7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 3.8 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
The raucous, romantic and sordid tale of Sid Vicious, a member of the legendary British punk group, The Sex Pistols, and his doomed relationship with his American girlfriend, Nancy Spungen.
Starring: Gary Oldman, Chloe Webb, Andrew Schofield, David Hayman, Courtney LoveDrama | 100% |
Music | 29% |
Biography | 4% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A sturdy cliche holds that a screen performer is either an actor or a movie star, that he (or she) either disappears into a character or infuses the character with a star persona the audience already knows. Tom Cruise is a movie star; Philip Seymour Hoffman is an actor. Occasionally, a truly exceptional talent -- say, Meryl Streep or Jack Nicholson in his prime -- manages to be both. It's hard to remember now, but when Sid and Nancy was released in 1986, Gary Oldman could get away with being an actor. No one knew him then, especially in America, and he could disappear into the role of Sid Vicious, the legendary bass player of the even more legendary punk rock band, the Sex Pistols, who had died in 1979 of a heroin overdose at age 21. Oldman may not be exactly a movie star today, but he's immediately recognizable, because he's spent twenty-five years putting his stamp on one vivid character after another: Lt. (later Commissioner) Gordon in the Batman films, Sirius Black in Harry Potter, Mason Verger in Hannibal, Senator Runyon in The Contender, Dr. Smith in Lost in Space, the Russian terrorist Ivan Korshunov in Air Force One, Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK, a pair of eccentric villians for Luc Besson (Zorg in The Fifth Element and Stansfield in Leon, The Professional), the Irish gangster Jackie Flannery in State of Grace, the would-be black pimp Drexl in True Romance and, perhaps his most theatrical role of all, Dracula in Francis Coppola's reimagining of the Bram Stoker novel. It's almost impossible now to watch Oldman's Sid Vicious without some awareness of this resume, because all these characters have something in common: They're all extreme in some way, even if whatever's extreme about them is kept tightly coiled up inside. You don't cast Gary Oldman to play someone ordinary. You cast him when you want an actor who can reach places (or at least suggest them) where normal people don't go. That's why director Alex Cox cast him as Sid Vicious, a personality who was more an idea than a performer, who most people had heard of but never seen, and who had to be portrayed in the face of expectations that would intimidate most actors into a fetal position. But not Oldman. He'd grown up in the same part of London as Vicious, he knew the accent and the background, and he appears to have relished the darkness of the material. Sid's old bandmate, Johnny Rotten, would eventually disavow the entire film, but as Oldman's Sid says in the film, "He doesn't like anybody. He's a fool." Others who knew Vicious say Oldman got it right. Who else could have come close?
Sid and Nancy was photographed by Roger Deakins, who has since become one of the industry's most respected cinematographers. Best known for his many collaborations with the Coen Brothers, Deakins' work can be found in such a variety of films (including The Company Men, The Reader and Doubt) that it's hard to say he has a signature "style". He suits his camera work to whatever the material needs. In Sid and Nancy, Deakins brings out the squalor and chaos of the punk scene, both in London and New York. It's not just a matter of the urban decay from which these characters originated and to which they naturally seemed to gravitate. They carry these qualities with them, especially as Sid follows Nancy down the ladder of drug addiction. Deakins' gift is that he make can almost anything visually interesting, even places you'd shrink from entering in real life. MGM's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is truly impressive, capturing depth and detail in apartments, tour buses, street scenes, subways and clubs in various states of anarchy throughout the film's running time. Black levels are excellent, which is essential given the dark clothing that Sid favors and the nighttime hours that he and Nancy keep. There aren't a lot of bright colors in this world, but when there are, they stand out. Many examples occur in the mock audience featured in the "My Way" video at just about the midpoint of the film. Its closing sequence on the disco-lighting steps is almost a panel from a graphic novel, and it will expose any shortcomings in your monitor's calibration for brightness (black level) and contrast (white level). Grain is evident throughout the presentation, but it's unobtrusive, well-controlled, natural-looking and film-like. I saw no high-frequency filtering, transfer-induced ringing, compression artifacts or other inappropriate digital tampering.
On the 1998 Criterion DVD and the 2000 MGM DVD, the film's soundtrack was presented in Dolby Stereo. For this Blu-ray, the soundtrack has been remixed for 5.1 and is presented in DTS lossless. Like most such 5.1 mixes, this one remains front-centered as far as dialogue and effects are concerned. However, the musical elements are given a much broader and deeper soundstage, and in a movie about musicians (at least in part), that's an important enhancement. Bass extension is powerful enough to give you the feeling of being in a club without damaging anyone's hearing or blowing down walls. The soundtrack is credited to Pray for Rain, with significant contributions by The Pogues, Joe Strummer and others. And, of course, Oldman himself contributes several key vocals.
It's an MGM film released on Blu-ray by Fox; so, as has become standard, there's BD-Java encoding, no main menu and no bookmark feature. If you want to take a break during playback, "pause" is your only option. The two featurettes have copyright dates of 2007. As far as I can tell, they have not previously been released.
Alex Cox hasn't enjoyed much success as a filmmaker in recent years, and I suspect (and the extras on this disc tend to confirm) that it's because he shares the same rebellious ethic that spawned Sid Vicious and the Sex Pistols. Much of Cox's best work was done in the Eighties, probably as a protest against societies on both sides of the Atlantic that had grown weary of all the negativity and wanted to experience something positive. Among its many other qualities, Sid and Nancy can be seen as Cox's personal protest that shiny happy people aren't to be trusted, whether in Margaret Thatcher's England or Ronald Reagan's America. For Cox as for Sid Vicious, the world is a rusty refuse heap of civilization's leavings, and the best one can do is hope for a kiss and a cuddle (in the film's signature image) as the garbage rains down around you. It may not be the most joyful of messages, but the Blu-ray is highly recommended.
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