The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (1980)

Director:

Julien Temple

Writer:

Julien Temple

Release Date:

12 March 1981 (Australia)

Genre:

Comedy | Music | Musical

Tagline:

The staggering story of the group who wrung the neck of rock 'n' roll

Plot:

A rather incoherent post-breakup Sex Pistols "documentary", told from the point of view of Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren...

Plot Keywords:

Sex Pistols | Punk | Mockumentary | Film In Film | Musical Performance

Cast

Malcolm McLaren	...	The Embezzler
Steve Jones	...	The Crook
Paul Cook	...	The Tea-Maker
Sid Vicious	...	The Gimmick
John Lydon	...	The Collaborator (as Johnny Rotten)
Ronald Biggs	...	The Exile (as Ronnie Biggs)
Liz Fraser	...	Woman in Cinema
Jess Conrad	...	Jess
Mary Millington	...	Mary, The Crook's girlfriend
James Aubrey	...	B.J
Julian Holloway	...	Man
Johnny Shannon	...	Man in Prison Cage
Helen Wellington-Lloyd	...	Helen (as Helen of Troy)
Edward Tudor-Pole	...	Tadpole (kiosk attendant) (as Tenpole Tudor)
Faye Hart	...	Secretary
Alan Jones	...	Record Executive
Irene Handl	...	Cinema Usherette
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Judy Croll	...	Catwoman (uncredited)
Peter Dean	...	Nightclub Bouncer (uncredited)
Dave Dee	...	Record Executive (uncredited)
Norman Gay	...	Audience member (uncredited)
Jerzimy	...	French singer on the street (uncredited)
James Jeter	...	Martin Bormann (uncredited)
Jordan	...	Girl wearing 'only anarchists are pretty shirt' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Debbie Juvenile	...	Girl in the chorus on the opening track (uncredited)
Glen Matlock	...	Ex-Pistol (archive footage) (uncredited)
Ralph Morse	...	Punk (uncredited)
Terrance Mustdoo	...	Audience member (uncredited)
Sophie Richmond	...	McLaren's secretary (uncredited)
John Snagge	...	Cinema Newsreel Announcer (voice) (uncredited)
Nancy Spungen	...	Nancy (uncredited)
Jean Warren	...	A & R Director - woman with ants on face (uncredited)

Directed by
Julien Temple

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Julien Temple

Produced by
Don Boyd	....	executive producer
Jeremy Thomas	....	executive producer

Cinematography by
Adam Barker-Mill		(as Adam Barker Mill)
Nicholas D. Knowland
John Metcalfe
Willi Patterson

Film Editing by
Richard Bedford
Crispin Green
Mike Maslin
Bernie Pokrzywa
David Rae
Gordon Swire

Costume Design by
Norma Moriceau

Production Management
Joyce Herlihy	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Gary White	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Celia Barnett	....	set designer

Sound Department
John Griffiths	....	sound editor
Dushko Indjic	....	boom operator
Brian Paxton	....	dubbing mixer
Jon Sanders	....	additional sound (as John Sanders)
Steve Cook	....	sound re-recording mixer (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Ku Khanh	....	camera operator: 8mm camera
Norma Moriceau	....	camera operator: 8mm camera

Animation Department
Phil Austin	....	animator
Derek W. Hayes	....	animator
Bill Mather	....	animator
Gil Potter	....	animator
Andy Walker	....	animator

Music Department
Claude François	....	composer: song "My Way"
Steve James	....	music editor
Ian Samwell	....	composer: song "Watcha Gonna Do About It"
John Tiberi	....	soundtrack coordinator

Other crew
Sohie Richmond	....	production coordinator
Brenda Loader	....	continuity: second unit (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Boyd's Company (as Boyd's Co.)
• Kendon Films Ltd.
• Matrixbest
• Virgin Films

Distributors

• Virgin Films

Other Companies

• Animation City  animation supervision

Also Known As:

Runtime:

USA:103 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

France:-12 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | Australia:R | Finland:K-14 | Singapore:M18 | New Zealand:R18

Filming Locations:

430 Kings Road, Chelsea, London, England, UK

Company:

Boyd's Company

Trivia:

To receive an 'X' certificate the BBFC required cuts to the final print. Full-frontal shots of 'Sue Catwoman' in Malcolm McLaren's bathroom were optically enhanced to remove images of her lower regions (banned under the Protection of Children Act) and a long shot of her was cut by adding black panties to cover up the offending area. The cinema scene was also cut by removing shots of Steve Jones's genitals during the sex scene with the Brazilian girl and Mary Millington's visible pubic area in her sex scene with Jones. A shot of Sid Vicious waving a flick-knife was moved back into the sequence to avoid equating sex with violence. The BBFC also demanded the inclusion of newspaper headline footage referring to the deaths of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen. All later releases feature this same print.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Towards the end of Sid Vicious' Punk rendition of Paul Anka/Frank Sinatra's "My Way", he pulls a revolver out of his pocket and starts shooting at the audience. He fires eight shots, which is more bullets than a revolver can hold.

Quotes:

The Embezzler:Lesson seven: cultivate hatred; it is your greatest asset. Here at home, create a tour that no one can turn up to. Throw the groups name away, and leave a question mark in its place. Create confusion. The Sex Pistols made sure that they failed to turn up at certain venues. Reading false rumours wherever they could.

Movie Connections:

Featured in London - The Modern Babylon (2012)

I feel swindled every time someone gives this credit...a fan speaks!.

It really surprises me that anyone can say this is remotely important in the pantheon of Punk Rock. It's an incoherent abomination formulated by someone so submerged in his own world he forgot to tell a story of note. The story of The Sex Pistols has now, here in the new millennium, finally been laid down to some semblance of truth, a truth that thankfully shows the manager of the band to be the oblivious money grabber he was. When you watch director Julien Temple's brilliant documentary, The Filth And The Fury, and then come back to this mess of a picture, you wonder how in gods name it has achieved cult status. It's worth {i own it} comes down to the songs and the videos of those tunes, i mean where else are you going to get to see Sid Vicious' videos, ones that show us he would have made a great Punk singer had he not spiralled out of control and met a foggy heroin fuelled death. The animated ending as Friggin In The Riggin plays out is enough to warrant this as a small price purchase, but please folks can we have some focus, i lived it, i still live it in fact, but it's an appalling picture, badly edited, badly told and saved purely by the music alone. Music that the bands manager had no creative input into at all, he shall forever be nameless to me, where once he proclaimed to be a puppet master, time now shows him to purely be a Muppet and most definitely not a master of anything.

The Great Rock And Roll Swindle, 5/10 for the music alone.