Review of Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007) by Joe H — 13 Nov 2007

A MUST see if you were ever a fan of The Clash.

In 1982 I pretended to go to sleep one Saturday night and when everyone else went to bed I snuck out to the living room to watch Saturday Night Live. I was only expecting to laugh because back then it was really funny. The musical guest was the Clash and I had never heard of them, but when they finished their first song my life changed. The music spoke to me, the dudes performing were these really ugly punk rock dudes and they just hit the tuning fork just right for my soul to resonate. The second song was their huge hit "Should I Stay or Should I Go" which was okay, but that first song just worked for me. I had to hide it, but I loved the raw energy of the punk sound, little did I know that "Straight To Hell" the first song wasn't really punk and I snuck into Licorice Pizza (Mom forbade us to go in there due to what she called drug paraphernalia on sale, although I never saw anything like that in there) and gobbled up everything I could find of The Clash, kept it well hidden from my folks and friends I found the beginning of the depth of how I feel about things. I learned the band member names and the lead singer Joe Strummer became my hero. When The Clash broke up I was crushed, I never got the chance to see them live, I began to fervently hope that someday they'd reunite and come back around. As I watched Mick Jones form Big Audio Dynamite and Joe Strummer just falter around the world I just knew that someday they would reconcile and do a tour just for me. Joe Strummer did this great radio show that you couldn't get around here, thank goodness for the internet by then. There's so many people on this planet and each of them have this great story to tell and Joe Strummer could tell a story. I heard 5 maybe 6 years ago that Mick Jones and Joe Strummer got on stage together for a fireman's benefit that rekindled my hopes of a Clash reunion when shortly Joe Strummer died. I cried the day my Grandfather died, I cried the day my Uncle died, I cried the day when Elvis died and I cried the day that Joe Strummer died.

When I heard about this movie almost 6 months ago I couldn't wait for it to get here and it was everything I expected. Joe Strummer was alive again for about 2 hours and The Clash played once more.

Everyone that reads this, please please please go see this film and remember the greatness of the legendary band and it's legendary front man.