SID AND NANCY
A film review by Billy Green
Copyright 1988 Billy Green
When I heard that a film was being made about Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen, I figured, "Well, I guess it was inevitable that someone would wind up doing a Sex Pistols retrospective. Let's go see how badly they messed it up."
I was amazed that Alex Cox managed to make a movie that was both true to the characters *and* comercially viable. SID AND NANCY is a very slick movie about a very dirty, grimy subject. The slickness of the photography and the choreography of the scenes manages to balance out the coarseness of the subject matter.
Gary Oldman plays Sid. More to the point, Gary Oldman *is* Sid Vicious (or the closest we can hope to see since Sid's death). He even looks like Sid. It's almost scary. Give the man a cookie. He's earned it.
Chloe Webb is made to look a whole lot like Nancy. The most uncannily accurate aspect of her portrayal is the voice--she sounds 99% like Nancy. The only real failure I saw was that Chloe didn't affect a British accent every thirtieth word (Nancy Spungen lived a long time in London, and her heavy Bronx accent would give way to an altered British pronunciation every once in a while).
The characters of Sid and Nancy are so faithfully portrayed that it's almost scary. However, some of the lesser characters are not quite to faithfully portrayed. John Lydon's character seems to have been cast for the singing voice alone. The actor (whose name escapes me) doesn't quite manage to capture Johnny Rotten (except for the singing voice). His mannerisms are not right, his composure is far off base--but the overall impression is right on target. The same holds true for the characterization of Malcolm McLaren--the character in the movie is an exaggeration of Malcolm, not a realistic portrayal. In both characters, we do not see a realistic portrayal. Neither actor looks or acts like the person he portrays. Instead, we are given an impressionistic view--both characters represent the *effects* that the people had on Sid and Nancy, not the actual people they are based on. (And, don't forget, this is SID AND NANCY, not SID AND NANCY AND JOHN AND MALCOLM. :-))
Apart from these portrayals, Mr. Cox has gone to some pains to set his scenes in a world controlled subtly by the characters. For example, the first view we have of Sid and John is of them as they demolish a Rolls Royce. A bit later, we see Sid and friends walking along the street. On the surface, you hear a fairly mundane conversation. However, if you pay attention to the background, you will see a bunch of school kids (in uniform) running up the street and making a ruckus. They are beating cars with their lacrosse sticks. Shades of Sid and John's influence on the kids? Maybe. Pay closer attention. The kids are beating only on the old, beat-up cars. They don't touch the Rolls Royces or BMW's. This is actually a much better image of how the mainstream kids of England took the Sex Pistols and their anarchy.
As a whole, I give extreme kudos to Alex Cox for making SID AND NANCY. In this movie, he has given much more information about Sid Vicious, the Sex Pistols, Nancy Spungen and the whole musical/social revolution in the UK than anyone else has dared to try before. The movie is far more impressionistic (and, at times, surrealistic) than anyone tends to give it credit for.
I also would like to suggest D.O.A. as a companion piece for SID AND NANCY. D.O.A. chronicles the Sex Pistols' American tour (during which they disbanded--pardon the pun). D.O.A. is a documentary (including interviews with Sid and Nancy). SID AND NANCY is a grand piece of impressionistic fictionalization. Watch them both. Turn the sound up REALLY LOUD. Bang your head. Slam dance with whoever is closest to you, even if you've never slammed before. Spit at the TV. Find the punk that you didn't think resided in you.
(The last time that D.O.A. played at UNC, the audience did several hundred dollars worth of damage to the Student Union. No real point--I'd just thought I'd say that. :-) )
Billy Green
Carrboro, NC
{seismo,gatech,rutgers,uunet}!mcnc!briarpatch!billy
[Moderator's note: Do not confuse the D.O.A. that Green describes with the 1949 Edmond O'Brien film that shows up all the time on television because it's in the public domain, not the remake with Dennis Quaid soon to be released. They're interesting in their own way, of course, but if you're expecting the Sex Pistols and get Edmond O'Brien instead, you'll probably be disappointed. :-) ]
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