Sex Pistols - The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
by Julien Temple
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: John Lydon, Malcolm McLaren, Paul Cook, Sid Vicious, Steve JonesDirector: Julien Temple
Brand: Sony Music
Cinematographer: Adam Barker-Mill
Cinematographer: John Metcalfe
Cinematographer: Nicholas D. Knowland
Cinematographer: Willi Patterson
Writer: Julien Temple
Producer: Don Boyd
Producer: Jeremy Thomas
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 103 minutes
Published: 2005-05-01
DVD Release Date: 2005-05-17
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Shout Factory
Movie Reviews of Sex Pistols - The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
Movie Review: The Greatest Film Ever Made - Pt2.
Summary: 5 Stars
"At last, the film you thought you'd never have to see...."
The very idea of 'the Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle' fills me with joy and excitement. It's a completely false and unhelpful biog of the life and times of the Sex Pistols; a madly entertaining and enduring late 70's pop group with coy and crass ideas about anarchy and busting open the music business and the tyrants who own it.
Brute force and S&M are the compulsions behind seeing it.
"The Sex Pistols: a kamikaze gang of cat-burglars and child-prostitutes; they peddled bondage, whips and chains to the children of Britain..."
A detective story; an obvious "Who's got the money" sketch but in reality...a road movie, a porno, a cartoon, a travelogue, a musical, a gangster; it's pretty much anything you want it to be - and it IS everything you want it to be.
"The Sex Pistols: they stuck a safety-pin through Her Majesty's nose and turned the National Press into an occupied zone..."
A mind-boggling amalgam of kitsch and outrage; dwarves hold the balance of power and the Cambridge Rapist is a sartorial icon.
"Sid Vicious: the John Travolta of punk! His ambition is to haunt the music industry.."
Watch Vicious bully a cheesecake; join peasants laughing at him as he staggers round Paris; spit blood at the irony when he shoots his audience. Nice boy, loved his mum...
"The staggering story of the group that rung the neck of rock 'n' roll..."
See McClaren/Cowell's ultimate ideal: to cover pop in vomit and make millions doing it. And if you know your rock philosophy; conceptualize the herding and manipulation of the media until it resembles nothing more than a monstrous publicity machine - sucking, yet feeding you, simultaneously.
"Ronnie Biggs: legendary mastermind of the Great Train Robbery; he never sang for Scotland Yard, but he burst his lungs for the Sex Pistols.... They smuggled a great train robber into the top ten and destroyed the myth of their own success..."
See a shameless coward - who killed someone's dad - tunelessly render 'Belsen Was A Gas' while spitting in a punk-rockers face. Goggle admiringly, and objectify his luxurious playboy lifestyle as he taunts the British Police with champagne-fuelled obscenities and brazen remorselessness.
"Martin Boormann: Hitler's deputy was just another starving Nazi-on-the-run 'til he joined the Sex Pistols -- now he's receiving royalties from Virgin Records..."
Schnell, schnell, (Sex Pistols seek bassist) I, Martin Boormann, vil be zis mann. Never mind the Reichstag: here's the Final Solution! See also Russ Meyer...
"Porn actress Mary Millington: fully cantilevered and gorgeous - she thought she'd tried everything 'til she met the Sex Pistols.."
It had a profound effect, she killed herself..
"See the film that incriminates its own audience..."
And the censors and councils that certified it; the paying hoi-polloi who gave it love and helped it flourish; the editors who left so much offensiveness and smut on the cutting room floor.
"Malcolm McClaren: the architect of this fabulous ruin. Look on his works ye mighty, and despair..,"
See the Sex Pistols last journey; an animated cruise upon the good ship Spungeon. They left in their wake (at last) the 1960's, which had dragged on well beyond its time, therefore performing at least one, however inadvertent, act of kindness and healing.
"Are YOU part of the Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle? Risk seeing it and find out!"
Summary of Sex Pistols - The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
The Definitive Punk Movie - Finally on DVD!The Sex Pistols star in director Julien Temple?s bizarre and hilarious fictional documentary that charts the rise and fall of punk?s most notorious band through the eyes of its calculating manager, Malcolm McLaren. Mixing animation and midgets with footage of some of The Pistols? most electrifying live performances, the 1980 film presents the band?s success as an elaborate scam perpetrated by McLaren to make "a million pounds" at the expense of record companies, outraged moralists, the British Royal Family?and even the fans and band members themselves.
The Great Rock Rock ?n? Roll Swindle was called "a parable of our times" by the Guardian (UK), but most music fans simply consider it one of the best rock films ever. More than 25 years after their breakup, The Sex Pistols? music continues to influence punk and post-punk bands the world over. The Great Rock ?n? Roll Swindle shows why.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Interview and commentary with director Julien Temple by Chris Salewicz
5.1 Surround Sound
Cheeky and chaotic, the 1980 The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle began life as a Russ Meyer project (co-written by Roger Ebert) called Who Killed Bambi?. Julien Temple (Earth Girls Are Easy) took over, working closely with the Pistols' former manager, Malcolm McClaren, and overhauled the script to focus almost exclusively on McClaren's self-serving recollections of turning an unknown band into a success through poor musicianship, crafty bookings, and well-publicized bad manners at pivotal moments. Temple's rococo approach evokes an 18th century riot (in which effigies of the Pistols are burned), noir-like passages featuring guitarist Steve Jones as a thief, and the unholy sight of McClaren taking a bath in palatial surroundings. There's little footage of the Pistols themselves, though what exists is choice: the band's infamous Jubilee Day performance on the Thames, their last gig in San Francisco. Years later, McClaren's contention that he pulled one over on us because the Pistols couldn't play is patently absurd. --Tom Keogh
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