Great Rock N Roll Swindle, The

Released by: Videoarts Music
Released on 9/25/2003
Director: Julien Temple
Cast: Malcolm McLaren, Steve Jones, Sid Vicious, Paul Cook, John Lydon, Mary Millington, Edward Tudorpole, Ronald Biggs
Year: 1980

The Movie:

Originally titled Who Killed Bambi? and slated to be directed by none other than Russ Meyer, Julien Temple's The Great Rock N Roll Swindle is basically a strange version of the history of the Sex Pistols told from manager Malcolm McLaren's very skewed point of view.

The basic premise of McLaren's take on things is that the rise of the Sex Pistols to their notoriety at the time was all a carefully orchestrated scam on his part to make a whole lot of money really fast without much effort. Hence, the title of the film. The story is told through a series of little set pieces involving some nasty little animated bits and pieces, some punk rock midgets (love me some midgets, I do), a whole range of musical performances, and a special appearance from none other than Ronnie Biggs.

The band members all play themselves in the film, which gives the movie an almost documentary feel at times, but for the most part it doesn't even try to be anything but completely fictionalized. The irony behind the film being that McLaren, who hoarded most of the money that the band managed to make in their heyday, is rumored to have wasted the majority of it on this film.

While the movie might not make a lot of sense storywise, there is definitely a reason to sit through it all - the music. Not only are there are few classic Sex Pistols performances continaed in this feature, but there are a couple of solo tracks from Sid Vicious and of course, even some contributions from the one and only Eddie Tudorpole (who at one point was slated to replace Lydon as the band's frontman). The songs perfromed in the film are The Great Rock'n' Roll Swindle, Anarchy In The UK, Johnny B Good, You Need Hands, No Feelings, Silly Thing, Rock Around The Clock, Bodies, God Save the Queen, Pretty Vacant, Somethin' Else, Lonely Boy, C'mon Everybody, Belsen Was a Gas, No Fun, Who Killed Bambi and Sid's amazing cover of Frank Sinatra's My Way (which, given the time it was done and the way that it ends, is almost a little creepy in retrospective).

Exploitation fans should be quick to notice an appearance from the late British sex pot Mary Millington (of Eskimo Nell and early hardcore fame) in a small role as Steve Jones' girlfriend. Director Julien Temple, who had cut his teeth a little earlier on the U.K. Subs mockumentary, Punk Can Take It (also starring Edward Tudorpole), would later go on to do Absolute Beginners (again with Edward Tudorpole) and Earth Girls Are Easy (sadly, not starring Edward Tudorpole). In an odd twist of fate, Temple then would revisit familiar territory in 2000 with his more accurate documentary on the Sex Pistols, The Filth And The Fury.

Video/Audio/Extras:

The film is shown fullscreen at 1.37.1 which is how the movie was shot. Colors look pretty good if just ever so slightly faded in a couple of scenes. There is some mild edge enhancement throughout the picture but no problems with mpeg compression artifacts. Black levels stay pretty strong and there's a decent level of detail present during the presentation. The image quality won't wow you but it looks better than the VHS releases from ages ago and looks just as good as the laserdisc release did (which could be where this transfer is sourced from).

The film is presented in its original Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono mix with optional Japanese subtitles. Clarity on this mix is fine, though there is a little bit of hiss present in a couple of scenes. The music and dialogue are mixed together nicely and the levels are well balanced. This isn't going to blow your speakers with its amazing depth and range, but it does get the job done well enough.

There are no extra features on this DVD at all. It's a Goddamn travesty that no one hunted down Eddie Tudorpole for an audio commentary of featurette. That man just does not get enough credit.

The Final Word:

While the lack of supplements on this Japanese release of The Great Rock N Roll Swindle is unfortunate, the movie looks and sounds pretty decent and despite the fact that the film is pretty much just an hour and a half of McLaren stroking his own ego, it's still got enough wonky punk rock goofiness in it to make it worth a watch.