SEX and DRUGS and ROCK n' ROLL

UK, 2009, 117 minutes, Colour.
Andy Serkis, Naomie Harris, Olivia Williams, Bill Milner, Toby Jones, Ray Winstone, Michael Moloney, Mackenzie Crook.
Directed Matt Whitecross.

Sex, drugs and rock and roll is a phrase that has become part of the English language. Present writer included, many of us are not aware who popularised the phrase and may have coined it, the English musician, Ian Dury (1942-2000). This film is a portrait of Dury rather than a biography.

Dury was an eccentric character and we are introduced immediately into his eccentricity, his performance, a mixture of song and performance art. He was one of the initiators of punk rock – and looked and acted the part. He also studied at art school and the opening credits as well as some of the action throughout the film have been designed by his art teacher, Peter Blake, and serve as a mood creator for this portrait.

The other main feature of Dury's life that should be mentioned at once is that, as a child, he had polio and that from then on he had the handicap of an artifical limb and a severe limp, something which he absorbed as part of his personality and, later in life, as part of his mission to help the disabled.

The film is quite powerful in its plunging the audience into Dury's world. We see his early years with a band and his clashes with them and ditching them and moving on. Later he brought together new musicians and formed The Blockheads – The Blockheads came together to play their songs for the film in a special recording session with the film's star, Andy Serkis. And, they are portrayed as characters through the film.

Andy Serkis is one of the principal reasons for the film's strong impact. He embodies Dury. He is both frightening and interesting. Serkis has proven himself as a strong screen presence in The Lord of the Rings and King Kong. His dury is something like Gollum on speed and fast-forward (and sometimes both). He has not gone for mere impersonation but for portrait and character study, even to the singing and performance of Dury's songs.

As a person, Dury was a 20th century phenomenon, someone born in the first half of the century and dying in 2000 of cancer, but a man born during World War II, experiencing the privation of the post-war period, exiled to an instituion with his polio and suffering physical abuse, marrying but unable to sustain a monogamous relationship, fickle to the two women he loved, a loving father to his son, Baxter (who was a consultant on the film), expressing the freedoms and the 20th century consequences of his phrase, sex, drugs and rock and roll.

Olivia Williams is Dury's long-suffering wife, Naomie Harris is long-suffering girlfriend. Bill Milner, the child actor who made such an impression in Son of Rambow and Is Anybody There? Gives a nuanced performance as his son who begins with hostility towards his father but learns to like him and love him, and give his father some meaning in life.
There are flashbacks to Dury's childhood, being taken to the institution by his father (Ray Winstone) and his treatment by a sadistic supervisor (Toby Jones).

For Dury and Blockhead fans this film is a must in its less conventional way of celebrating a celebrity. For those who do not know Dury, it is an excursion into a world of British popular music as well as a study of a difficult man who had a difficult life.

1.The title, the phrase in common language, derived from Ian Dury?

2.Ian Dury and audience knowledge of him, British audiences, beyond Britain? From the 70s on? Influence in the punk movement? His bands, The Blockheads?

3.The music, Dury and his lyrics, playing, his bands, The Blockheads, popular, social comment, feeling, performances? Andy Serkis singing Dury’s songs with the actual Blockheads?

4.A portrait with biographical detail? His opening performance, the questions, the framework for the story? Dury in himself, dealing with his audience, attitudes, interactions?

5.The significance of the polio experience in his life, as a child, his parents, his father and relationship with him, his father taking him to the institution, abandoning him there? His longing for his father? The life in the institution, everything in common, the dormitories, the hard activities, the treatment by the staff? The supervisor and his criticisms, harshness, abuse? Dury and his attitudes and stances, interactions with the other children? Later glad to hear that the supervisor had committed suicide?

6.His later visit to the institution, with the personnel, the woman and the classroom, with the range of children, actually disabled children, the interactions, the questions, his explanation about his life, his music? The Year of the Disabled, the liaison with the United Nations, creating the song, the lyrics, supported by The Blockheads? The song being banned?

7.Dury and his father, the glimpse of his father, the visit, his memories? His relationship with Baxter and the influence of his father and reaction against his own upbringing?

8.His marriage, his wife, love, family life, the early years, the daughter, the son? Friends? His performing with the small band, the clubs? His impatience, his disbanding – and being hurtful to his friends? The 60s moving into the 70s, into the 80s? The Beatle influence and beyond?

9.His wife, her character, love for him? The separation? His visits, their discussions, his not being able to stay at home? His relationship with his girlfriend, as a fan, the affair, moving out of his house, her tolerance of him? His wife listening to the girl, their friendship? The influence on the children, the daughter and her being able to cope, Baxter and his age, his different feelings, love for his mother, with the girlfriend, her support?

10.The girlfriend, young, a fan, the relationship, her patience, helping Dury with his career, the hard times, separation, her reliance on Dury’s wife? With Baxter?

11.Dury and the old band, getting rid of his friends, hurting them? Creating the new band, the variety of personalities, the actual performers in The Blockheads and the way that they were dramatised? The young musician and his needing time away, the return? Recordings, performances, popularity, the punk style, Dury’s appearance, voice, makeup?

12.Baxter and his father, initially not relating well to him, going off with him, the change, his admiration, sharing the life with his father, the importance of the photo outside the shop and its use on the record album cover? The supervisor, the big man, his gentleness with Baxter? His ever-presence? The issue of drugs? Baxter and the importance of these years for his development?

13.Dury in himself, the influence of the past, change, music, family, his fickleness, inability to finally commit, love for wife and girlfriend, children? Music, concerns, social issues? With Baxter: “not as I do but as I say”?

14.Audience response to Andy Serkis’s performance, embodying Ian Dury, as a person, as a performer?

15.The influence of Dury and his music on British music and popular culture?