The cult biopic that details the life and death of Sex Pistols’ bassist Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen is being reissued this year!
CIRCA 1986: Actor Gary Oldman and actress Chloe Webb on the set of the movie “Sid and Nancy”, circa 1986. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
By: Martin Dunn
So, I have a confession to make. I had no idea who the Sex Pistols were until I heard Kurt Cobain lament on how much he loved them. It was the early 90’s and up until Cobain praised the Pistols, I was still discovering bands like Descendents, Minor Threat, Circle Jerks and Black Flag. After hearing about this band that helped forge Punk Rock, I had to seek them out.
Now, this was before the days of google. We didn’t have YouTube, so I had to go to record stores to find music. The dead end town I grew up in didn’t have much going for it, however, there was this shop called “CD’s and Tapes”. I hit up CD’s and Tapes and was granted my first ever copy of “Nevermind the Bollocks” on cassette. I played that tape so much that the writing on the cassette was almost unreadable.
A couple years after this, I stumbled across Alex Cox’s 1986 film “Sid & Nancy” at another ancient of places. Video World. (We used to have to go to stores to netflix)
This film pretty much established 2 things for me. My love of Gary Oldman and my morbid obsession with Sid Vicious’s death. This film gives you the cliff’s notes (Cliff knew everything) of the lives and deaths of Sex Pistols Bassist Sid Vicious and his girlfriend and potential murder victim Nancy Spungen (played by Chloe Webb, you probably know her as Monica from the US version of Shameless.)
The movie is being restored for the Criterion Collection which excites me quite a bit. I’ve been hunting for a good version of this movie for months. The Criterion Collected edition will be dropping on August 22nd. It’s being released for the first time in 4k digital restored with an uncompressed soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition. Along with the fantastic movie, it also will include the 1987 documentary on the film, England’s Glory, as well an infamous televised 1976 interview with the Sex Pistols. PLUS, a rare telephone interview with Sid Vicious and an accompanying booklet features an essay from Jon Savage (author of England’s Dreaming).
Sound off in the comments if you are as excited as I am about this!
Check out the new cover art and trailer for the film below!
