THERE was little love shown for Sid & Nancy, director Alex Cox’s tale of the doomed affair between Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and his American girlfriend Nancy Spungen when it first appeared in 1986 and precious little dished out for it in the subsequent three decades either.
On release it was roundly dismissed as too romanticised, too cartoonish and too factually inaccurate to be taken seriously as the definitive telling of punk rock’s most iconic and ultimately pathetic couple whose downward spiral into heroin addiction, degradation and death came to represent the end of an era in British popular culture to many.
Sure, Gary Oldman was impressive as the electrifying Sid – all bog-brush hair and Vyvyan from The Young Ones anarchy – and Chloe Webb created something truly horrifying in the whining, self-obsessed character of Nancy, but ultimately there was something missing in Cox’s wild and crazy tale.
Way too in love with itself and dangerously taken with the sordid surroundings, it struggled to find an audience.
Watching it today, in its 30th anniversary remastered edition released by Studiocanal, those valid concerns still apply. But look beyond the billowing self-satisfaction and rock and roll clichés and a fascinating slice of 1980s film-making emerges.
Cox has always made interesting films – his 1984 debut Repo Man marked him out as a maverick movie maker with fine cult credentials – and if you approach Sid & Nancy as his vision, his spin on the punk myth, there’s lots to enjoy.
Clearly inspired by punk but feeling no obligation to retell that familiar story, Cox twists the tale to his own ends. That means we get a wilfully fragmented approach that allows dreamlike interludes to take centre stage just as the story appears to be getting going.
As key moments in the Sex Pistols history happen we’re dragged off into the heads of Sid and Nancy; it’s a jarring but generally effective technique.
As the couple descend into full-blown junkiedom, however, the film grows darker. Bleak and unrelenting, the scenes of heroin addiction are tough to stomach but Cox seems to revel in their hopelessness.
Controversially the director also saw fit to end the film on a flight of fantasy that jolts to this day. In reality, Sid, released from prison on bail under suspicion of murdering Nancy, went straight out, bought more heroin and swiftly killed himself. Cox decides to wrap things up in an altogether more romantic manner, however, and has Nancy, glowing in full bridal gown, coming back down to Earth to pick up her man in a shining New York taxicab bound for punk rock heaven.
It’s a deeply flawed ending for a film that still feels oddly unfulfilling. Despite that, it still has moments that buzz with energy. Cox stamps his mark all over it and the performance from Oldham is glorious to watch.
Beautifully remastered, under supervision by cinematographer Roger Deakins, Sid & Nancy deserves a second chance. It’s not history but it’s a lively take on history as filtered through a fine director’s eye.
