Can You Dig It?

We search for the spirit of rebellion in rock movies

In The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle, arch self-publicist Malcolm McLaren sets out his 10-step programme on how to create the perfect hype machine. "Terrorise, threaten and insult your own useless generation" he pouts. "Call all hippies boring old farts and set light to them." (optional).

As shoddy and dishonest as the film is (real punk fans avoid this one as if it were Nancy Spungen on heat) you'd have to agree it's a great pitch; but sadly, one that seems less operational with each passing year. Today's rock stars have become little more than knock-kneed corporate stooges for The Man, more interested in aligning themselves to the latest credit card promotion than in discovering what noise a TV makes when you drop it from the 24th floor of a hotel.

Two documentaries capture this tension in rock, between its remit for rebellion and its reality as a commercial monster: Dig! and Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster make their UK TV premieres on FilmFour this month. They inspired us to look back at a bunch of rock movies, in no particular order - cos we're that cool - that kept the spunk of rebellion and brio flowing (and some that didn't).

First off the blocks, A Hard Day's Night - an 85-minute pop scream, in which the 4-headed hydra called JohnPaulGeorgeAndRingo inspired abandon in 1960s teenyboppers. They might have been declaring they were Christ Almighty by 1968, but four years earlier the Beatles were behaving like Satan's own jesters. According to John Lennon, who'd later describe this period as "Satyricon", all four were shovelling in drugs during the shoot - a habit they picked up during their amphetamine-fuelled Hamburg days. "Thanks for the Purple Hearts", quipped John, when the band interrupted filming to pick up silver heart-shaped Variety Club awards.

Next page • "Dylan leers at the pathetic lad like a cuban-heeled Inquisitor with a fresh Protestant"