Movies - Sid and Nancy

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	Movies - Sid and Nancy

Sid and Nancy is a movie directed by Alex Cox and released in 1986 (see 1986 in film). Originally titled Love Kills, Sid and Nancy emerged during a period of renewed fascination in the life of the Sex Pistols member Sid Vicious, and stars Gary Oldman as Sid and Chloe Webb as his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen.

The movie is largely based on the mutually destructive, drug and sex filled relationship between Sid and his girlfriend. Sid's mother Anne Beverly initially tried to prevent the movie from being made but after meeting with Alex Cox she decided to help the production. Some of the supporting characters are composites, invented to streamline the plot.

Gary Oldman slimmed down to play the extremely lanky Sid and the uncanny resemblance has been widely noted (Oldman even wore Sid's own trademark heavy metal chain and padlock in the movie). In his book Sid Vicious: Rock N' Roll Star, Malcolm Butt described Webb's performance as Nancy as "intense, powerful, and most important of all, believable." Courtney Love narrowly missed out on the role and was cast instead in a minor part as Nancy's friend Gretchen. Love is reported to have pleaded, "I am Nancy Spungen." Cox was impressed by Love's audition but has said the film's investors insisted on an experienced actor for the co-leading role. Cox later cast her as the lead in his movie Straight to Hell
alongside Joe Strummer.

Webb and Oldman improvised the dialog heard in the scene leading up to Spungen's death, from interviews and other materials available to them. The stabbing scene is fictionalized and based only on conjecture. Alex Cox told the New Musical Express: "We wanted to make the film not just about Sid Vicious and punk, but as an anti-drugs statement, to show the degradation caused to various people is not at all glamorous."

The film has been referred to as a punk Romeo and Juliet and was hailed by most critics, although some expressed concern that it indeed glamorized drug use while others have criticized the portrayal of Sid's friend and ex-colleague John Lydon as too abrasive and one-dimensional. Lydon himself strongly condemned the film for its inaccuracies (the baked beans scene at Linda's has often been cited as an example of behavior wholly invented by the screenwriters).

US Rating: R, for drug use, language, violence, sexuality and nudity.

Features original underscore by Pray for Rain, Joe Strummer and The Pogues.

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