Infamous Punk Mockumentary Starring The Sex Pistols And Malcolm McLaren Is An Outlandish Parade Of
Performance Footage, Animation And Impish Antics.

Generations of punk rock fans have spent the last 25 years lining up at art house theaters for midnight screenings, trading bootlegs, and watching well-worn VHS copies of the definitive punk epic The Great Rock ‘N' Roll Swindle . At long last, SONY BMG will issue the ingenious Sex Pistols mockumentary in DVD format for the first time ever. Televisions across the world will never be the same. Director Julien Temple ( The Filth & The Fury, Absolute Beginners) has contributed a new audio commentary and interview to the DVD release, which will be in-stores July 4.

Originally released to U.K. theaters in 1980, The Great Rock ‘N' Roll Swindle is a fictitious biography of the Sex Pistols (John Lydon, Sid Vicious, Paul Cook, Steve Jones) and their grandiose manager Malcolm McLaren. McLaren, in full Machiavellian swagger, divulges his recipe (albeit bogus) for creating the band – a la The Monkees - as part of a grand plan to bilk record companies and hoodwink disaffected youth around the world. Written and directed by Temple while still a film student, the movie careens back and forth between riveting performance footage (shot in England and the U.S. ) and farcical skits of the band, record company executives, and an assortment of irreverent characters. Though taken as a spoof, the film's real intent was to poke fun at, even deflate a bit, the idolatry that surrounded the band at the time. Also included are bits of news footage, archival material on the band – some real, and some phony – and amusing animated interludes. As the film's original tagline stated, The Great Rock ‘N' Roll Swindle is the film that incriminated its audience.

The Great Rock ‘N' Roll Swindle only added to the band's already riotous reputation, with scenes of Sid Vicious attacking a prostitute, a subversive concert on the Thames to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee, Johnny Lydon hitting a concertgoer with a bass guitar, and their infamous appearance on the “Bill Grundy Show.” But the Sex Pistols' music emerges as the film's biggest star. Performances of "Anarchy In The UK," "God Save The Queen," and "Holidays In The Sun" are mesmeric, while Vicious' "My Way" maintains an air of tragedy and exquisiteness at once.