Kiss This

The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle (1980)

Julien Temple’s film is basically Malcolm McLaren’s rewrite of The Sex Pistols history, as lessons in business in how he planned everything, by the man himself. Even taking aside the fact that if McLaren is such a genius, how was he never able to repeat this success with his other bands, the film does make an interesting bookend and counterpoint to The Filth and the Fury(2000), Temple’s excellent documentary of the band members versions of events, where unsurprisingly McLaren is portrayed as a clueless buffoon(often in footage used to impress earlier) and opportunist, as amazed as anyone else at the outcry. Indeed, the best pieces of Swindle- the animation, band performance footage, and talking heads are recycled for the later doc. While what is left is hardly illuminating or of historic value, you can’t say a naked McLaren in the bath lecturing(which he does a lot) to an obviously underage naked teenage girl(one of the two images along with an gynecological glimpse of a woman that still shocks now), transforming into a Punk. There’s lots of sex, naked bodies, swearing, fighting and puking, and Ronnie Biggs apparently taking over as lead singer. If none of these at least titillate you, or the car-crash quality of the film give you some anarchy to cheer, then your best off just going straight to the much better Filth. However, if you treat Swindle as performance art- all surface and not much depth, there’s fun to have. Probably it’s greatest crime is the obvious sidelining of Rotten(who had been sacked and only appears in old footage), and the fact that the Pistols are treated as a subversive creation who can’t play or sing, to annoy everyone, instead of the tight, great band they actually were. Swindle is the Pistols seen by their manager, who perversely seems to value their music last. 5/10