Product: Filth to Fury [VHS]
Rating: 4.0
Garbo Laughs! Rotten Weeps!
Director Julien Temple should have remembered the scene in "Almost Famous" when Lester Bangs advises the neophyte rock journalist to "NEVER make friends with the band!" Fast forward to the infamous "crying scene" in "Filth And The Fury", where John Lydon, reminiscing about Sid Vicious, chokes back tears and says "He's f--- dead, JULIEN..." Oops...there goes the "fourth wall"! That said, this is still an entertaining wallow in the late 70's English punk scene in all of its filth and glory. Purists will cringe over the use of crisp studio versions of songs wedded to grainy performance footage, but in a way this spin stays right in line with the whole "rock 'n' roll swindle" concept. The film could have explored historical perspective and musical influences a bit more, instead of "Malcolm McLaren did this to us, M.M. did that to us" self-pity for two hours. Reality check, Mr. Lydon: as manipulative and exploitive as the Malcolm McLarens, Col. Parkers and Peter Grants of the world may be, would Johnny Rotten, Elvis Presley or Led Zeppelin have become as famous without them? (That's showbiz!)