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We are introduced to Sid Vicious after his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, has already been found stabbed to death in their hotel room. While Sid is being interrogated he is asked "Why did you do it kid? Who was the chick? She your groupie?” At this, Sid reacts by screaming and promptly biting the fuck out of the interrogator. It is only when another officer offers him a cigarette and asks how he met Nancy that Sid shows remorse and begins to tell the story of how they met.

We are then taken to the UK in the late seventies when the Sex Pistols were on the verge of breaking it big in the states.

From the beginning we see that Sid couldn't play the bass worth a shit and actually added next to nothing to the band musically. In one early scene we see him trying to tune his guitar after the band has already started playing. Eventually he says fuck it and puts his instrument down and begins spitting beer on the audience while the rest of the band plays on.

It’s not difficult to see why so many punk fans idolized him. He was untalented, uncompromising and would do whatever the fuck popped in his head. Whether it be bashing a heckling member of the audience with is guitar or impulsively carving stuff on his chest with a razor.

He was a punk in the truest sense of the word...

He was every mother's worst nightmare...

In short, he was anarchy in its purest form...

Nancy (Chloe Webb), on the other hand, was more pitiful than rebellious. She was already a full-fledged junky when we are first introduced to her. When she wasn't fucked up she was rude, obnoxious and overbearing. Actually she was all of these things even when she WAS fucked up, but the drugs seemed to take the edge off just a bit. Sid himself commented when being questioned about her death "I loved her, but she treated me like shit."

She was also a die-hard Sex Pistol groupie from New York. Its only after Johnny Rotten (Andrew Schofield) turns down her sexual advances that she crawls in bed with Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman). Sid doesn't kick her out of bed but refuses to fuck her because "sex is boring".

The love story begins with Nancy getting Sid to help her score some smack after she is left ripped off and dejected by a dishonest drug dealer (A dishonest drug dealer?! The Horror!) Sid, the consummate romantic, decides to cheer her up by smashing his head against a brick wall and by... well, basically by just being Sid.

The acting and direction of this movie is excellent. The director, Alex Cox (Repo Man), never has to rely on shock value to drive his story. The real life events were shocking enough all on their on. He instead uses these events as a backdrop for the twisted love story that ensues.

Gary Oldman is absolutely perfect in his role as Sid. When watching an actual interview with Sid and Nancy (available on the Criterion DVD) it is amazing how well he captures the mannerisms of the real Sid. Chloe Webb as Nancy is equally superb in her role. Andrew Schofield is another standout as Johnny Rotten.

There is a scene later in the movie where Nancy takes Sid to meet her family. This scene alternates between hilarious and darkly disturbing.

The whole movie walks this tightrope of dark humor and disturbing realism. A fine example of this is when Nancy is screaming at her mother because she won't send her money. After throwing a tantrum and in the process breaking all the windows in the phone booth she tells Sid: "Fucking motherfuckers. They wouldn't send us any money. They said we'd spend it on drugs". Sid calmly answers, "We would".

The events surrounding the murder (or was it suicide?) are shown in a very chilling manner. Since only Sid and Nancy really know what happened in the hotel room that fateful night, the director decides to go with the most likely explanation: a suicide pact.

But since this is a debatable issue Cox wisely decides to leave a lot to the viewer’s imagination. Sid overdosed and died less than a year after Nancy died, so the actual events surrounding Nancy's death will probably never be known.

If you are a fan of the Sex Pistols than this movie should be pretty hard to resist. There are several great Pistol tunes and even some of the pitiful shit that Sid did in his failed solo attempt.

Sid's surreal rendition of "My Way" brilliantly sums up the attitude of Vicious and splices in a scene of ultra-violence that addresses those aspects of his nature as well.

As sick a fuck as he was, he always did it his way and never compromised for anyone. This movie never compromises either.

Spend the extra bucks on the DVD version for a compelling documentary, a disturbing phone interview taken right before he died and the above mentioned interview with the real Sid and Nancy.

A brilliant and tragic punk parable.

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originally posted: 10/31/99 10:33:41
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