For our twelfth week of class, we watched Sid & Nancy, a cult film based off the lives of Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungeon. In the past, we’ve discussed how cult films often include taboo elements that main stream society finds offensive. Gore, violence, homosexuality, and drugs are themes Hollywood tends to avoid when looking for a box office hit. But director Alex Cox wasn’t looking for box office records when filming Sid and Nancy—he was going for realism.

As our reading of Spectacular Recuperation: Alex Cox Sid & Nancy states, historical films can be risky. There is a fine line between retelling events and twisting facts. At what point does using a creative licence to fill in the blanks do more harm than good?

The story of Sid and Nancy is also the story of Punk Rock. First popularized in the late 70’s, punk is a music genre born from chaos. London and New York City were lawless cities, with druggies in every ally and gangs fighting on every street. England in particular was faced with high unemployment, and there was much distrust between the older and younger generations. This was due to the heavy drug usage and ‘hippie’ movements that are now an iconic staple of the decade.

While Dazed and Confused and Detroit Rock City both showed the use of pot in their films, Sid and Nancy focuses on a less enjoyable drug—heroin. Overall drugs play an important role in cult films. As stated in our reading of Cult Cinema and Drugs, drugs tended to define their users. Some subcultures of hippie groups would distinguish themselves by their choice of drug. In many ways drugs have defined generations.  Surprisingly, drugs have been in cinema since the creation of film, the first being a 30 second shot for an opium den in 1894.

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I will be completely honest here—I did not understand what was going on for the first half of the film. All anyone did on screen was shout, curse and mumble in thick accents that made them near impossible to understand. Eventually I just paused the film so I could look up what the hell was going on. I had never heard of Sid Vicious or Nancy Spungeon. I guess only the craziest stories can be true. While not a movie I enjoyed, everything about this film screams cult. Heavy drug usage, rebel punk band, gritty realism, two lead characters who you can’t decide wither to pity or hate—everything stood out. At the end of the film, I had more questions than answers. How did Nancy even get to London? Where did Sid die? How the hell did they keep getting money to do drug? Why did the hotel manager let them stay after they set the place on fire?!

My favorite shot in this film was Sid’s dream sequence, after the band breaks up in New York City. It was so bizarre, kind of like Suspiria meets Valerie’s Week of Wonders but less whimsy and more murder. I’d like to end this blog with a question—what did you all think of Nancy? I pitied her, especially after her family kicks her out of the house towards the end of the film. But I also pitied those who had to deal with her. My biggest question from the film was what turned her into such a mess? Then again I guess the answer is pretty obvious.

Don’t do heroin guys.