Sid & Nancy [VHS]

  

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Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780792839644
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, Original recording reissued, NTSC
ISBN: 0792839641
Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Release Date: November 03, 1998
Running Time: 112 minutes
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Theatrical Release Date: November 07, 1986



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Editorial Review:

Amazon.com:
After the cultish success of Repo Man, maverick director Alex Cox made the film that remains his masterpiece--a loud, brash, abrasive, painful, funny, and utterly brilliant screen biography of British punk rocker Sid Vicious and his American girlfriend Nancy Spungen. As played to perfection by Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb, Sid and Nancy are made for each other, serving their mutual strengths and weaknesses and rising with the punk-rock fame of Sid's group, the Sex Pistols, while falling into the ultimately lethal pit of drug abuse. Cox doesn't pull any punches or compromise the unsavory aspects of this passionate love story, so the film presents a harsh mix of emotional and physical anguish tempered by the very poignant and genuine love shared by its tormented central characters. Through it all, the film emerges as an intimate and yet oddly epic chronicle of punk's glory days of anarchic sex, drugs and rock & roll. It's as dynamic and confidently directed as any screen biography before or since, no less fascinating for its unpleasant aspects as for the touching emotions at its very human core. --Jeff Shannon



Customer Reviews
Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars - cute, though inaccurate.
It was a cute movie and Gary Oldman's performance was splendid, though the character felt somewhat empty--more out of bad writing than bad acting. And Johnny Rotten.. he was portrayed as absolutely dull, unenthusiastic, and lacked any and all of what made him awesome. There was none of the attitude or charisma, and his overall demeanor was terribly unappealing. Even the stage performances felt forced and lazy. This aspect disappointed me the most. It was as though he didn't even try. But if you can ignore the inaccuracies and emptiness of spirit it's a pretty decent movie, as an idealistic fantasy surrounding the tragic relationship between Sid and Nancy. I guess that's just to be expected when the movie is created without actually consulting anyone that really knew the people being portrayed. ;]


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - a very sobering movie about two lives ruined by drugs.
sid and nancy is a very sobering movie about sid vicious and nancy spungen and their exploits while under the influence of drugs.through the movie you realize sid would probably still bw alive today if he had never met nancy.gary oldman gives a spot on performance as sid vicious.


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - A downward spiral for two
Sex, drugs, rock'n'roll. "Sid and Nancy" are crammed to the brim with those things, as well as a massive helping of death. This biopic follows the love affair between Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen, set in the grimy, bloody, filthy punk subculture of the era -- and Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb are absolutely amazing.

Vicious (Oldman) was part of rising punk band the Sex Pistols when he met Spungen (Webb), an American groupie whom he finds oddly fascinating, despite the fact that her voice could etch glass. They also fight all the time, but make up just as fast.

So much to the disgust of the other Sex Pistols (especially Johnny Rotten) begin a passionate affair full of love, hate, sex and heroin addiction; Vicious lost focus on the band and drifting out on his own with Nancy. Little by little, the lovers slid into a hell of drugs, squalor and self-loathing -- until the day when Spungen died of a stab wound in the Chelsea Hotel.

They say that a lot of "Sid and Nancy" is fictionalized, but I'll freely admit that I'm not sure how much was. One thing is for sure -- the movie is a raw, painfully bleak experience occasionally lightened by moments of actual love and romance, but mostly overshadowed by the drugs and violence that were always present in Spungen and Vicious' relationship.

Alex Cox also does a brilliant job painting the punk subculture of the time -- lots of nastiness, screaming, blood, grime, garbage-filled alleys and howling music. And he spends the entire movie slowly sliding Spungen and Vicious down into their own private hell, alienating everybody and wrecking their bodies with drugs. The most horrible part is that he really makes you FEEL how they started with the world at their feet, but ended up in a world as small as their squalid hotel room.

The only problem is that sometimes he goes a bit overboard on the symbolism. Think garbage raining down like flowers during a Sid/Nancy kiss, or the weird prophetic dream where Sid shoots a "punk angel" Nancy only to have her come up onstage and embrace him.

Oldman and Webb are absolutely stunning in this role -- Oldman's face isn't quite like Vicious', but his mumbling emaciated performance is perfect. And every time you start to get sick of Vicious' antics, Oldman makes you feel sorry for him. And Webb's portrayal of Nancy is shrill and annoying enough to peel paint ("Whyyyyyyy?! I aaaaaaam noooooot! We are SO maaarried!"), but it's absolutely spot-on.

"Sid and Nancy" leaves you wondering if it's a rock'n'roll love story, or the tragic slide of two junkies into oblivion. Or, you know, both.


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Sid Vicious
dope movie, seriously Sid and Nancy use a lot of dope hahaha. This movie was awesome with great actors and crazy scenarios. Buy it


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - THE BEST ROCK PORTRAIT EVER
I was only moderately interested in punk rock until this movie came out, and I have never been much of a fan of bio-pics ( though Val Kilmer's spot on version of Jim Morrison was excellent ), but Alex Cox got everything right on this explosive exploration of one of the lasting icons of punk. Chloe Webb was exceptional as Sid's, needy, whiny, girlfriend, Nancy, but why Gary Oldman was not at least nominated for an Oscar for his phenomenal portrayal of Sid Vicious is beyond me ( the sad thing is that throughout his incredible career, Oldman has still not been nominated by the Academy ).

This film is disturbing, gut-wrenching, funny, ascerbic, depressing, and transcendent by turns, but there is a heavy core of honesty to it that stays with you. Joe Strummer's soundtrack is also pretty impressive.