Director: Todd Phillips
Starring: GG Allin, Merle Allin, Dee Dee Ramone
"The Murder Junkies ... represent a part of America that most people would rather not think about: an alienated, directionless minority that has found its voice in a punk rocker with a death wish." - Todd Phillips
"My mind is a machine gun. My body is the bullets. The audience is the target." -GG Allin
If eyes are the looking glass to one's soul, then arguably tattoos are the billboard to a man's essence. Multiple tattoos adorned GG Allin's body, but none more famous than the emblem he wore across his heart: "Live fast. Die." True to his word, shock-rocker GG Allin (real name: Kevin Michael Allin) consumed rock 'n' roll's indulgences to their fullest until the day they claimed his life. His death on July 28, 1993 - the end result of a night-long alcohol and heroin binge - should have come as little surprise to anyone who knew him. On stage, Allin repeatedly threatened suicide (as a self-proclaimed sacrifice to rock 'n' roll), scarred his body with broken glass, and attacked both audience and band members. If anything, GG's final exit was the incomparable irony: a uncharacteristically silent farewell for the world's lewdest and crudest punk rocker.
First time director Todd Phillip's film is far more than a documentary account of GG Allin and the Murder Junkies' final U.S. tour; it's an unflinching look at rock 'n' roll decadence and its ultimate results. That said, Hated is hardly a sermon against the excesses of the punk underground. It is an objective exploration of punk's admitted human anomaly: an artist with absolute contempt for his own life and limb.
GG grew up in the small backwoods town of Concord, Vermont, an unlikely birthplace of rock's most infamous stepson. It is where, according to Allin's brother (and bass player) Merle, GG "began rebelling right from the start." His teachers (among them, his music teacher) recall similarly, noting that Allin and peers were rumored drug-takers who failed to fit in Concord's somewhat "Leave It To Beaver-ish" confines. Interestingly, his former classmates (shown casually rolling and smoking a marijuana cigarette) tell a much different tale, alleging that they were the drug users and that GG was vocally anti-drug. Notably however, none recall when or where Allin developed his penchant for self-mutilation and self-destruction, the traits that would eventually earn him cult status. "I can't imagine him wanting to bleed like he does," one of them remarks, referring to GG's violent stage show. "Why beat your own head in? That's what you get married for."
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