[.ca] Filth and the Fury: A Sex Pistols Film (Widescreen)

Never Mind Anything Here's the Sex Pistols:
Somewhere in a Snow-White-and-the-Seven-Dwarfs suburbs a soccer mom just unloaded her brood for the match after the Soccer-mom 7-3 shift at the office and now has to go home help the digital-literate Nascar dad with the dinner and hope that the kids are home and the plates are in the dishwasher in time for American Idull, only to find a friend of a friend's copy of The Filth and the Fury laying about, daring you to pop it in the player and find out what rock'n roll was meant to be about before she swoon's to another syrup drip balladeer over-singing supper club karoake standards. Maybe it would be of interest to the aspiring American consumer stereotypes that much of Simon Cowell's ubersnob delivery can be attributed to Pistol's head snarler Johnny Rotten. Their curiosity peaked, they drop it in and discover the Amercian consumer's lifestyle is under bombardment, even though the Filth's recollecting anti- establishment and chaos in the 70's. Remarkably, one of the instant revelatory moments in this film is how up to date the Pistols look compared to the ridiculously vomitous slabs of polyesteryear fashions their supposedly hip hosts were wearing during the old interview clips. What's more, this is exactly what Lydon (Rotten) hates the most about the Pistols legacy: the mall culture they so deplored finds "punk fashion" cool and watered it down to flavorless damp 4/4-time whining while doing nothing to deconstruct the world into a better place. This is also where the Pistols couldn't last. They were too messed up to fix a world they wanted to destroy. Rotten remains gloriously disgusted throughout the film often leaving your Mom and Dad (who grew up familiar with the Pistols and continously failing to understand them) wondering why he's still in it (to give bollocky pissoff to mums and dads of course). The other Pistols will continue to provide vigor towards their old antics in rollickingly funny interviews. The serious viewer will understand that Chaos was their goal and not making punk fashionable. And if the soccer mom and Nextel Cup Pops take a second or two to think about how this film and the Chaos that was the Pistols' true legacy are meant to affect them..just imagine..perhaps the world may be a little more dangerous, but it won't be boring and we won't feel cheated.

Pistols talk Sex:
An awsome documentary. The special features are all right but nothing to get giddy about. The film puts the Pistols in the context of thier times. There was a time when Super Tramp and Styx were considered rock 'n' roll. England was in ruins and the Pistols were pissed. Angry young men making desperate music that touched everyone within earshot. The Grundy interview is shown, the Queen's Jubilee boat ride, and some cartoons from the Rock 'n' Roll Swindle. An absolute must for any Pistols fan and a good choice for anyone who likes solid documentaries and wants to know more about a time of economic unstability and overt social anger.

Pistol Packing!:
'The Filth and The Fury' stands out as a much better film than Temple's original 'Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle'. The only flaw in the film is the overdubbing of album tracks over original live footage. The Pistols were very much a reaction against the prevailing social and cultural outlook of Britain at the time and Temple does his best to transport us there through splicing clips of riots in Northern Ireland and London with TV commercials of that era. Although many people would deny any influence, 'The Fury' does share similiar qualities in form with Guy Debord's movie 'The Society of the Spectacle'. Along with montage images of political unrest and everyday consumerism, there's also the use of Shakesperian characters as narrators to the story. Orson Welles' Macbeth in 'The Spectacle' and Lawrence Olivier's Richard III in 'The Fury'. The best parts of the film are when various establishment figures e.g. city councilers and vicars, start to raging against the Pistols and the punk movement. From our vantage point it's difficult to see how some people could become so enraged over a rock group. Punk attitude today is almost a prerequisite for becoming a successful rock act. Another irony looking back from now is how ultimately contemporary the Pistols look. Almost conventional compared to the large hair and trousers they had to contend with. Which just goes to show how in terms of attitude and fashion, the Pistols were completely ahead of their time.

Get down and dirty:
It's not immediately apparent where Punk stands in historical terms. There were only a handful of great bands, the music was rarely memorable, and the whole thing (the real thing I mean, not the post-punk posing) was practically over within four years. Compared with the sixties, when the pop movement encompassed a revolution in sexual habits, drug-taking, fashion, music, film, civil rights, concepts of individuality and community, and even took on and managed to end a major war, it looks like Punk was just one of a number of notable ripples (another being Red Brigades-style terrorism) which extended outwards after 1969. But ripple or not, it had a bigger cultural impact than anything else on my teenage years: I clearly remember in 1978 a friend pulling out his latest purchase, a record called "Never Mind the Bollocks" and how completely staggered I felt when I looked at this luminous urine-yellow cover, took in the ransom-note font and then heard the noise - I couldn't comprehend it as music at first - of the first few tracks. These bits of vinyl and card seemed at the time as dangerous a thing as a shipment of heroin. Basically I and most of Britain was in a daze when the Pistols appeared. The sixties had been a huge upheaval, but the energy seemed to dissipate as rapidly as it had appeared. By 1974 the oil embargo, massive inflation, strikes, terrorism, pomp rock, et. al. had all but crushed the mod movement and the airwaves were jammed with coma-inducing pop like the Bay City Rollers and Abba. Moreover, the "establishment", that is the traditional structures of power, having been battered halfway to oblivion in the sixties, were gradually and rather insidiously reasserting themselves. What this film captures is the electrifying effect the Pistols had on a country that had become complacent in its own dismalness. The famous Grundy interview is as notable now for the toe-curling triteness of daytime TV of that time as for the naughtiness of the Pistols. Footage of the housing estates from whence the group emerged reveals the brutal starkness of urban working-class Britain. With the rubbish piling up on the streets thanks to another strike and utter shabbiness seemingly everywhere, there's a strong impression of a country at the nadir of a massive multi-year hangover. The Pistols woke the country up like an exploding alarm clock, caused an outcry that seems almost funny in retrospect, and made flares, permed hair on males and Emerson Lake and Palmer utterly unfashionable for a couple of decades. On a more serious note, it is also worth considering that Punk probably helped Mrs. Thatcher get elected in 1979. Much of the population was shocked into believing that a strong law and order Government was the only hope for Britain. So perhaps a bit more than just a historical ripple, albeit in a very ironic manner? As for the Pistols themselves, it is not hard to see why they only lasted a couple of years: they are the (mostly) living proof that anarchy is great in theory but hard to sustain in practice. There is a lot of bitching between the boys twenty-plus years on, and while most other reviewers seem to have found Rotten inspirational, I thought he was full of s***, moaning about just about everything including bizarre things such as once having had to stay in a motel. Apparently blind to irony, he even at one point launches a heartfelt attack on the people he considers let Sid down: "they had no respect" he wails. Good film of a fascinating time with well-chosen footage, witty asides (nice idea to compare the Pistols with Richard III), wild music and interesting interviews. My only complaint is that it was difficult to work out who was talking in the voiceovers and not always easy to hear them either.

"drunken prophecies, libels and dreams":
Wow. The Sex Pistols? Never heard a more perfect name for a band. Immediately conjures up all sorts of images. Then seeing photographs of the band and the environment they spawned: like walking into a cultural junk shop and finding some wild, interesting things. Then you hear the music, and you KNOW that things will be all right. The documentary was like watching a wildly painted, gravelly sounding, busted-up auto running laps around the neighborhood grandstand. I sat on the couch, popcorn and soda handy - and watched this documentary twice in one night. Memories of this sort are like a giant bonfire that everyone throws logs on to keep it going. For the first time, the Pistols toss there own logs onto the fire. Just the thought of the backdrops, colors and possibilities attached to that time and place are wondrous enough. It seemed so open, raunchy and ugly that you can run a million scenarios in your head and still have room for more. The Sex Pistols were at the apex of all this: an accident, a force of nature. The title alone, THE FILTH AND THE FURY, suggests so much about what you are about to experience. You are told a story in a chaotic manner, images hurled at you - grainy, black and white concert footage; crazy, young English kids acting like they just don't care; seedy bars, streets and garbage dumps; representatives of various government, media and church organizations. Lots of news reels and garish lights. The surviving band members tell their own versions of what happened; their faces cast in shadow to keep you carefully tuned in to the images of the time period. Essentially a history lesson taught by the people who created, and were created by, the moment. I thought it was well done - but left me wanting more. But that was OK, too. Their career was so abrupt, 26 months from start to end - which I think has much to do with interest in them to this day. "High drama" as John Lydon describes it - is exactly it. Everything suggested by the Sex Pistols, all the random images and brilliant simplicity of the music just feeds the imagination. You can't create that kind of magic with high gloss and untouchable superstars. For my money, Steve Jones was the best interview in the whole thing. The guy is hilarious! He seems like someone you'd hang out with for hours and hours at a bar, drinking beers and exchanging war stories. The commentary by Julien Temple is extremely dull and doesn't add much. The other punk documentary, if it serves any purpose at all, illustrates where they could have gone wrong in the making of THE FILTH AND THE FURY. So, you may want to rent first, but you'll probably want to pick up a copy for yourself. It doesn't wear thin with repeat viewings.