Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Toby Wallace, Anson Boon, Sydney Chandler, Jacob Slater, Talulah Riley, Maisie Williams, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Louis Partridge, Francesca Mills, Christian Lees, Ferdo Walsh-Peelo, Lorne MacFadyen, Toby Woolf, Rory Alexander, Jay Simpson, Beth Dillon, Emma Appleton.
Never mind the Big Bang, for many the social upheaval and the meeting of a few bored young men, two special women, and one radical entrepreneur, set alight, and arguably changed the world, in a way that made the Big Bang seem quite dull in comparison.
The sound of a Pistol firing is louder, and more evocative, than most, and as celebrations for another type of institution are ramped up and placed effortlessly, but not without rancour, on the streets and wall to wall coverage of anachronistic references are subjected upon a population, so we must remember the anarchy that threatened to overthrow the U.K. in a period that was shorter than Disco. It was far truer to the hearts of those that felt any sense of the pulse that swept the nation as the Sex Pistols became the focus of anger and political resentment against the monarchy, the government, the dull, the beige, the boring, the old, tired, and nepotistic values that were, and remain rotten to the core.
How accurate Danny Boyle’s Steve Jones and the Sex Pistol’s biopic Pistol is in terms of what truly happened may be up for debate, but it should not detract from just how incredibly superb it is as a series, as a flashpoint of the events that caught the imagination of a disenfranchised youth that found that they were living their best years in the shadow of generations that hadn’t received the memo, that their way had led to a creaking vessel that did more to damage the lives of those to come, that revolution was only one moment of true madness away.
The six-part series is one of the great insights into collective anarchy that a set of dysfunctional people who are thrown together can be reckoned with, and Danny Boyle lights the series of blue touch papers and watches as it burns brightly in the British night sky.
The terrible upbringing suffered by Steve Jones is the catalyst of the experience, but it also observes the time perfectly, the union which led to Chrissie Hynde becoming her own driven phenomenon, the power of effect and untold great sympathy too found in John Lydon, unnervingly brought to the audience’s attention with tremendous will by Anson Boon, the conniving, almost Machiavellian touch and thought of Malcolm McLaren, portrayed superbly by Thomas Brodie-Sangster, the demonstratively brilliant Vivienne Westwood, surely Talulah Riley’s finest moment to date on screen, and Helen Wellington-Lloyd as the face of the group followers, played by the sublime Francesca Mills; and whilst it is based on the book Lonely Boy by the band’s guitarist and founder, Steve Jones, the way it is filmed it is perfect example of how a good story should follow the direction of all its players.
Pistol is remarkable, intelligent, a powerful drama that highlights a moment in time that we will arguably never feel again, and it is a shame that we will never find a worthy bunch to hang our anarchic hopes on again.
Ian D. Hall