The Sex Pistols on Screen

The Films and the Fury

Stephen Glynn

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Hardback

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English

Routledge
26 March 2025

Punk, New Wave & Indie; Individual composers & musicians, bands & groups; Popular culture; Media studies

This unique book demonstrates the central importance of visual media to the significance of British Punk rock pioneers the Sex Pistols, beginning with their nation-shocking television interview with Bill Grundy in December 1976.

Supported by an examination of surrounding documentary and fictional texts, The Sex Pistols on Screen centres on four key film and television/streaming depictions with and about the four-man group across four decades, namely The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle (Temple, 1980), Sid and Nancy (Cox, 1986), The Filth and the Fury (Temple, 2000), and Pistol (Boyle, 2022). Though promising an oppositional stance, these works consistently demonstrate how the mainstream media disarm and commodify any genuine sense of mid-1970s anarchy. In addition, their differing personal perspectives exemplify the subjectivity and self-interested advocacy of all historical interpretation. Nonetheless, they still provide a sense of the empowering hit delivered by the Sex Pistols’ pugnacious music and galvanic live performances.

Accessible yet academically rigorous, The Sex Pistols on Screen is a significant study of the visual media’s importance in forging, reworking and reviving both the history and reputation of this seminal band. It will appeal both to the general reader and students of film, television, media and cultural and popular music studies.

By: Stephen Glynn
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 138mm,
Weight: 420g
ISBN: 9781032964164
ISBN 10: 1032964162
Pages: 128
Publication Date: 26 March 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

1. Introduction: Through My Eyes Part 1: Documentary Strand 2. No Future for You: False Film Starts 3. We’re Not All There: The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle (1980) 4. We Mean It, Man: The Filth and the Fury (2000) plus Other Documentaries Part 2: Biopic Strand 5. Something Else: The Sex Pistols in Fiction Film Roles 6. All Crimes are Paid: Sid and Nancy (1986) 7. I Wanna See Some History: Pistol (2022) 8. Conclusion: Problems

Stephen Glynn is a film writer and lecturer, currently based at De Montfort University, UK. His previous writings on the links between music performers and the visual media include Kate Bush and the Moving Image (2025), David Bowie and Film (2022), The Beatles and Film (2021) and The British Pop Music Film (2013).

Reviews for The Sex Pistols on Screen: The Films and the Fury

""This is such a welcome new book! The impact of the Sex Pistols and punk rock in film has been scandalously short of scrutiny until this point, and Stephen Glynn has done a remarkable job, making a highly readable and exquisitely detailed account of their extraordinary handful of films. It would be fitting if Glynn's well-researched and engaging book reignited interested in them, and to help cement the legacy of one of the most influential bands (if not actually the most influential band) of all time."" - Professor K.J.Donnelly, University of Southampton