Product: Filth to Fury [VHS]
Rating: 4.0
Get down and dirty
It's not immediately apparent where Punk stands in historical terms. There were only a handful of great bands, the music was rarely memorable, and the whole thing (the real thing I mean, not the post-punk posing) was practically over within four years. Compared with the sixties, when the pop movement encompassed a revolution in sexual habits, drug-taking, fashion, music, film, civil rights, concepts of individuality and community, and even took on and managed to end a major war, it looks like Punk was just one of a number of notable ripples (another being Red Brigades-style terrorism) which extended outwards after 1969.But ripple or not, it had a bigger cultural impact than anything else on my teenage years: I clearly remember in 1978 a friend pulling out his latest purchase, a record called "Never Mind the Bollocks" and how completely staggered I felt when I looked at this luminous urine-yellow cover, took in the ransom-note font and then heard the noise - I couldn't comprehend it as music at first - of the first few tracks. These bits of vinyl and card seemed at the time as dangerous a thing as a shipment of heroin.Basically I and most of Britain was in a daze when the Pistols appeared. The sixties had been a huge upheaval, but the energy seemed to dissipate as rapidly as it had appeared. By 1974 the oil embargo, massive inflation, strikes, terrorism, pomp rock, et. al. had all but crushed the mod movement and the airwaves were jammed with coma-inducing pop like the Bay City Rollers and Abba. Moreover, the "establishment", that is the traditional structures of power, having been battered halfway to oblivion in the sixties, were gradually and rather insidiously reasserting themselves.What this film captures is the electrifying effect the Pistols had on a country that had become complacent in its own dismalness. The famous Grundy interview is as notable now for the toe-curling triteness of daytime TV of that time as for the naughtiness of the Pistols. Footage of the housing estates from whence the group emerged reveals the brutal starkness of urban working-class Britain. With the rubbish piling up on the streets thanks to another strike and utter shabbiness seemingly everywhere, there's a strong impression of a country at the nadir of a massive multi-year hangover. The Pistols woke the country up like an exploding alarm clock, caused an outcry that seems almost funny in retrospect, and made flares, permed hair on males and Emerson Lake and Palmer utterly unfashionable for a couple of decades.On a more serious note, it is also worth considering that Punk probably helped Mrs. Thatcher get elected in 1979. Much of the population was shocked into believing that a strong law and order Government was the only hope for Britain. So perhaps a bit more than just a historical ripple, albeit in a very ironic manner?As for the Pistols themselves, it is not hard to see why they only lasted a couple of years: they are the (mostly) living proof that anarchy is great in theory but hard to sustain in practice. There is a lot of bitching between the boys twenty-plus years on, and while most other reviewers seem to have found Rotten inspirational, I thought he was full of s***, moaning about just about everything including bizarre things such as once having had to stay in a motel. Apparently blind to irony, he even at one point launches a heartfelt attack on the people he considers let Sid down: "they had no respect" he wails.Good film of a fascinating time with well-chosen footage, witty asides (nice idea to compare the Pistols with Richard III), wild music and interesting interviews. My only complaint is that it was difficult to work out who was talking in the voiceovers and not always easy to hear them either.