Product: Filth to Fury [VHS]
Rating: 5.0
A slap reverberating across generations
OK, watched the Sex Pistols documentary "The Filth and the Fury." A recent flick, it came out in 2000 and interviewed the surviving members of the Pistols, though they were but silhouettes residing in the comfort of midlife homes. It's an extraordinary documentary detailing the rise of punk and the brief life of the Sex Pistols. They played but for two years, banned, hated and vilified. The documentary ends appropriately enough during their final show with Sid Vicious in San Francisco, with Johnny Rotten sadly sneering to the audience, "Do you ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"I suppose everyone is familiar with the legend of the Sex Pistols, and if you're not, this documentary is as good a place to start as any. What I liked about "The Filth and the Fury" was how accurately it detailed the conditions in England that gave rise to punk music and fashion. Americans love to claim everything as their own, and the Ramones have certainly carried that "punk creation" torch to their graves. But "The Filth and the Fury" slaps everyone back into reality. The Sex Pistols were the first, and that LP "Never Mind the Bullocks" echoes down through generations as crystal clear as a golden coin.After watching this documentary and listening to their album, I am amazed how contemporary the Sex Pistols are. Much of the music that followed, The Clash, The Misfits, The Circle Jerks, even U2, feels oddly dated today, a testament of the decade of the 1980s. But place the Sex Pistols on the air, and blasting from the speakers is incredible anger and energy, as profound and timeless as "A Clockwork Orange." The music has aged well, and one never blushes when listening to it.Watching the documentary, I was amazed how modern the members of the band looked, interviewed by 70s fashion victims adorned in wide lapels, offensive plaid and flared pants. These reporters, attempting to make sense, were as befuddled as JFK assassination reporters, trying to nurture terrified audiences. The sad fact, and one which is detailed in "The Filth and the Fury," is that the band eventually became a freak show, the music forgotten or lost by the time they wearily limped on stage in San Francisco.The footage which haunts and terrifies, is of the Sex Pistols playing their infamous 1978 tour through the southern United States. Dallas, San Antonio, Atlanta, Memphis, long-haired crowds resembling frightened Bob Seegers. Audiences threw trash on the stage, beer bottles at Sid Vicious' face, and yet the band played on, realizing that America was a scary place......"Throw what you want at me, I'm not leaving this stage!"Can you imagine a band like the Sex Pistols playing here today? They would get lynched. American music writers wax poetic about the Sex Pistols' cruise through Texas and the south. But we see footage of the San Antonio and Dallas shows, people standing as stark as statues, terrified of what they were witnessing. The echoes of those concerts carry through to today, profound and horrifying. For the Sex Pistols to have embarked through the southern U.S. with that incredibly blatant brand of rebellion was almost suicidal. They cut a path through a dense forest of a conservative Urban Cowboy rocker wastelands. The wake splashes today.The Sex Pistols band died young, no doubt. They have but one album, and a lot of haunting film footage. But to watch them in this documentary during their prime, fiercely screaming "Anarchy in the UK," "God Save the Queen" and "Bodies," is to see the ultimate example of what the musical form known as rock represents. They scared the establishment. They freaked it out. Working class and brutal, the Sex Pistols were the revolution that crushed the flowers of Woodstock. There are no ballads in "The Filth and the Fury." Just a slap reverberating across generations.This is one of the greatest rock documentaries ever made.