They were four reprobates from Queens, New York, playing loud, fast three-chord anthems to sniffing glue, brain surgery and vacuous popular culture. But they have ended up as punk godfathers and global superstars who, according to this fly’s-eye view of their 22-year career in glorious bubblegum rock’n’roll, were mobbed so violently by fans in Rio that the footage recalls a gonzo remake of the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night.

Minutes into this rockumentary it becomes apparent that this fab four didn’t enjoy a lifestyle anything like as glamorous as the Liverpudlian band’s. Raw revels in the seediness of on-the-road tedium and stupidity that recalls This Is Spinal Tap. The Ramones, themselves loving satirists of America’s trash culture, reflect upon their circumstances with a wry, winning wit in their trademark impenetrable New York brogue, poignantly awkward in vignettes with such celebrities as Drew Barrymore, Bono and Carly Simon.

The film succeeds chiefly thanks to the killer live footage, and the intimacy it achieves with its subjects: Joey sweetly shy; Dee Dee a loveable overload of charisma. The supplemental material is also impressive, a deep, rewarding archive of punk ephemera as befits these unrepentant kings of trash.

DVD extras Deleted scenes, concert footage, commentaries, TV appearances

Stevie Chick

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