The Sex Pistols - An Alternative History

Decent retelling of a well-told tale

Long-time Pistols biographer Alan Parker pops up rather a lot these days as a talking head, so it’s no surprise that he’s directed his own version of the Pistols story here. Featuring a host of originals, including a typically-animated Malcolm McLaren and an affable but sbored Glen Matlock, Steve Diggle and members of the Pistols crew, there’s an authority to this latest retelling that’s admirable.

As is the nature of unofficial releases, there’s no direct footage of the Pistols themselves (Matlock aside) or any contemporary footage or music. Colour and cutaways from the rather static chatter are provided by some great still pictures collated from various sources, and some not-so-great re-enactments of Pistols moments by tribute band The Sex Pistols Experience. Good musicians they may well be, but in the nicest possible way, actors they are not.

Generally, it’s a decent diversion for just under two hours. If this is the first contact a kid’s going to have with the story, it does the job well and, with Parker’s near-obsessive research of two decades to draw on, it’s also an informative and even-handed offering that would possibly have engaged better as a characteristically absorbing book.

Demon Vision | DEMONDVDM 014

Reviewed by Joe Shooman
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