Early on in “Devo,” director Chris Smith’s documentary about the titular iconic band, we are given some background about their origin. Specifically, as the members of the group have said before, the band was born out of the horrors of the Kent State massacre where four students were killed and many others wounded by the Ohio National Guard during a protest against the Vietnam War on May 4, 1970.
As we see archival footage quickly give way to the band members themselves serving as the sole talking heads in the entire film, one of them remarks how this made them realize that rebellion of this kind is obsolete, a sentiment that is then echoed.