Born to Lose

This is the documentary about one of rock history's biggest legends - Johnny Thunders. The man who together with the band New York Dolls paved the way for punk in USA. Here we follow Thunder's career from the breakthrough in the beginning of the 70's to the downfall in the 80's and his premature death in 1991. The concert footage is plentiful, just like the interviews with people from his surroundings. Born to Lose shows the dark side of the usually glamorous rock scene. Dee Dee Ramone talks of the musician and colleague, the big sister of the family member, the prisoner of the hero, the club-owner of the crook, and the producer of the drug user. Concert footage is mixed with interviews. There are plenty of people who have met Thunders, and just as plenty are the comments. Five minutes into the film the first junkie appears, and this slightly tragic fact then runs right through the film. You can say much, but a stronger and more naked image of a rock legend is probably difficult to create. Soon it becomes obvious that the drugs were just as big a part of his life as the music itself. Since the material to a great extent consists of archive footage, the feeling of authenticity is even stronger. Shaky and grainy images from dressing-rooms where Thunders prepares a fix, mixed with interviews with producers high on drugs and junkie ex-girlfriends, create a gloomy as well as emotionally charged and frank image of the dirty backyards of the American rock scene. Born to Lose is a film that tries to lay bare and explain why drugs came to become so important in the American rock- and punkworld. Punk is about provocation, about discussion. It's about anger, animosity and destruction - and with that thought in mind it is not strange that some of the messengers themselves ''caved in''.