Optic Nerve: The Filth and the Fury: Julien Temple

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The Filth and the Fury: Julien Temple

Never mind the lack of promotion, here's the new Sex Pistols movie. You've seen The Great rock and Roll Swindle, you've seen Sid and Nancy, what next? Rotten, or is it Lydon, or is it it Rotten again? Rotten has been making appearances at the Sundance Film Festival and the TV talk show circuit trying to hype The Filth and the Fury, trying to put all the myths to rest and finally tell the truth, which he says is mmuch more interesting than all the lies (ie. sind and Nancy and Rock and Rll Swindle). Is it? We'll give you the pros and cons, you decide if you'll get the feeling that you've been cheated.

Synopsis:

The Filth and the Fury begins with a bit of music and montage before going into the childhood histories of the key figures. From there it chronicals the beginnings of the band from before Johnny joined the band, and the first practices. Meet the record industry guys and otherassorted weasels like Malcom's lawyer. Talk about the beginnings of punk. The band is signed touring, and offending people on TV. Kick out Matlock and then become England's most hated individuals. Sid meets Nancy. The scene sucks, Malcom sucks, Sid sucks. Malcom rips everyone off. Go to the USA and fall to pieces. Talk about the breakup and Sid's death. The end.

Pros:

Filth and the Fury (FnF) does an excellent job of capturing the general mood and atmosphere of the time period and the unbridled creativity present. The film shows Malcom as the wanker that everyone says he is. FnF also shows how reactionary and hypocritical the opposing forces were at the time. A good example showing a vicker (minister) being intrerviewed after trying to stop a Sex Pistols performance. In the interview XXXXXX states that he never tried to stop the performance, but instead tried to spread a positive Christian message. Cut to the actual footage at the scene where an enraptured XXXXX is addressing a crowd of protestors, telling them that he did everything possible to prevent the Pistols from performing. Filth and the Fury also has lots of footage illustrating the political and social climate of the time with always interesting riot and bombing footage. Noted racist of the time XXXXX has an especially precious moment. As far as live footage of the band, there's lots of it, including ealry footage before they were infamous (and interesting). A particularly interesting bit occurs when you get to witnness Johhny's developing wit and sarcasm as he changes words in popular songs to reflect his own views, as with What'cha Gonna Do About It?, which is often quoted in books about the SexPistols. It's also interesting to actually see the famous Bill Grundy TV interview. There is also a little bit of extra cartoon footage cut out from Swindle. Chilling footage of Sid, just after nancy's death, talking about how he wishes he was dead, and Johnny nears tears as he recalls his old friend. There is a lot of humorous footage as well. Sid talking about how he's got a good body and girls like him. The media's misconceptions and the communitie's over-reaction (worse than communisim). See Sting trying to bugger Paul Cook (really) in his ill advised acting debut. Sid calling all Texans faggot cowboys, Sid falling asleep during an interview. Rodney on the Roq makes an ass of himself with an on the air phone call to Sid and Johnny. See why everyone thinks Nick Kent is a wanker, and the list goes on.

Cons:

There's a lot of them, but don't get discouraged. After waiting this long for the "official" word, the film can certainly stand up to some criticism.

Anyone who hasn't done bit of reading on the history of the Pistols is going to be missing a lot. Johhny has been harping on the fact that F-n-F finally tells the truth, but it's very limited in it's scope. Important details are omitted. For example, the film makes no mention of the fact that the bass tracks on Never Mind the Bollocks were recorded by Matlock. Why not? Why not ask Glen how he felt about that? Not a big deal, biut certainly interesting. If you're going to mention Wally Nightingale (an original band member before Jones stopped singing and Johnny joins the band), why not interview him? Again, no big deal, but it would have made for a more complete tale. F-n-F completely ignores the hoopala and legal battles caused in england by the title of Never Mind The Bollocks. It would also have been interesting to get the bands reactions to all the merchandise that came out after their demise, such as the aptly titled "Flogging a Dead Horse". Johnny touches on it briefly while lamenting the post humous exploitation of Sid's image, but they don't give examples. It seems like Julien and the Pistols were too close to the material to realize that the alternakids of today are quite removed from the world (and time) of the Sex Pistols.

Stylistically, there are some issues that plague the Filth and the Fury. Temple uses a lot of footage from other sources, most notably the Lech Kowalski film D.O.A., which isn't a big deal. Temple's usage of unrelated tv and movie footage initially gives insight into Johnny's stage persona, but it is overused and quickly becomes tiresome. Oftentimes footage is shown forward and then backward without stopping. It remains unclear as to whether ornot this was a stylistic choice, but the superorflous use of the TV footage gives the impression that it might be an attempt to stretch footage and provide on screen filler. Another irritating decision that temple made was to over dub studio recordings with live footage even when live audio exists. This coupled with the lack of information concerning venues and performance dates as well as some post processing of live footage makes the Filth and the Fury come off at times as more of a shallow VH1 Rockumentary as opposed to a true documentary. Cheap production is sometimes apparent. Some early pictures were obviously filmed straight from a printed copy of Johhny Rotten's book Rotten - No Irish No Blacks No Dogs, and the present day interviews give the impression that they were all filmed in one sitting on the same day. Footage and soundtrack bits from the Great Rock and Roll Swindle are also present. The film practically ignores anything that came out of States that predated punk in the UK such as Iggy and the Ramones, but it does touch briefly on the New York Dolls and Johnny Thunders, if only to talk about their drug habits. As usual, Rotten is rather full of himself and annoying at times.

Results:

Even with all it's weaknesses, the Filth and the Fury is certainly entertaining and worth watching. Over all it's pretty funny too. Though short on actual facts, the film does a good job of providing a little bit of an animatronic display of the early UK punk scene and the Pistols. Sometimes the unrelated footage can get on your nerves unless like the House of Neil, you're familiar with a bunch BBC comics from the 70's. Early reviews mention footage from the reunion tour that has apparently been left on the editing room floor for this release. Maybe a future video or DVD release will see this footage restored. (Note: Haven't seen it yet, just came out).

by kilwag

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