IFC had some kind of rock indie movie weekend and I caught this during my dinner break. It could be considered Julien Temple’s great apology to the members of the Sex Pistols for the sheer waste of funds and criminal pro-Malcolm McLaren propaganda that was The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle.

The Filth and the Fury had all the bits that make a good punk documentary: bitter interviewees, grainy footage of angry youths, brilliant little cartoon recreations of pivotal scenes, and, dare I say it, Johnny Rotten fighting tears. Oh my.

That’s really what did it for me. And that’s something a lot of people forget when they get into the snarling doomed heroin-addicted Sid and Nancy story. Sid was just a fucked up stupid teenager doing an onstage Johnny Winters impression and was Rotten’s best friend. Rotten lost his band, his money, and his best friend. Then went on to form PIL.

And I’ve never really thought about the wording of God Save the Queen. I always assumed it was just mean and sarcastic but I think they really meant it in a way. England’s doomed, God help the Queen when the end comes.

There are also great cameos of some very young musicians who came into their own later on: Billy Idol, Sting, Shane MacGowan, Sting, and Siouxsie Sioux (pictured smoking below in some archive footage of the Pistols on a drunken bbc interview show)