Sid & Nancy
by Alex Cox
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Actor: Andrew Schofield, Chloe Webb, David Hayman, Debby Bishop, Gary OldmanDirector: Alex Cox
Writer: Alex Cox
Writer: Abbe Wool
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 112 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-12-19
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of Sid & Nancy
DVD Review: Gary Oldman's performance can not redeem Sid Vicious' life
Summary: 4 Stars
The only problem with labeling Sid Vicious as the bass player for the seminal punk rock group the Sex Pistols is that the man could not really play the bass guitar. Paradoxically, this was part of what made him famous, along with his violent temper that resulted in random acts of violence onstage. When the punk movement emerged its significance was more political than musical, with the focus being on the anarchy and nihilism as a response to disenfranchisement. So when the Sex Pistols would play a gig the fact that Vicious was apparently play the bass line for a different song than the one the bad was playing was seen not for what it was, musical incompetence, but rather as an intentional anarchist act by a provocateur. Paul McCartney, Bill Wyman, and any other notable bass player who went off on his own would have been booted from their group, but Vicious became a legend and descended hand in hand into both hell and history with his girl friend and partner in personal destruction, Nancy Spurgen.
Director Alex Cox documents the destruction and in case anyone stumbles upon this 1986 film without even a tabloid knowledge of the fate of the title characters "Sid & Nancy" starts with Sid sitting in a hotel room while Nancy's corpse lies on the bathroom floor. The film agrees with Sid's confession that he stabbed Nancy, and when the cops investigating her death ask Sid how they missed we get to go back to the beginning. Several years earlier Sid (Gary Oldman) and Johnny Rotten (Drew Schofield), visit Linda (Ann Lambton) the dominatrix, where Nancy (Chloe Webb), an American groupie and junkie is staying. Sid does not need Nancy's encouragement to engage in self-destructive behavior, but she approves of everything he does and thinks he is talented. To be clear, this validation comes after they become lovers, so there are additional reasons to doubt her line of thought despite the visual and audio evidence. But it is not like she is the only one reading Sid's life wrong. Malcolm McLaren (David Hayman) declares at one point: "Sidney's more than a mere bass player. He's a fabulous disaster. He's a symbol, a metaphor, he embodies the dementia of a nihilistic generation. He's a f*****' star." I will buy the disaster part, but the rest is wishful thinking on the part of people who should realize at some point that a mixture of silence and obscenity can be better explained by stupidity rather than profound insight.
There is no reason to invest this doomed pair with any sort of romantic trappings. You can call them the Romeo & Juliet of the punk generation, but Romeo & Tybalt had a better relationship. This is a film that is filled with visual metaphors for the doomed pair, and the one that sticks out for me is the one where they are sitting stoned in their bed in a hotel room and accidentally start a fire. It takes them a while to notice, but until the firemen show up and drag them away they never get to the point of caring. That pretty much describes my reaction to the film, and I doubt that I am alone in that regard. I suppose you could try to determine the point at which in the narrative these two people are doomed to their horrible deaths, but I pretty much go with the prologue. The only reason this story is being told is because these two end up dead.
The performances by Oldman and Webb are certainly more compelling than the characters that they play. I started out thinking that Sid & Nancy were simply a couple at the other end of the universe from Ron & Nancy in the White House. But then it struck me that "Sid & Nancy" is nothing more than "The Simple Life" for the punk generation, the story of a pair of worthless human beings who reinforce each other's worse traits, gloriously unaware that their lives are cosmic jokes. When Vicious sings "My Way," it does not become an anarchist anthem but just a song where the fact is being sung badly is suppose to impart an ironic frame of reference to the lyrics rather than simply indicating the lack of vocal talent by the singer. Unfortunately, at the end of "Sid & Nancy," Cox wants to suggest that their lives were an actual tragedy, when there is no evidence to support that conclusion in anything that we have seen.
Description of Sid & Nancy
Gary Oldman (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Lost In Space) and Chloe Webb (The Newton Boys) execute performances that are nothing short of phenomenal (Los AngelesTimes) as Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and his unforgettable junkie girlfriendtwo socialmisfits who literally love each other to death. In this riveting biography of burnt-out icons (The Washington Post), award-winning* writer/director Alex Cox (Repo Man) creates a great film ('siskel & Ebert ) about the destructive lives of two 1970's punk legends. Their love affair is one of pure devotion. Sid falls hard for groupie Nancy Spungen, who seduces him with her affectionand addiction to heroin. Their inseparable bondto each other and their drugseventually corrodes the band, sending Sid and Nancy down a dark road of despair. Out of money, hope and options,the despondent two hit rock bottom while living in squalor at New York's infamous Chelsea Hotel. But their journey takes yet another tragic turn as they face their final curtainand attempt to fulfill their destiny of going out in a blaze of glory! *1986: Critics Award, Sao Paulo International Film FestivalAfter the cultish success of Repo Man, maverick director Alex Cox made the film that remains his masterpiece--a loud, brash, abrasive, painful, funny, and utterly brilliant screen biography of British punk rocker Sid Vicious and his American girlfriend Nancy Spungen. As played to perfection by Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb, Sid and Nancy are made for each other, serving their mutual strengths and weaknesses and rising with the punk-rock fame of Sid's group, the Sex Pistols, while falling into the ultimately lethal pit of drug abuse. Cox doesn't pull any punches or compromise the unsavory aspects of this passionate love story, so the film presents a harsh mix of emotional and physical anguish tempered by the very poignant and genuine love shared by its tormented central characters. Through it all, the film emerges as an intimate and yet oddly epic chronicle of punk's glory days of anarchic sex, drugs and rock & roll. It's as dynamic and confidently directed as any screen biography before or since, no less fascinating for its unpleasant aspects as for the touching emotions at its very human core. --Jeff Shannon
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