The Sex Pistols star in Julien Temple's at times surreal, at times hilarious, factional documentary that charts the rise and fall of punk's most notorious band through the eyes of its calculating and grandiose manager, Malcolm McLaren, played here with full Machiavellian swagger.

Written and directed by Temple, whilst he was still a film student, it mixes animation and midgets with footage of some of the Sex Pistols' most electrifying live performances. Originally released in UK theatres in 1980, the film presents the band's success as an elaborate scam perpetrated by McLaren to make "a million pounds" at the expense of record companies, outraged moralists, the British Royal Family - and even the fans and band members themselves.
As the film's original tagline stated, The Great Rock Rock 'n' Roll Swindle is the film that incriminated its audience.
As the brief but beautiful period of punk rock is now as far away from 2007 as 1976/77 was from the end of World War 2, it will be hard for anyone under 35 to comprehend just how shocking this film was and the incredible controversy it caused as depressed Britain, blighted by inner city riots and waking to the birth of Thatcherism, lurched into the Eighties. However, watching it again, it is still immensely powerful, just as riveting, still retains the capability to shock and is as valid now as it was then.

More than 25 years after their break-up, the Sex Pistols' music continues to influence punk and post-punk bands the world over - and The Great Rock Rock 'n' Roll Swindle shows why. It helped add to the band's already riotous reputation, with scenes of Sid Vicious attacking a Parisienne prostitute (with a French tart), the subversive Queen's Silver Jubilee Day concert on the Thames in 1977, their infamous appearance on the "Bill Grundy Show" and underage female nudity. It even had to contend with the death of Sid Vicious, who died between the ending of filming and its theatrical release. But it is the Sex Pistols' music that emerges as the film's biggest star: performances of "Anarchy In The UK", "God Save The Queen" and "Holidays In The Sun" are mesmeric, while Vicious' "My Way" maintains an air of tragedy and exquisiteness at once. Tenpole Tudor (ingeniously called "Tadpole" by Irene Handl in the film) weighs in with vocals on "Who Killed Bambi" and "Rock Around The Clock" and even on-the-run Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs turns up to sing on "No One Is Innocent" and "Belsen Vos A Gasser".
Having spawned the phrase "making cash from chaos", it's worth remembering that the Sex Pistols were voted the "1977 Young Businessmen of the Year" by their antitheses in the City of London.