The Filth and the Fury(2000)
dir. Julien Temple
The Sex Pistols tell their own story at last.
Where to watch: Rent only: Fandango At Home $2.99; no subscription or free streaming option listed; disc via Amazon (JustWatch US, checked 2026-09-05, re-check). Verify.Letterboxd ↗
The Sex Pistols' story told by the band themselves, in silhouette and later in plain view, with archive footage of 1970s Britain: strikes, rubbish piled in the streets, a government in crisis. Temple made the film as a reply to his own earlier mockumentary, which had given the manager Malcolm McLaren's version. Here the band speaks, with funny, defensive and sometimes heartbreaking honesty, about how four working-class kids turned a ruined country into noise.
Why it’s here
It's a film about how a band becomes a symbol and who gets to tell the story afterwards. What's punk is the whole thing: the anger at class and royalty and the speed at which it was sold. What's pedagogical is the contrast between the band's account and the manager's myth, a case study in whose version gets believed. Companion to England's Dreaming, Please Kill Me and the Punk bundle. Note: includes drug use, the death of Nancy Spungen and Sid Vicious, and offensive imagery used for shock. Temple also directed Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (suggested 11-09).
Where This Film Lives