Plot
Guitarist Steve Jones plays a shady private detective who through a series of set piece acts uncovers the truth about the band. [2] Drummer Paul Cook and bass guitarist Sid Vicious play smaller roles, and the band's manager, Malcolm McLaren, is featured as "The Embezzler", the man who manipulates the Sex Pistols. Fugitive train robber Ronnie Biggs, performer Edward Tudor-Pole, sex film star Mary Millington, and actresses Irene Handl and Liz Fraser also make appearances. Singer and frontman Johnny Rotten refused to have anything to do with the film, stating that it was "a pile of rubbish" and "Malcolm's vision of what he believed; not true in any form". [2]
The movie tells a stylised fictional account of the formation, rise and subsequent break-up of the band, from the point of view of their then manager, McLaren, and it begins with a bonfire of Sex Pistols merchandise. [2] In the film McLaren claims to have created the Sex Pistols (in truth, they were already formed, and Jones and Cook asked him to be their manager), and manipulated them to the top of the music business, using them as puppets to both further his own agenda (in his own words: "Cash from chaos"), and to claim the financial rewards from the various record labels the band were signed to during their brief existence as EMI, A&M, Virgin, and Warner Bros. Records. [1]
Background
The film was initially conceived by manager Malcolm McClaren as way to break into the American market, preferring it over the release of an album or Single. And due to the bands fondness of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Russ Meyer was signed on as Director, bringing in Roger Ebert as the films writer. [3]
Ebert eventually came up with the screenplays Anarchy in the UK which at his request was changed to Who killed Bambi? referencing a scene in the film in which a deer is killed, as well as the song of the same name which was to be featured in the film but eventually ended up, like with many parts from it, in the Swindle. [4]
Eventually, the film fell to ruin, after many clashes between Meyer and McClaren, culminating in a diasterous first day of shooting in which McClaren was unable to pay for Electricians for the film, having Meyer and his crew dropping out almost immediately. Soon enough, Julien Temple was brought on after having produced a series of short films on the Pistols, working with some of the material produced for Who killed Bambi. [3] [4] [5] [6]
The title of the film was inspired by an article written by skiffle musician Lonnie Donegan in the 1950s titled "Rock and Roll – It's a Swindle". A copy of the article resides in the Jamie Reid archive at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. [7]
The footage was filmed in early to mid-1978, between the departure of singer John Lydon from the band and their subsequent split. The movie was finally released nearly two years later. Lydon (who was listed in the credits as "The Collaborator") and original bass guitarist Glen Matlock only appear in archive footage — Lydon refused to have anything to do with the production.
The film was shown at the wake of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis after his 1980 suicide. [8]
The 2000 documentary The Filth and the Fury , also directed by Julien Temple, re-tells the story of the Sex Pistols from the perspective of the band, thus serving as a response to and rebuttal of McLaren's insistence that he was the driving creative force of the band. [1]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
