Review of Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007) by Roberto R — 12 Apr 2008

A 'kind' of celebration of 'The Clash' singer, musician and actor, without it being sycophant. The interviews are conducted around a camp fire (the reason for this becomes evident later in the film), from people who knew him from his school days, to his music and acting. The people talking, are quite honest about their feelings towards Joe and aspects where their friendships deteriorated because of working together or for more personal issues. Watching this may even ruin a fans view of him, because of his changing views, but it is a portrait of a 'person' as well as a 'artist'. We are shown an enigmatic person, who knew how to use things for his advantage. He grew up in and was involved with two counter culture lifestyles in the late 60s and early 70s, which developed his artistic career and attitudes to the world. This was a part of his personality, that made him 'joe strummer', which tuned him into the success he was. It would seem like most artists, especially in popular music there is a period of time where they are directionless. Even after huge success through trends and fashion. This is fairly highlighted in this film.  .

I didn't know anything about Joe, to me he looked cool and I enjoyed some of the music, when i've seen footage of The Clash. I had one tired old tape, (which have now turned into a bought CD), but I liked him as a rock artist, but I was never a big fan. After watching the film, I looked through my cds and old 7 inch singles, I found my copy of Trash City, which I remember really liking and playing quite a bit in 1988. I also had some Clash 7 inch singles which I found in a charity shops, which I had forgotten I had. Seeing one of singles (English Civil War), made the footage used from the cartoon film version of George Orwell's 'Animal farm,' make sense, as a still from the film was used as it's cover.

A well made documentary, with lots of footage and photos, constructed around the history of a great british rock artist.