DVD-R Hell: "Rock: It's Your Decision"

6/6/2011

A stirring portrayal of teenage conflict over music!!

Faust

2/21/2014 04:32:47 pm

I LOVE this episode. Mostly because of how well Brad manages to point out the many, many issues while not actually bashing Christianity. The fact is, I used to be a kid just like Jeff and thankfully, I recovered. So maybe Jeff didn't hang himself Brad--by the way, I think Lloyd has some of the best timing I have ever seen in anyone, cat or human.

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9/20/2023 08:00:03 am

"Rock: It's Your Decision" has gained a cult following over the years, largely because of its unintentional humor and extreme depiction of the dangers of rock music. It has been featured on the internet series "DVD-R Hell," where the host, Brad Jones, reviews and comments on obscure and often low-quality films.

Justin link

2/25/2014 04:07:27 am

This does seem more depressing to sit through than those two other films you saw, at least with Salo and a Serbian Film they were depressing and hard to watch to be considered "Art" (does air quotes). This was meant to change people's lives in the same way as the character of Jeff in the film. P.S. thank you for being an ally to the gay community, Brad. :)

Faust

2/25/2014 05:36:42 pm

Ally might be a strong word. Maybe friend or 'not-enemy'? I don't agree or disagree with the gay community--I can take it or leave it. However, I CAN say that using homosexuality in a manner that is essentially a scare tactic is wrong. I don't know what Brad means here, and maybe he IS a supporter of the gay community, but people can be indifferent to the thing, but still acknowledge its wrong.

Not trying to pick a fight, I swear! ^^;

cara

2/27/2014 07:45:22 am

Well his mom is gay, so I think Brad would be a supporter of the gay community

Justin

3/3/2014 06:38:48 am

Well I'm glad you don't want to pick a fight, thank you. :) But I stick with the word "Ally." it does mean to join yourself with another group in order to give support, but that doesn't mean Brad is any less of a man for giving support like that or he loses his heterosexuality for being supportive. If anything, I think the term "Gay friendly," is what we can both agree on. :) - Thanks for your respectful response.

Andre R.

3/7/2014 02:45:26 pm

Brad, when you said a song mentioned in this was about death and not the Devil, it got me to thinking. According to Judeo-Christian belief the "Devil" or "Satan" (or all the other names he uses) is the opposite of God and rules over "Hell", the opposite of Heaven. And they do NOT like each other, to say the least. As for Death, I'm a comic book geek and I usually think of Death (or the "Grim Reaper") as a tall cloaked skelteton who sometimes carries a scyth. In Marvel Comics, Death is one of the many abstract entities who exists in the multiverse, and in the primary 616 universe also assumes a female form. And in the MU, there is no one being who identifies as the "Devil", either. There are numerous demons like Lucifer, Mephisto, and Satannish who rule over "realms of Hell", but none of them identify as the "Devil" of traditional Judeo-Christain belief.

Also, in the Castlevania video game series, the classic Dracula character from literature is the primary villian who actually outranks Death and uses "him" as a sub-boss in several games in the series. As James Rolfe put it in his AVGN Castlevania restrospective "Even Death himself takes orders from Dracula". I wonder why they did that!

I know this has nothing to do with religious propaganda, but I thought I would contribute this anyway. Death, Dracula, and the Devil. Triple D for the win!

Ben

3/31/2014 09:09:33 am

Actually, Christianity doesn't hold the devil to be God's "opposite" or to rule in hell; this is mostly folk-belief and religious pop culture that draws a lot from the Divine Comedy (aka Dante's Inferno) and Milton's Paradise Lost.
The Bible itself says very little about the devil and hell.

Ben

3/31/2014 09:12:44 am

I'm not religious, by the way, in case someone assumed I had a revisionist agenda in the previous post. :P
I should probably also clarify that I don't simply assume that all versions of Christianity necessarily fall in with biblical canon; folk-religion is still religion, to put it that way.

Sue

8/13/2014 02:15:26 pm

Ben is absolutely right. The bible never really mentions Satan (devil) or hell. The snake in the garden of Eden (commonly known to be Staten) is actually just called deceiver in Hebrew and has been translated into the word Satan when the bible was first changed to Latin. There is no mention of hell, only a pit where "Lucifer" lives, who is often described as a deceiver but nothing more, which has sometimes been changed Satan or devil.

Ancient Hebrews (people that the First Testament is about) and modern Jews, for the most part, do not believe that there is a hell and that disobeying God will send you there upon your death. That idea was created during one of the first incarnations of the Catholic Church.

Most of modern Christianity (basically anyone who believes in the bible besides Jews) on the other hand believe in the Devil fervently. He is often and unabashedly used as a scare tactic to keep children and teenagers from "straying for the flock" (being influenced by the outside world). Adults also take him to be a threatening figure. Someone who is trying to trick them out of their get into heaven card. There are small groups of Christians (and I mean small like 15 to 18%) who do not believe in Satan, but they are thought to have been tricked by the devil into believing that by the others.

I was raised in as a Christian and I have a degree in religious studies. The amount of things that Christians believe that have fuck all to do with what their religion teaches is mind blowing.

Sue

8/13/2014 02:23:38 pm

Oh, I should specify that its about 15-18% of churches that teach the devil isn't real, not people who believe he isn't. That number is probably way higher.

Jon

10/7/2014 10:13:36 am

I generally agree with Ben on many of the points here and elsewhere. Thought thought maybe a little tweaking, as well as addressing an over-looked point in Andre R' comment.

The concept of "the devil" isn't Judeo-Christian, it's Christian. Judaism doesn't have a devil. While the idea of the devil in Christianity has its roots in 2nd Temple Period Judaism and the literature of that time, the idea of a fallen angel named Satan, or the Devil does not exist in Judaism and only was maintained within the Christian tradition. The term "Satan" is used in the Jewish Tanakh (what [Protestant] Christians call the Old Testament), this figure is not a fallen angel or an enemy of God.

Next point, the serpent in Genesis is never identified in the Jewish Bible as the devil, it's simply identified as a serpent, a snake. While 2nd Temple Period literature does at one or two points identify the serpent with a devil figure (most prominently the apocryphal Life of Adam and Eve), this identification is not made in Judaism. But the identification is made, albeit somewhat vaguely, in the Christian New Testament.

Archaic English language translations like the King James Version translated a number of Hebrew and Greek words into "Hell". One being the Hebrew She'ol, meaning "the grave" which is rendered as "Hades" in the Greek of the New Testament. Likewise Hades is translated as "Hell", along with the "bad side" of Hades, called Gehenna. She'ol/Hades, in the time of Jesus, was simply understood as the common place of the dead, the underworld, and there was a place for the righteous dead (Paradise or Gan-Eden) and a place of the wicked dead (Gehenna or Ge-Hinnom). A temporal place of waiting until the future resurrection and final judgment. In modern popular imagination these, Paradise and Gehenna, have become construed as "Heaven and Hell", though that's clearly not the contextual meaning.

The word "Lucifer" is never a name given to the devil in the Bible. It is a Latin word meaning "light-bringer", usually poetically to describe the planet Venus as the "day star" or "morning star". In fact in the Latin translation of the New Testament Jesus Himself is called "lucifer", that is, "morning star". But due to a rather odd quirk in early English language Bible translations (again, like the King James Version) rather than translating the Hebrew to English directly as one would expect, in one specific instance the Latin text's use of "lucifer" is retained in an epithet spoken by Isaiah against the king of Babylon (who was not the devil). And due to somewhat creative interpretation this has led to "Lucifer" being treated as a or even THE name of the devil.

Most of these things are fairly easy to look up (because my mere say-so is hardly authoritative). For example one can find online versions of the Vulgata (the Latin translation of the Bible) to verify that Jesus is called "lucifer" in 2 Peter 1:19, or look up an old Latin Easter hymn known as the Exsultet which in its final stanza reads "Flammas eius lúcifer matutínus invéniat: ille, inquam, lúcifer, qui nescit occásum. Christus Fílius tuus," the "lucifer" here is Jesus.

Etc.

Anonymoose

5/5/2015 08:08:25 am

The Castlevania example is because it was made by the Japanese.

You know how writers like to steal aspects of foreign cultures and beliefs to make stuff 'mystic' and 'otherworldly'? It's the same damn thing, except this time around WE'RE the foreigners with the funny stupid beliefs that got stolen and used by someone with no understanding of it's greater context.

Seppo

3/19/2014 01:51:53 am

So, the makers of "Rock: It's your decision" haven't heard of White Metal?

Also don't they understand the difference between AC/DC and Norwegian Black Metal? You know, music that actually is satanic?

de_game0ver

5/22/2014 04:08:33 am

can't tell if troll or really stupid...

Mason

3/25/2015 07:18:01 am

The only black metal album that would have been out in 1982 would be Venom's second album. Scandinavia didn't really get started until the mid 1980s, and I doubt they would have had any wide release at that time.
The church burning "Black Metal Inner Circle" scene would be a full decade after this movie was made.

Alex

3/28/2014 06:57:04 pm

I know it's rather missing the point, but Jeff would've hanged himself.

Senna4ever

4/21/2014 07:41:58 am

The music featured in this reminds me of what Hank Hill said about Christian Rock: You're not making God sound good, you're making rock music sound bad.

I fail to understand the "facts" a lot of Christians make about hell.
So in hell we get sex, drugs and rock n; roll.
What is the downside here?

Beary

8/13/2015 02:15:07 am

you have to share your sex, drugs and rock with WBC.

Jamie

4/26/2014 08:22:37 pm

WOW, if you change the camera aesthetic and the mood and lengh of the film then this could be an adaptation of the Nine Inch Nails album The Downward Spiral. All Jeff would need to do at the end of the film is attempt to kill himself and then it could be the next best rock opera adaptation since The Wall

Jamie

4/26/2014 08:24:48 pm

By the way, Do take the "Attempt to kill himself" part the wrong way. I was merely referring to the ending track of the album.

Capt.Grindhouse

6/23/2014 08:47:36 am

Hey Brad,
Re-watched this video for quite a many time and it's still
Fucking funny!!!

If the little shit in this film Listened to Cradle of Filth,His head would Literally Fucking Blow up!!!!

Still a Great Video....

LAV-Type G

7/22/2014 09:22:04 am

Finally saw this, and I have one thing to say. "Oh, he said "Rock: It", not "Rocket"! I just mean every time Brad talks about this video, he rushes together the first two words so fast it sounds like it's saying "Rockets your decision", which conjures up some bizarre self-help seminar.

Tehtrekd

8/17/2014 08:02:21 am

I'm actually somewhat convinced that this IS a propaganda film in reverse like you said.

I've seen some crazy Christian propaganda before, but this really seems totally off from what I'd expect.

lordstevie

9/23/2014 05:25:13 am

Whean he discover heavy metal his head will explode. I wanna punch these pepole in the face

CJK

12/18/2014 07:31:06 am

I'm going to do the unpopular thing and defend this film.

Even if you want to throw out all religious angles, Rock music is without question highly subversive which is the main point the film tries to make. The people who produce and market it are hostile to the traditional people and culture of the West. Again, even ignoring lyrics the beat/rhythm of rock like all beats/rhythms in history promotes a certain mindset, and unstable mindset, which people can legitimately view as destructive.

So you don't have to believe Satan is behind it all to understand why many people would be against Rock.

John

11/28/2017 07:52:56 am

" you don't have to believe Satan is behind it all to understand why many people would be against Rock" THey are morons. Complete and total morons.

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3/3/2015 04:20:54 pm

This just makes me miss when kids still listened to rock music.

kaputnik

3/18/2015 08:20:00 pm

Easily one of the best reviews Brad's ever done.

Jamie

4/6/2015 12:33:52 am

This is the worst remake of The Manchurian Candidate I have ever seen.

Anonymoose

5/5/2015 08:42:27 am

Congratulations, you posted the only comment to this review that actually made me laugh.

Annoyed Robot

8/17/2015 06:21:46 am

I've got the perfect tagline for this film: "Rock: It's Your Decision, but if you choose Rock, we're going to take away your right to have a choice."

Fab the Adventurer

10/30/2015 11:18:28 am

I just can't help Brad's comment that this is reverse propaganda to detract religious people from their religion or make them seen like brainwashed dumbasses who really just want to find ways to judge people. I do know people who think like that of religious people. I just find it impossible for people to be sooo unsuccessful at getting their point across. What you guys think?

RandyPan

11/7/2015 07:30:23 pm

The way you react to the guy calling out homosexuals at the end is exactly how I feel about people who use the expression "raped my childhood", because I've known people who were molested as children.

Michael AR

2/1/2016 08:16:29 pm

Goddamn. That was terrible. I wonder what happened to the actors that were in this. I wonder if the guy that played Jeff, if his career was in any way affected negatively by being in this completely inaccurate and really stupid piece of shit. Well, if life were fair, it most certainly would have been, and he would have never gotten any more work and would have probably OD'ed in an alley at some point. Christ, the ignorance and lack of reality in this really pissed me off. (the Lloyd cameo at the end made me smile, though.)

Adam

3/28/2016 11:35:35 am

Well, I listened to a lot of black metal in my youth, that is REAL satanic music (well, sort of...) and I turned up just fine. Point is, if you are a stupid idiot, then you are a stupid idiot, no amuont of music can change that either way.
BTW, no mentioning Slayer in this? I know it was new thing back then, but Slayer at least fits way better as "occultic rock band" than fucking Rolling Stones...

Isabella

8/20/2016 06:47:53 pm

Speaking of musicians and homosexuality, what would Fred think about the Japanese electropop duo access because they do pretty homoerotic stuff?

Alex

1/10/2017 11:32:00 am

Jeff reminds me of Trumptards who boycott anything anti Trump and pro liberal. What a weenie snowflake. He needs his AR White safe space.

Isabella

10/14/2017 03:54:12 pm

"Rock N Roll bad. Rock N Roll steal your soul!" - Granny; Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, 2006

Chantel

3/21/2019 03:28:17 pm

When I read the title, I thought it was going to be about crack.

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Oh man, diving into DVD-R Hell: "Rock: It's Your Decision" is like unearthing a gloriously bizarre time capsule!

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It's up to you—watch the movie first or check out Cinema Snob's review beforehand.

DVD-R Hell: "Rock: It's Your Decision"

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