A look at the life and love of Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman) and Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb), two ‘70s Punk Rock iconoclasts whose ferocious lifestyle led to success, anarchy and tragedy as seen through the eyes of equally idiosyncratic filmmaker Alex Cox (Repo Man).

CRITIQUE

Sid and Nancy is Alex Cox’s best movie as a director. Sure Repo Man deserves its devote legions of cult followers, but as far as pure filmmaking greatness is concerned this energetic and frenzied 1986 rock-fueled riot of sex, drugs and rock and roll simply cannot be beat. A visually audacious marvel, Cox’s hypothesis of what made Sex Pistols bassist Sid and band groupie Nancy come together, stay together and mutually fall to pieces is a sensational effort that keeps the viewer engrossed every step of the way. It is a masterful what-if biopic, and while I have no idea how accurate it actually is even after 25 years that fact alone doesn’t make the picture itself any less phenomenal.

Tough, uncompromising and brutal, Cox and fellow screenwriter Abbe Wool take the anarchists Punk Rock view and take it to its zenith. This isn’t an easy movie, isn’t a happy frolic through the streets of Liverpool or the sheets of Los Angeles’ Chelsea Hotel, and in all honesty it probably shouldn’t be. These were self destructive people living on the edge, straddling a razor-sharp line eager to cut those walking its tightrope bloodily in half.

Yet Cox finds the humanity in this relationship that’s sometimes startling. The way Sid wins Nancy over to his side, the way she touches his face, the way they sit together in relative piece during an infrequent moment of quiet, these sorts of moments speak volumes. The storm’s chaos recedes to reveal something heartfelt and universal, and even in Thatcher’s England or Reagan’s America, just the type of world the Sex Pistols made no bones of railing against, the pair find a blissful sort of piece belying the anarchy – both self-created and politically generated – bubbling around them.

Before Gary Oldman became Gary Oldman, it was films like this and Prick Up Your Ears that made him an actor of merit filmmakers like Luc Besson, Frances Ford Copolla and Tony Scott would become eager to work with. He is Sid Vicious, his uncompromising portrait one of the indelible performances of the actor’s entire career. The way he shifts gears, the fearlessness in which he approaches all of the man’s volatile emotional states, all of it astonishes, and it’s easy to see why over the last quarter century he’s become one of the more respected and sought after talents of his entire generation.

But Webb is even better if you can believe. Nancy is not a likable character. She’s oftentimes shrill and obnoxious, trending to moments of emotional brutality that make me cringe. Yet somehow she finds the humanity simmering beneath the surface of this codependent junkie, the actress finding a beauty within the pandemonium that always strike me as wretchedly endearing.

The final scenes are completely one-of-kind, bordering on hypnotic, taking the film to an entirely different plain than one would typically expect. Staggeringly well shot by the great Roger Deakins, featuring a soundtrack composed by Joe Strummer, Pray for Rain and The Pogues and spectacularly edited by David Martin, Cox’s dynamic hypothesis in regards to Nancy’s relationship with Sid is a glorious assault on the senses that gets better and better as the years go by. Sid and Nancy is a unique biopic that’s as much about its eccentric director as it is about its volatile subjects, and as songs go this is one the audience will undoubtedly be awestruck by from first downbeat to last strum of the electric guitar.

THE VIDEO

Sid and Nancy is presented on a dual-layer 50GB Blu-ray MPEG-4 AVC Video with a 1080p 1.85:1 transfer.

THE AUDIO

Sid and Nancy comes to Blu-ray in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and includes optional English SDH subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

Extras here are ported over from the previous MGM DVD release but NOT the Criterion DVD from a few years prior) and include:

·         For the Love of Punk (15:46) – Interesting retrospective featurette showcasing interviews with fans of the film and those knowledgeable about the real Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen. It’s a good extra, but one does wish a few more of those who actually participated in the film’s making would have added their voice to the proceedings.

·         Junk Love (15:30) – Stronger short talking about the real life Sid and Nancy offering up differing interpretations of some of the signature moments of the pair’s ribald and frenetic (and ultimately tragic) life.

·         Original Theatrical Trailer (2:02)

FINAL THOUGHTS

Considering the price and the quality of the high-definition transfer, MGM’s Blu-ray of Sid and Nancy is easy to recommend. While one hopes Criterion will one day get their hands on the title again at some point in the future, until then this is a release any fan with a Blu-ray player would be happy to call their own.