Sex Pistols - The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (2005)

 A great swindle indeed!
Simply a bizarre mix of truth and loads of Malcolm BS- this documentary spoof of the Sex pistols is the reigning king of music films. Midgets- Malcolm- great live footage and Monty Python inspired lunacy help tell the tale of the rise and fall of rocks greatest thorn in the side. Sliced with entertaining cartoons of real life pistol happenings and some guerilla styled film making and scenes with a soon to be dead Sid vicious that are no doubt priceless- the fact is they dont make em like this anymore- and that special moment in time is mytholigized to near absurdity. Brilliant fun and a must for all fans of music and late 70s culture!!!! August 8, 2007

 A Great Look Back
This is important as John Beverly is dead for many years,watching this recalls memories of these youths in the prime of their rebellion.

In these times this film seems a novelty once more.

Each member of the band plays up to the camera in his own time. I couldn't pick a favorite scene as I like the whole film, but the end with the obituaries of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungeon stand out as a sad memoir that that realize that there was Fragility behind the tough grimaces. July 15, 2007

 Inaccurate but highly entertaining and bizarre film, best taken as a cult curiosity. Mediocre DVD treatment, though
It's good to see this film finally out on DVD, but the movie deserved a better DVD release than this one -- not because it's an accurate telling of the Sex Pistols' story (it's not) or because it's even particularly coherent (it's not), but because it's an extremely entertaining and bizarre period piece.

First of all, this sorta (some might say "pseudo") documentary tells the story from the perspective of the band's manager Malcolm McLaren, who is a BS artist of the highest order. Other reviewers have already laid out all the claims he makes -- he created the Sex Pistols solely for the purpose of swindling the record companies, the Pistols were not meant to have any talent, blah blah. Of course I don't believe what he says, and I'm not sure even he believes it, but it still makes for a great story nonetheless. Putting aside the veracity of McLaren's story, this movie isn't really even a proper documentary, but a random and bizarre mish-mash of archive footage of various Sex Pistols performances mixed in with McLaren's own self-indulgent babblings, animated skits, fictional re-enactments, an extended portion which follows ex-Pistols Steve Jones and Paul Cook to Brazil to hook up with notorious train robber Ronnie Biggs, and some truly weird scenes (such as the masked man who bursts into a room with a talking Rottweiler). No, it's not accurate or even a conventional documentary, but if you appreciate bizarre stuff like I do, it's quite entertaining and often hilarious.

Too bad the DVD release isn't particularly good. As other people have already said, the film transfer is lame (and at least on my DVD, there are some really annoying black dots at the right edge of the screen), and there's not a whole lot in the way of DVD extra goodies. And the director's commentary track by Julien Temple is all but useless. Most directors use the commentary tracks to tell interesting stories about the film's making and to give insight on the making on the movie, but Temple babbles on incoherently more than he gives any kind of useful or interesting information.

I'd recommend this DVD for people who've already seen this movie, are hardcore Sex Pistols completists, or just like the kind of bizarre underground cult films that the '70s produced scads of (other films of this ilk would include John Waters' early films or another punksploitation film "Jubilee"). Casual Sex Pistols fans might want to save their money, though. If you're looking for an informative and accurate movie about the Sex Pistols, watch "The Filth and the Fury," the 2000 documentary that was also directed by Julien Temple. March 29, 2007

 Talk About a Swindle
The only swindle here is this movie. It is a farce and a lie and a slap in the face of the legacy of the Sex Pistols. And even as a piece of fictional filmaking, it's just not that good. As others have noted, the period clips of Pistols and solo Sid Vicious performances are the only redeeming feature. But the "story" as such is lacking in so many ways; the acting and script are hilariously bad and the film transfer is simply atrocious. Buy it if you will ( on sale or used if you can ) but please don't take it seriously. March 26, 2007

 Only good for the videos and sid clips
This movie, like many band films of the 1970s, is basicly lacking a storyline and is only worth it to see the vintage sex pistol clips. The full length clips for God Save the Queen, Pretty Vacant and the Sid clips Something Else and My way. The film mostly features their manager Malcolm talking about his "swindle"=his management of the Sex Pistols. Johhny is absent from the film cuase he left the band and shows random clips of the other bandmates frolicking (and Malcolm, Steve & Paul are seen in some scenes with full frontal nudity)just doing odd things. Pretty much, it's like a very bad monty python film with punk music.

Again, it's just worth it to just fast forward through the film for the couple of cool clips. other than that, it's rubbish. February 22, 2007

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