Sid & Nancy is one of the defining films of the punk era, featuring show stopping performances from Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb. Now, director Alex Cox's punk classic is getting a restored 30th anniversary re-release. Back in UK cinemas now, on EST 22 August, and on special edition DVD/Blu-ray available 29th August.
On 4 June 1976, the Sex Pistols' gig at the Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall caused a seismic shift in the British music scene and ushered in what would later dubbed as the 'punk' era. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of this cultural milestone, Studiocanal and the Independent Cinema Office are releasing a restored Sid & Nancy into UK cinemas and on special-edition DVD/Blu-ray this month.
Not so much a tale of 'sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll' as one of 'drugs, depression and death', this harrowing 1986 drama, co-written and directed by Alex Cox (Repo Man), about the tragic life of the Sex Pistols' bass player Sid Vicious rests on Gary Oldman's ferocious performance as the drug-addled Vicious (aka John Beverly) and Chloe Webb's grating turn as his groupie American girlfriend Nancy Spungen. Cox's gruelling depiction of Sid's slow downward spiral into heroin addiction, self parody and miserable death is anything but entertainment, but as a sensitive and powerful character study, it makes for compulsive viewing.
With an original soundtrack featuring Joe Strummer and The Pogues, Sid & Nancy will follow its UK cinema re-release with a 30th-anniversary special edition Blu-ray/DVD, featuring the restored film approved by cinematographer Roger Deakins (Hail Caesar, The Shawshank Redemption), and a host of special features, including interviews with Deakins, director Alex Cox and Big Audio Dynamite's Don Letts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5H5euoZMJ4
