SLC Punk!

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SLC Punk! (1998) is a film directed by James Merendino; the title's SLC is an acronym for Salt Lake City. The movie is about a young punk, Stevo, an anarchist (in the sense of advocating chaos) in the mid 1980s.

The story is based on real characters, though embellished to some extent. Many events in the movie, including party scenes, drug-crazed characters, and others are allegedly based on real events, although these may have been exaggerated.

1 Plot
- 1.1 Salt Lake City
- 1.2 Relevance
2 Cast
3 Ratings
4 Technical
5 External links

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Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film outlines the daily lives of the seemingly only two punks in Salt Lake City, Stevo (who also narrates) and Heroin Bob (Stevo's best friend who, ironically, is afraid of all forms of drugs). The film is shot in documentary style, with constant soliloquies by Stevo. At a wild party, Stevo's life changes when Bob dies from an accidental drug overdose on alcohol and percodan. Stevo decides to finally take his father's persistent advice to attend law school.

Stevo is commonly thought to be based on Stephen Egerton, who played for the Salt Lake punk band The Urban Posers, and eventually joined the L.A. band The Descendents. Egerton never became a lawyer.

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Salt Lake City

The entire film was shot on location in Salt Lake City, Utah, with numerous scenes taking place in locally well-known areas:

Stevo's high school, which he calls "North High", is actually West High School and is near downtown Salt Lake City.

The scene wherein Heroin Bob chastises Stevo for being wasted takes place atop "University Circle" at the University of Utah.

Stevo introduces the "poseurs" in a scene shot in the Crossroads mall.

Stevo and his girlfriend's acid dropping scene is shot at Memory Grove Park, a World War I memorial park.

Many exterior street scenes occur just north of the Frank E. Moss Federal Courthouse in the downtown area.

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Relevance

The film includes many introspective looks at perceptions of anarchy and related schools of thought, while also exploring the punk subculture and lifestyle. It also echoes of many other stories of oppression and coming of age, allowing many people who are not familiar with the culture to relate to the context of the film.

SLC Punk! can also be considered a contributor to the early-2000s increase of interest in punk rock culture and fashion, despite the film's inherent messages about said culture and fashion.

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