Sid and Nancy

Sid and Nancy is a movie starring Gary Oldman (Sid Vicious) and Chloe Webb (Nancy Spungen). It was directed by Alex Cox and released in 1986 (see 1986 in film). Originally titled Love Kills, Sid and Nancy emerged during a period of renewed fascination in the life of the Sex Pistols member, Sid Vicious.

The movie is largely based on the mutually destructive, drug and sex filled relationship between Sid and his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. Anne Beverly, Sid's mother, tried to prevent having the movie made, but Alex Cox was very insistent. She met with him and she decided to help out in the making of the movie.

Alex Cox searched immediately for the right actors. He found Gary Oldman a fitting actor. Gary Oldman slimmed down a lot to play the extremely lanky Sid, and soon bore such an uncanny resemblance to Sid that he even got to wear Sid's trademark heavy metal chain and padlock in the movie. Chloe Webb was also, as Malcolm Butt says in his book, Sid Vicious: Rock N' Roll Star, "intense, powerful, and most important of all, believable."

There was real chemistry between Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb on the set, and it was apparent in the movie that this romance was real. Their love, and the way drugs had destroyed their lives and their romance.

Alex Cox told the New Musical Express: "We wanted to make the film not just about Sid Vicious and punk, but as an anti-drugs statement, to show the degradation caused to various people is not at all glamourous."

The film was widely hailed by critics, but strongly condemned by Sid's friend and ex-colleague, John Lydon.

US Rating: R, for drug use, language, violence, sexuality and nudity.