The House of the Rising Punk

"This documentary on the early days of the New York punk rock scene, produced as part of the German television series Pop Odyssee, has been given a belated release on North American DVD. The House of the Rising Punk has been transferred to disc in its original full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and looks good, though the quality of the archival footage included in the documentary is somewhat variable. The audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Stereo and the fidelity is fine, though like the visuals the archival material sometimes suffers in comparison to the new footage. The interviews are in English, with no multiple language options; burned-in subtitles in German appear during some sequences but not throughout. No bonus materials have been added for this release and the program runs just under an hour; the film is reasonably well done and fans of the New York punk scene will enjoy the new interviews, but for the most part this isn't likely to tell folks familiar with the era anything they don't already know."