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The Filth and the Fury is a 2000 British rockumentary film directed by Julien Temple.[1] It follows the story of punk rock pioneers the Sex Pistols from their humble beginnings in London's Shepherd's Bush to their fall at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. It is considered a continuation of Temple's first documentary centered on the band, titled The Great Rock and Roll Swindle, but acts as an opportunity for the surviving members of the group to tell their side of the story.
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,[1] which was released in British cinemas on 15 May 1980.[citation needed] This earlier movie was criticised for being too skewed towards the Pistols' manager Malcolm McLaren's version of events about the band.[1][a]The Filth and the Fury tells the story from the viewpoint of the band members themselves (albeit in silhouette during their contemporary interviews).[1]
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.[citation needed] 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.[3]
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.
^So Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian called the earlier movie "a gloating partisan account of the Sex Pistols from the point of view of their hated manager";[1] critic Roger Ebert, who had worked with McLaren and the band, called it "a version of the Pistols story supplied by Malcolm McLaren, their infamously self-promoting manager".[2]