Sometimes the tragedy of a rocker’s death is as big a part of their legacy as their music; it’s a fact you see mirrored in many of the musicians taken before their time and whose deaths the world could have prevented. Though Kurt Cobain has become the poster child for such an occurrence, the flash in the pan known as The Sex Pistols, which effectively kicked off the punk rock in the UK, fell apart as Sid Vicious spiraled further and further into drug addiction and the rest of the band splintered. Egging him on along the way was Nancy Spungen, his soulmate, parasite, and enabler. Was it love or just a mutual respect for self-destructive behavior? Or maybe it was something in between. Alex Cox’s Sid & Nancy shows it all through their eyes, for better or for worse. Thanks to a brilliant performance by Gary Oldman, as Vicious, Sid & Nancy is one of the better rock star biopics ever made.
Exactly how much and which parts of Sid & Nancy actually happened in real life is subject to conflicting opinions depending on who you ask, but the film follows Sid (Oldman) already a part of The Sex Pistols, with the group functioning at a relatively coherent level. Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb), a New Yorker fawning over the Pistols as they tour pubs in the UK, collides with Sid when he asks her to buy him drugs, only to see her run off. They reconnect months later and it’s here that their romance takes off. Sid and Nancy become increasingly entwined despite their constant fighting thanks to their mutual love of mayhem and heroin. As their addictions escalate, Sid becomes unruly and all but useless in any real musical efforts. The Sex Pistols split up and Sid and Nancy are left to one another, their drugs, and their inevitable fall into oblivion.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Two featurettes cover the impact of the Sid Vicious and The Sex Pistols on the world of punk, as well as the heroin-addled love of Sid and Nancy.
"Sid & Nancy" is on sale December 27, 2011 and is rated R. Drama. Written and directed by Alex Cox. Starring Gary Oldman, Chloe Webb.
