The Filth and the Fury

Description

The Filth and the Fury is the second movie Julien Temple made about the Sex Pistols. His first movie was The Great Rock and Roll Swindle, which was released in British cinemas on 15 May 1980. This earlier movie was criticised for being too skewed towards the Pistols' manager Malcolm McLaren's version of events about the band. The Filth and the Fury tells the story from the viewpoint of the band members themselves (albeit in silhouette during their contemporary interviews).

The title of the film is a reference to a headline that appeared in the British tabloid newspaper The Daily Mirror on 2 December 1976 after an interview on ITV's Today presented by Bill Grundy. The title of The Daily Mirror article was itself inspired by William Faulkner's novel The Sound and the Fury which was in turn taken from a line in Macbeth.

Temple's documentary narrates the rise, decline and fall of the Sex Pistols from their humble beginnings in London's Shepherd's Bush to their disintegration at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. Temple puts the band into historical context with Britain's social situation in the 1970s through archival footage from the period. This film was promoted as an opportunity for the Pistols to tell their perspective of the story mostly through interviews with the surviving members of the group, footage shot during the era, and outtakes from The Great Rock and Roll Swindle.

Reception

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half out of four stars.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to the film was released in 2002. The two-disc set contains songs by the Sex Pistols as well as music from other artists that was used in the film. ;Disc one

1. "God Save the Queen (Symphony)"
2. "Shang-a-Lang" – Bay City Rollers
3. "Pictures of Lily" – The Who
4. "Virginia Plain" – Roxy Music
5. "School's Out" – Alice Cooper
6. "Skinhead Moonstomp" – Symarip
7. "Glass of Champagne" – Sailor
8. "Through My Eyes" – The Creation
9. "The Jean Genie" – David Bowie
10. "I'm Eighteen" – Alice Cooper
11. "Submission"
12. "Don't Gimme No Lip Child"
13. "What'cha Gonna Do About It"
14. "Road Runner"
15. "Substitute"
16. "Seventeen"

;Disc two

1. "Anarchy in the UK"
2. "Pretty Vacant"
3. "Did You No Wrong"
4. "Liar"
5. "EMI"
6. "No Feelings"
7. "I Wanna Be Me"
8. "Way Over (In Dub)" – Tapper Zukie
9. "Looking for a Kiss" – New York Dolls
10. "Holidays in the Sun"
11. "No Fun"

Notes

References

References

1. Bradshaw, Peter. (12 May 2000). "Review: The Filth and the Fury". [[The Guardian]].
2. Vagg, Stephen. (18 December 2025). "Forgotten British Film Moguls: Al Clark".
3. Ebert, Roger. (April 7, 2000). "The Filth and the Fury".
4. Sinker, Mark. (June 2000). "The Filth and the Fury". [[Sight and Sound]].