect (captured far too much home life and just sitting around for me), and one the cool movie hipsters have overrated (you know the types who daringly see Eraserhead and let you know about it), but 'Godspeed You! Black Emperor' aka 'Goddo supiido yuu! Burakku emparaa' still ranks as one of the most interesting film documents on a youth movement, thats ever been made. It packs enough energy and cool to fill 10 docs. Visually its extremely gritty very new wave cinema feeling, best segments are just watching the teens riding around, or being shy chatting with or about girls. My favorite segment was when one of the boys bought a new bike for the first time, a fun scene with bonkers j-music.
Theres some truly amazing b&w photography used as well, like the sight of a lone bike in-front of a lights flashing police car or the various goofy kids sporting penned on swastikas (I'm all for rebellion, so long as it washes off for my studies or office job tomorrow).
* I did make one rule with my doc theme month, not to list anything I'd seen previously, though I'd seen segments of this before (hard not to have done being a fan of the band GSYB, I was bound to be interested how they got their name). But I'd not previously seen it in its entireity, honest l; )
Originally taken from Letterboxd
REVIEWED
"I didn't quit school, I've never been to school."
A juvenile delinquent
Not perfect (captured far too much home life and just sitting around for me), and one the cool movie hipsters have overrated (you know the types who daringly see Eraserhead and let you know about it), but 'Godspeed You! Black Emperor' aka 'Goddo supiido yuu! Burakku emparaa' still ranks as one of the most interesting film documents on a youth movement, thats ever been made. It packs enough energy and cool to fill 10 docs. Visually its extremely gritty very new wave cinema feeling, best segments are just watching the teens riding around, or being shy chatting with or about girls. My favorite segment was when one of the boys bought a new bike for the first time, a fun scene with bonkers j-music.
Theres some truly amazing b&w photography used as well, like the sight of a lone bike in-front of a lights flashing police car or the various goofy kids sporting penned on swastikas (I'm all for rebellion, so long as it washes off for my studies or office job tomorrow).
* I did make one rule with my doc theme month, not to list anything I'd seen previously, though I'd seen segments of this before (hard not to have done being a fan of the band GSYB, I was bound to be interested how they got their name). But I'd not previously seen it in its entireity, honest l; )
Originally taken from Letterboxd
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