Product: Filth to Fury [VHS]
Rating: 4.0
"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.