Julien Temple’s second swing at documenting the rise and fall of British punk purveyors The Sex Pistols is a home run deep into the center field bleachers. Hell, The Filth & The Fury is one of those moon shots that’s still going up when you finally lose sight of it – a legendary rip that actually knocks the cover off the ball, leaving the rawhide wrapping to float gently back down into the hands of a lucky kid that, God willing, will one day be inspired to radically overhaul the crappy state of music today. We’re about due for another sweeping change – there was a twenty-two year gap between Bill Haley and the Comets “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock” and the Pistols “God Save the Queen (She Ain’t No Human Being).” And it’s been another twenty-two since the Pistols’ song hit number one (or, as shown in Fury, since it didn’t hit number one). Don’t tell me that it’s “Boy Bands,” either, because I’ll legally acquire an automatic rifle and pepper MTV’s Times Square studio with enough metal to turn Carson Daly into the Tin Man, I swear to God.

See – just talking about The Sex Pistols gets people riled up. In a music world that was populated by the likes of Kansas, The Eagles and Roxy Music, the Sex Pistols burst onto London’s music scene at a time when the country was mired in garbage strikes, lethally high unemployment and race riots. The economically drained blue-collar workers had little else to do than hate the upper class and the Royal family, especially when wealth was flaunted right in front of their faces (like seeing the Queen riding around in a gold carriage during her Silver Jubilee celebration).

Filth is the third documentary about the Pistols, but the first to really tell their story. Temple’s first attempt was 1980’s The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle (the second was a non-Temple film called D.O.A.). When he began filming Swindle, Temple could never have predicted the ending – the break-up of the band and the suicide of its enigmatic bass player, Sid Vicious. Swindle told the story through maniacal manager Malcolm McLaren’s eyes (he even narrated the film). The film premiered not long after Vicious’ death, and the “swindle” in question, at least according to McLaren, was the bilking of money by record companies, the mindless youth of England and the actual members of the Pistols – all from a craze that he pretty much implies that he started on his own.

In Filth (the film's title is taken from one of the many London tabloid headlines about the Pistols), the story of the band’s twenty-six-month existence is told from the band's perspective. We learn about the childhood of the band members - some things aren’t surprising (broken homes) and some are (Lydon was in a coma for a year). But it isn’t long before Johnny (Lydon) Rotten, Paul Cook, Steve Jones and Glen Matlock form the Pistols, and the band took off like a depraved, spitting rocket, triggering a London politician to say that the band would be "much improved by sudden death.” Imagine Asa Hutchinson saying something like that about Limp Bizkit.

Temple’s film, while an amazing visual and aural assault, doesn’t hit you over the head with a bunch of silly messages that point out the obvious. He lets you discover the irony of a band rallying against conformity, but unwittingly launching a fashion trend where everyone dressed in similar torn shirts and black leather jackets. He tosses in animated clips of the band and British television comedies, as well as snippets of Laurence Olivier playing Richard III. Temple also bathes the surviving members of the Pistols in shadows during their interview sessions. It looks like they’re in the witness protection program, but after a while, you don’t even notice it. At least not until Rotten/Lydon starts to get weepy when he talks about Vicious’ death.  McLaren is interviewed, too, but he’s wearing a bondage mask. And the only thing that they can all seem to agree on is that Sid's girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, was the most despicable person on the face of the Earth (see if you can watch her and not think about Courtney Love).

Fury also includes all of the famous Pistol-related incidents that many of you may have only heard about or seen tiny portions of. There’s the Bill Grundy television interview, the Thames performance in honor of Her Majesty’s Silver Jubilee celebration, and the band’s final concert, which consisted of just one song. The film also includes a very touching post-Pistol breakup interview with Vicious, as well as appearances by future stars Billy Idol, Siouxsie Sioux and Shane McGowan.

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