Ah, Sid Vicious.
The sung hero of my formative years and fashion sense of the time (including pad lock necklace and safety pin piercing, inspiration for much mischief and muse for many often amazingly bizarre lyrical explorations of punk bands, e.g. the German’s OHL formal and very polite plea “Hey Sid Vicious, wir benötigen Sie!” and The Exploited’s plaidoyer that could be part of any Suits episode culminating in “Innocent! Innocent! Innocent! Innocent!”.
The basic facts: Sad Vacation outs the microscope on the tempestuous ebb and flow between the posterchild of punk rock and his other half, i.e. Nancy Spungen and the downward spiral eventual leading to them exiting our worldly realm.
The Sid & Nancy story is a sad one, no matter how you look at it.
This incarnation of it focuses on authentic material through recreation, archival footage, and photos substantiated by interviews with musicians, fellow travelers and contemporary witnesses and culminates with a borderline pornographic look at the murder / death, giving it a bit of a true crime flavour with the obligatory “Who dunnit?”, which is neither the overarching core value nor presents certainty as far as an answer is concerned.
Unfortunately the budget did not seem to allow for an authentic soundtrack to frame the respective scene, i.e. no Sex Pistols and Garcia relegating to other punk rock snippets to convey the spirit of the day.
The DVD version features 18 minutes of Bonus Interviews, two trailers for the movie, plus a Heartbreakers Music Video as well as Spanish Subtitles and a poster of the DVD cover art.
Summa summarum: A DVD documentary that presents a more comprehensive view for the uninitiated, first hand colour, context, a real feel for the sordid milieu and thereby even something new for the die hard fans.
