Eye Candy #302 - "The Filth and the Fury - A Sex Pistols Film"

The Filth and The Fury - A Sex Pistols Film:  The Sex Pistols are one of those groups that half the music lovers swear was some paradigm-expanding band that changed the way music was done up to that point, and the other half swear someone else did it first.  Elvis, the Beatles, Nirvana all fall into the same sort of classification (in the case of the Pistols, it was the New York Dolls and the Stooges that did it first).  I have never personally invested a whole lot in the allure of the Sex Pistols, while I will freely admit I haven’t listened to much of their music.  This documentary about the incendiary punk rock band takes us from their humble beginnings to their meteoric rise and just as meteoric dissolution.  Incorporating concert footage and interviews from all the band members, including the deceased Sid Vicious, this film was put together with the blessing and participation of John “Rotten” Lydon, who is notorious for being media confrontational (you even get to see Lydon break down on camera while talking about the death of Vicious;  noticeably absent from the film is their Svengali of a manager Malcolm Mclaren). The story of the Sex Pistols has all of what are now standard musician pitfalls and excesses - working-class background, destructive relationships, drug abuse and death, domineering management and financial destitution, from their creation in 1974 to their break-up in 1978, they lived it all.  And while much of the Sex Pistols schtick was absolutely calculated to elicit the reactions they received from establishment,  they were an insect light for disaffected young people rebelling against the conventions of their respective societies.  I will say that after having seen this film, my respect for the Sex Pistols has grown leaps and bounds.  When you look at the musical morass they emerged from (Bay City Rollers, ELO, ELP, Yes, prog rock galore), they may very well have saved music for us all.  I also liked that the film juxtaposed the real-life footage against clips from Sir Laurence Olivier’s version of “Richard III”.  Good stuff.   Woodchuck sez, “Check it out.”