Amazon.com Customer Reviews
 Rated 1 out of 5
This movie blows
Writing as a Sex Pistols fan, I really can’’t stand this film. The actress playing Nancy is more annoying and ugly than the woman herself. If this was how Nancy really was someone would have killed her long before Sid. None of the Sex Pistols have endorsed this movie, citing that the majority of it is complete fiction. The plot, if you can call it that, really meanders. Gary Oldman is likable as always, one good thing the film has going for it. Rated 5 out of 5!
The chemistry between Sid and Nancy--captured on film.
Alex Cox’’s film "Sid and Nancy" is the story of the relationship between Punk Rocker Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman) from the Sex Pistols and girlfriend, Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb). Sid was the notorious bass player for the Sex Pistols when he met Nancy at the flat of a mutual friend. When singer Johnny Rotten brushes off Nancy’’s attempts to attach herself, she moves onto Sid. From that moment on, the two clung together. Sid, who was already an avid drug user, quickly joined Nancy in her heroin use. The film focuses on the relationship between Sid and Nancy, and Sid’’s life as a Sex Pistol serves as a backdrop. For example, the infamous Thames trip and the debacle of the American tour are included here. Fans will also recognize scenes from the documentary "The Filth and the Fury" as well as the film "The Great Rock and Roll Swindle." Malcolm McLaren is shown enjoying the antics of the Pistols with almost malicious delight, and his attempts to control the mayhem prove futile as the band moves towards inevitable entropy. As the band falls apart, so do Sid and Nancy, and the film follows the steady, glorious disintegration of Sid and Nancy as their drug use spirals out of control. There are several ’’versions’’ of some of the events that took place within both Sex Pistols and also in Sid’’s life with Nancy. This film is an attempt to portray the events, and Cox uses touches of surrealism at crucial moments. Visually, the film is stunning--not beautiful--but a record of disintegration and physical and mental decay. My favourite film scene EVER is the scene in which Sid and Nancy kiss as rubbish falls around them in slow motion. Perhaps Sid and Nancy were the original co-dependents, but they really did seem to have a bond that went beyond drugs. Gary Oldman has proved himself to be a fine character actor, and in "Sid and Nancy" he plays Sid with all the sides to his character that we are told Sid possessed. Sid, according to some was a brutal menace, but to others, he was tender and vunerable. Oldman, under Cox’’s direction gives us all the facets of Sid’’s personality--including manic surges of energy and depleted zombie behaviour following drug binges. Chloe Webb as Nancy Spungen is great as the troubled, pleading, empty soul who latches onto Sid and won’’t let go. The film also has a terrific soundtrack, "Love Kills." "Sid and Nancy" is on my top ten film list, and it remains my favourite non-foreign film. For further reading, I can recommend "And I Don’’t Want to Live This Life," by Nancy’’s mother, Deborah Spungen, and "Sid Vicious"--a truly inspired biography by Malcolm Butt--displacedhuman
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