Sid and Nancy

Sid and Nancy (1986)

4 corrected entries

(1 vote)

Corrected entry: When Sid is being interrogated about Nancy's murder, a detective asks him "Did you call 911?" The 911 emergency number wasn't implemented in New York until 1984.

Cubs Fan

Correction: The first major American city to have it was New York City, on July 1, 1968.

Corrected entry: When The Pistols play 'Stepping Stone' at their first gig with Sid as a member, he's not sure how to play his bass guitar, but you still hear the bassline to the song even after Sid puts the bass down.

Correction: A similar error has been corrected elsewhere - Sid couldn't play a note and was there for show. The Sex Pistols used prerecorded tapes for their bass tracks when Sid was absent or too drunk or stoned to perform, which was most of the time.

The Pistols absolutely didn't use pre-recorded bass tracks live instead of Sid. Using tapes just wouldn't have worked; Cook and Jones would've had to play in time with the tape, which would have been subject to drift in timing. Absurd. And it's not true that Sid couldn't play a note. He wasn't good, but at the start he made an effort, then got more interested in jumping around. Lots of footage from '77 shows Sid both really trying, as well as becoming the "living circus" he'd be on the US tour.

Corrected entry: In the Jubillee river boat scene, the Sex Pistols are playing on deck while Sid is fooling around with Nancy in a cabin. So who's playing the bass we can hear?

Correction: Sid was a bass player like Luciano Pavarotti is a ballet dancer. He couldn't play a note, and he was completely unreliable, disappearing whenever he felt like it. The band kept tapes of the bass tracks of their songs for such occasions, and they got a lot of use.

The Sex Pistols absolutely didn't use pre-recorded bass tracks live instead of Sid. Using tapes just wouldn't have worked: Cook and Jones would've had to play in time with the tape, which would have been subject to drift in timing. Absurd. Also, in film footage of the real-life event, Sid *is* playing with the band: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roma-RO2tfE&t=223s.

Correction: Shouldn't the correction be that the posting is factually incorrect, in that Sid did play bass with the band during the Jubilee boat cruise? He was present on stage, not "fooling about with Nancy in a cabin."

Corrected entry: In an early part of the movie set in 1977, Nancy mentions that Debbie Harry is a big star but Blondie did not have their first hit until mid-1978.

Correction: Actually Blondie released their first album in December 1976, after forming the summer of '74. Charismatic and sexy frontwoman Debbie Harry was by '77 an icon on the New York punk-scene, loosely connected and influenced by The New York Dolls, in witch band-wrecker Nancy Spungen (Sid Vicious' girlfriend) was affiliated as a groupie.

Continuity mistake: Early on Nancy is in a limo and a man with long hair tells her to get drugs. While he's talking his hand goes from resting on his chin to resting on the armrest instantly.

More mistakes in Sid and Nancy

Nancy: What are ya doin here? You're in the studio, these places cost like fifty grand a minute. You could be really shining out! But what? You're just wonking off.
John: Wanking.
Nancy: What happened to you? Did you try and kiss your mother?
John: None of your business.
Brenda Winczor: John got beaten up by facists.

More quotes from Sid and Nancy

Trivia: John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten despises this film. He accused it of glamorizing the squalor of Sid and Nancy's life and making heroin addiction seem cool. He has referred to the film as "a f*ck*ng fantasy." Amongst his more scathing quotes : "To me this movie is the lowest form of life. I honestly believe that it celebrates heroin addiction. It definitely glorifies it at the end when that stupid taxi drives off into the sky." "I don't think they ever had the intent to research properly in order to make a seriously accurate movie. It was all just for money, wasn't it? To humiliate somebody's life like that - and very successfully - was very annoying to me." "I went to see it and was utterly appalled. I told [director] Alex Cox, which was the first time I met him, that he should be shot, and he was quite lucky I didn't shoot him. I still hold him in the lowest light. Will the real Sid please stand up?" "As for how I was portrayed... it was so off and ridiculous. It was absurd. Champagne and baked beans for breakfast? Sorry. I don't drink champagne. He didn't even speak like me. He had a Scouse accent." (Lydon is a Londoner.) Alex Cox later admitted that many of Lydon's criticisms of the film were correct and he should have shown the squalor and ugliness of Sid and Nancy's life in a far more realistic manner.

More trivia for Sid and Nancy

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