Product: Filth to Fury [VHS]
Rating: 5.0
Order from Chaos
Just addressing some of the criticisms of this film and adding some analysis of my own...1) Overdubbed studio tracks over live footage. Would you rather hear the studio version, or hear nothing at all? The footage from which this documentary is culled was hardly organized or cataloged when the Pistols won it in a civil case against Malcolm McLaren. Considering the time period in which it was filmed, it was probably done with separate audio and video equipment. Even if the audio exists, it's probably very faint. Anyway, you do get the blistering version of "No Fun," and the (in-studio, on-off) of "Road Runner/Johnny B. Goode."2) The myth of the Sex Pistols' lack of talent. A myth, and just that. If Malcolm Mclaren wanted to say, with "Swindle..." that the Pistols were talentless, then he made a mistake by including their music. The music is still incendiary, and more relevant with every passing year. Try to listen to the aforementioned set of covers without acknowledging how thoroughly the Pistols exploded rock and roll-- turning rock "standards" into a glossalalia of destruction.3) Too sociological in its scope. If you are used to punk as power-pop with bubblegum roots and a cartoon image, then you will probably deny the sociological roots of British punk culture. Watch the film again. The social climate was as relevant to the Sex Pistols as guitar, vox, bass, or drums.This is, to pay Temple a great compliment, a movie worthy of its subject. While I can't wave the banner of objective truth as the Pistols do in their modern-day interviews-- I wasn't there and "truth" is a slippery concept-- "The Filth and the Fury" is the kind of documentary that rescues its subjects from the cesspool of myth.Myth is just gossip grown old.