The short, sad lives of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen are captured in harrowingly graphic detail in Alex Cox’s Sid and Nancy. Doing a masterful job of portraying the look and feel of the punk rock era of the 1970s, Sid and Nancy is not a feel good viewing experience, and while the movie isn’t perceptive enough to help us burrow beneath the outer shells of these two wayward youths to allow us to see what makes them tick, it does celebrate in its own strange way a kind of punk rock Romeo and Juliet doomed from their first meeting to live and love in the moment with no regard for their eventual ends.
Sid and Nancy: Collector’s Edition (Blu-ray)
Directed by Alex Cox
Studio: MGM/UA
Year: 1986
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 113 minutes
Rating: R
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English
Subtitles: SDH
Region: A
MSRP: $24.99
Release Date: December 27, 2011
Review Date: January 6, 2012
The Film
3.5/5
Springing to life in grunge London clubs and pubs, the Sex Pistols finds its bass guitarist Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman) possessing little musical talent but a charismatic allure for destruction that makes them the hottest punk band on either side of the Atlantic. American groupie Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb) expects a quick one night stand with Sid but is surprised when he asks her to stay with him, an invitation she takes full advantage of eventually becoming the annoying presence that alienates Sid from the group. Later, she becomes Sid’s manager as a solo act in America, but the couple is much more interested in getting and staying high than in any serious attempts to make music.
Alex Cox and Abbe Wool’s screenplay doesn’t give us much background information about either of its title characters, so as a film biography, Sid and Nancy is not going to give those interested in their roots much information. And, we don’t see Sid’s motivation for his discontent and anarchist tendencies; director Cox seems content to show us his complete disregard for property in his wild, rebellious state (which, according to the disc’s bonus features, was an act he learned to play: the role expected of him in life, something that might have made the film richer had it been shown to us) and leave it at that. We do get up close and personal views of the music scene and the drug culture that traveled with the band and in which Sid and Nancy quite wholeheartedly took part. In fact, the film’s last hour is a downward spiral of drug and alcohol-induced stupor for both characters in which music is the last thing on their minds, and the graphic views of the couple’s drug taking, their hallucinogenic-fueled arguments and behavior make for discomforting viewing. The director tries some self-conscious stabs at artiness: a surreal version of “My Way” with Sid’s off-key vocals and loathing for the audience, a love scene at an alley’s dumpster while garbage rains down on and around them in slow motion, but these seem like random afterthoughts not quite in synch with the more lurid aspects of Sid and Nancy’s squalid story. Better is a sleek transition from night to day as Sid enters one pub and exits from another seemingly without the camera having moved. The depiction of Nancy’s stabbing murder is murkily handled (of course, the facts were vague due to Sid’s drug-fueled intoxication) and with a tacked-on upbeat fantasy ending allowing Sid to die off screen rather than on, the movie’s tone seems a bit garbled by these writer-director choices.
Over the course of a year, Gary Oldman scored a one-two thespian punch portraying two of Britain’s most notorious bad boys: Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy and playwright Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears. His performance here is galvanizing, a stunning, über-realistic depiction of an addictive personality, weak enough to be manipulated by stronger forces and one willing to play his part for the surface rewards it could offer. Chloe Webb seems to be accurately channeling the annoying, demanding Nancy Spungen of record, and the symbiotic relationship of these two combustible personalities makes for one of the screen’s most memorable (if completely depressing) duos. Andrew Schofield, Perry Benson, and Tony London portray other members of the Sex Pistols with precision while David Hayman as their roadie and Xander Berkeley as the couple’s New York drug connection make solid impressions in colorful parts.
Video Quality
4/5
The film has been framed at its theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. Capturing the sordid tone of the story, the grays and pale colors show up very well in this transfer. Sharpness is good though long shots sometimes have a tendency toward softness. Flesh tones (chalky skin color with a fair amount of discoloration) seem natural for these denizens of the night. Black levels are fairly good but are not the deepest possible. The film has been divided into 32 chapters.
Audio Quality
4/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix features directionalized dialogue on occasion, and while some of the center channel dialogue isn’t always intelligible, that’s due to the mumbling of the actors in their drug-induced states and the sometimes thick British accents. The punk rock music fills the soundstage with its throbbing beat and deep bass though ambient sounds in the clubs aren’t exploited as well in the available channels. The LFE channel gets a nice workout with this title.
Special Features
2.5/5
“For the Love of Punk” is a 15 ¾-minute featurette featuring music critics and historians, deejays, friends of Sid and Nancy, and movie critic Owen Gleiberman discussing the punk rock scene of the 1970s and Sid and Nancy’s role in it. It’s in 480i.
These same authorities (excluding Owen Gleiberman) give us background on the real Sid and Nancy in “Junk Love,” a 15 ½-minute mini-biography of the couple discussed by people who knew them. It’s also in 480i.
The film’s theatrical trailer runs for 2 minutes in 1080p.
In Conclusion
3.5/5 (not an average)
Bleak and more than a bit depressing, Sid and Nancy shines a light on two lost souls doomed by their addictions. The Blu-ray offers a very good video and audio representation of the film with additional sobering insights on the two real-life personalities by those who knew them.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC