10 Best Hard Rock Documentaries You've Never Seen

5. The Filth And The Fury

Anvil! The Story of Anvil
FilmFour

The second Julien Temple film on this list, and his second about English punk icons, the Sex Pistols, The Filth and The Fury is exactly what one might imagine from the title. A raw and in-your-face account of the state of Britain in the 1970s, and the furious reaction the members of the Sex Pistols had to it.

Temple deploys extensive use of archival footage to paint a picture of the civil unrest and economic turmoil that gripped the UK during the 1970s - using voiceovers of the Sex Pistols, who recount their impoverished upbringing, music is presented as the escape from this bleak existence.

Told from the band's perceptive, it's clear the Sex Pistols never really got along with one another, and with the recent legal drama surrounding the licensing of their back catalogue, it's clear not much has changed.

But, it was the turmoil of their strained relationships, set against the background of a troubled Britain, that gave their music such hectic and explosive vigour.

John Lydon is hilarious in this movie, demonstrating his famous wit and distain for anything that comes close to smelling like authority, but one of the most evocative moments of the movie comes when he reflects on the death of his former bandmate Sid Vicious.

Contributor

Before engrossing myself in the written word, I spent several years in the TV and film industry. During this time I became proficient at picking things up, moving things and putting things down again.