The story of the Sex Pistols is one of the most well known in the history of rock. There is probably very little that has not been said before, yet do not let this deter you from taking an opportunity to enjoy Julien Temple's the Filth and the Fury.
As someone who was a witness to events and took the opportunity to catalogue the Pistols rise and fall on film during this period, Temple is ideally placed to produce this retrospective.
Similar in style to his recent Dr. Feelgood documentary Oil City Confidential, Temple uses a combination of contemporary interviews and archive material from the 1970s to place the Pistols within their social context. It is sometimes said that the initial punk explosion happened so quickly and affected just a handful of people that it was over before it had properly begun.
Temple's use of Bay City Rollers Top of the Pops performances, Tommy Cooper and Michael Fish weather broadcasts interspersed with a narrative attempting to tell the story of the Sex Pistols sympathise with this blink and you miss it view of the punk revolution.
This is refreshing as too many other Pistols rockumentaries overegg their impact on mainstream British culture at the end of the 70s. Ultimately, the Sex Pistols were a moral panic and cult phenomenon whose existence and essence sparked inspiration in the world of music, film, art and fashion. Mr and Mrs Smith in Croydon did not change their consumer choices, even if their offspring did.
The Filth and the Fury is very much the members of the Pistols opportunity to tell their side of the story. Temple's previous work with the group, the Great Rock and Roll Swindle, was criticised for being Malcolm McLaren's version of events.
The contemporary interviews film the Pistols in shadow silhouette, creating the impression that Messrs Lydon et al. are former SAS servicemen, forbidden from having their true identity revealed due to their past operations and service.
The McLaren point of view is that the Pistols were essentially his play things and that the group were just as manufactured as the Bay City Rollers. The Pistols themselves, and John Lydon in particular, take a contrary view. What is clear is that one could not have happened without the other.
The Lydon/McLaren relationship is key to understanding the Pistols. Both had a strong combination of intelligence, articulacy and daring which made the Pistols appear that they were the most important band in the world.
The film is strongest when it uncovers Lydon's motivations behind the Pistols and the Johnny Rotten persona. Lydon explains that the Pistols genesis was born out of the frustration of successive Labour government failures to help the working class. The ability of the Conservative party to make inroads into the southern working class vote in most General Elections since punk up to 1997 backs up Lydon's point.
Lydon is the outsider within his own group. He didn't have the strong bond that existed between Cook and Jones who ultimately sided with McLaren. Lydon does not disguise his contempt for Matlock and McLaren. His one positive relationship was with Sid Vicious which eventually deteriorated due to Sid becoming more and more of a drug addict, his relationship with Nancy Spungen and Sid attempts to ape the Rotten persona. Lydon expresses regret for not explaining to him more about what to expect before he joined the group and is shown to still be visually affected but Vicious's death to this day.
Whether the Filth and the Fury is the definitive account of the Pistols is debatable. That accolade is probably best reserved Jon Savage's book England's Dreaming. However, in the Filth and the Fury, Julien Temple has produced an extremley stimulating and visual take on one of the greatest stories in the history of popular music.
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