Sid and Nancy (1986)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Alex Cox

Writers:

Alex Cox (screenplay) and
Abbe Wool (screenplay)

Release Date:

7 November 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Music

Tagline:

Love kills

Plot:

Morbid biographical story of Sid Vicious, bassist with British punk group the Sex Pistols, and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Punk Rock | Heroin | Hotel | Dominatrix

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 4 wins

Cast

Gary Oldman	...	Sid Vicious
Chloe Webb	...	Nancy Spungen
David Hayman	...	Malcolm
Debby Bishop	...	Phoebe
Andrew Schofield	...	John
Xander Berkeley	...	Bowery Snax
Perry Benson	...	Paul
Tony London	...	Steve
Sandy Baron	...	Hotelier - U.S.A.
Sy Richardson	...	Methadone Caseworker
Edward Tudor-Pole	...	Hotelier - U.K.
Biff Yeager	...	Detective
Courtney Love	...	Gretchen
Rusty Blitz	...	Reporter
John Spaceley	...	Chelsea Resident

Also Known As:

Sid and Nancy: Love Kills

Runtime:

112 min | Australia:110 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Portugal:M/16 | Australia:R | Finland:K-18 | France:-12 | Netherlands:16 | Norway:18 | UK:18 | USA:R | Canada:R | Canada:13+ (Quebec)

Filming Locations:

Chelsea Hotel - 222 West 23rd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Initial Pictures

Trivia:

Sid's mother Anne Beverly initially tried to prevent the movie from being made but after meeting with Alex Cox she decided to help the production.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When the Sex Pistols are playing live in the boat you can clearly hear a bass guitar, but Sid is in the toilet getting it on with Nancy.

Quotes:

Nancy: I'll never look like Barbie. Barbie doesn't have bruises.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "The Simpsons: Love, Springfieldian Style (#19.12)" (2008)

Soundtrack:

Glued Up and Speeding

never mind

This is a film made by someone who clearly has no love for the Sex Pistols or even any real knowledge of them. Research for this project appears to have been conducted purely through reference to the tabloid presses' depiction of the band – and who wants to see that? John Lydon, a man who wrote God Save The Queen among other things (a lyric surely comparable with anything by Lennon or Dylan) is portrayed as a talentless thug. Steve Jones, an amusing and engaging bloke on anyone's terms, seen here is nothing but a borderline psychopath. Gary Oldman, good actor that he is, does his best impersonation of Sid's lugubrious, cockney drawl but he's a little too healthy looking, in truth.

Even as a depiction of 1977, the film fails to convince. The Sex Pistols play to a room exclusively full of "punks" who resemble American punks contemporary to when the film was made, i.e. leather jackets and Mohicans. Check out archive footage of the Pistols and it didn't happen that way. The majority of the audience still had long hair and flares. Even some of the punk bands had members who weren't particularly punk. Spiky hair and ripped t-shirts were seemingly a step too far back then. Most shocking of all, the racial change that the singer of X-Ray Spex undergoes is more startling than Michael Jackson's.

The main problem with the film – or any retrospective Rock n Roll film – is the music. Actors - or hired session men - can never hope to emulate the voices/ presence/ energy of the original band. (Do you think the Beatles would ever have made it if they'd sounded like they did in Backbeat?) Here, the Sex Pistols are portrayed as nothing but a worthless gimmick; a construction of a Svengali manager who took any four hoodlums and placed them in sensational situations. It panders to readers of The Sun and clever people who think they're being fooled if they don't say "Oh yeh – nothing but a media gimmick, yeah – couldn't really play, yeh" – i.e. people who think they're clever but who are, in actual fact, idiots. Avoid.