GB
1980
1hr 43mins
Dir: Julien Temple
Starring: Malcolm McLaren and John Lydon
A movie telling the stylised fictional account of the formation, rise and subsequent breakup of The Sex Pistols
Told from the point of view of their then-manager Malcolm McLaren, this mockumentary-style movie about The Sex Pistols is silly, incoherent, and hard to follow at times. Guitarist Steve Jones plays a shady private detective who – through a series of set piece acts – uncovers the truth about the band. It ran with the working title Who Killed Bambi? but at the time of its release The Sex Pistols had dissolved and it seems little more than a vanity project. Despite this, there is some excellent Pistols concert footage, and appearances by performer Edward Tudor-Pole and the actress Irene Handl perhaps show that it was more movie like than people give credit for. It has a number of railway scenes with the usual ropey continuity common at the time. McLaren undertakes a railway journey which begins at London Marylebone where he boards a Class 115 DMU. The interior scenes that follow take place onboard Mk.1 coaching stock and include an ‘arrival’ at Northampton where Steve Jones boards. There is a good, if distinctly blurred shot of a Class 86 entering Northchurch Tunnel on a West Coast main line express but nothing else of note.
