Review of Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007) by Alex K — 11 Oct 2007

Tonight, I went to watch joe strummer: the future is unwritten - a moviementary about the life of joe strummer.

I have always loved punk music. so even before I saw the movie I knew a little about the iconography of who joe strummer was/what joe strummer represented. joe strummer - lead singer of the clash - possibly one of the most famous (yes definitely) greatest (we'll let the music critics/historians/ppl with more music credentials than i, decide that) punk bands of all time. I had also read that this was a great movie-mentary suitable/highly enjoyable for ppl who had little attachment/sentiment for joe strummer and/or the clash.

In synopsis, it was great for pure entertainment value.

I personally, and simone shares my sentiments, found it extremely annoying that throughout the entire movie-mentary ppl interviewed were not identified to the audience. this made the movie a little difficult to watch in the sense that MUCH time and effort is spent by the viewer trying to rmbr who is who in relationship to what, e.g. who is strummer's wife, who is the drummer, in fact who is the clash's original/first founding drummer/replacement drummer.

However, from a fanboy's perspective, NOT formally identifying key interviewees in the movie-mentary is also extremely rewarding as you get this little electric pang of "yeah i'm still cool" when you can confidently recognise ppl appearing onscreen.the movie is a veritable who's who of music/movie/pop-culture. see how many of your favourite ppl you can spot. I was amped to see steve buscemi, johnny depp, matt dillon, melly mel (sp?), members of the RHCP, bono all repping the man joe strummer. however, the amount of important ppl I couldn't positively identify was a little humbling, especially, for example, I knew they were interviewing one of the member's of the sex pistols, I just had no idea which one. (P.S. I hate the sex pistols). I was kind of hoping that they would interview members of rage against the machine to talk about the clash's influence on their music and the idea of affirmative action and music being used as a political medium.

This movie isn't about the clash or the charismatic front man of the clash. the movie was about the man, joe strummer.

Most importantly, the movie helped me realise that joe strummer wasn't some perfect so and so who rightly waved the flag for all good punk rock and rollers to march behind. the movie documents very well that the clash as a band were a dysfunctional group, and regardless of punk rock ideology, they eventually succumbed to the pitfalls of fame and superstardom slowly and surely selling out their punk rock DIY roots/intergrity.

The most important and moving thing about the entire movie is that, joe stummer, at the height of his career, with the clash having finally cracked/stamped the clash's authority on the american music industry, still had enough honest, passionate sensibilities to admit to himself that the clash had failed their own ideology (and when it comes to punk IDEOLOGY IS EVERYTHING) by becoming distracted by fame/success and turning into the sort of band "they had despised and antagonised when they first started playing music". in a memorable narrative joe strummer comments something along the lines of "we had made every possible mistake you could make as a band" referring to fame, drugs, ego-ism that ultimately led to the disintegration of the clash.

At the height of his personal fame/success (and the clash being largely made up of new/non-founding members due to numerous sackings/resignations of original band members) joe strummer re-evaluates his life and his music and soulfully regrets where he finds himself in relation to his own deeply personal agenda. at the height of his fame/success, joe strummer pulls the plug on the clash.

At this point the movie and the strength of joe strummer's character really shines. maybe shines isn't the right word, it is at this point that we see strummer fall very very far from greatness. the movie-mentary details the personal crisis of a "true artist" who lived only for his art deciding that he had completely failed his own vision. it's a case of, "when you live your life only for your music, what do you do when you suddenly wake up one day and hate your own music". strummer becomes (and please pardon the cliche) a shell of a man, and spends (literally) years painfully soul-searching trying to breathe life back into his musical/artistic (even trying cinematic) career. any lesser man would have packed up and cashed in (i.e. blown his own brains out) after so many (?) desperately ineffectual/failed (failed is definitely the wrong word) attempts to relaunch his career.

So few ppl in life are able to identify what they really want from life. joe strummer "had it all" (if you want to be a rock star have cash and fame that is), decided "no this isn't right for me, this isn't what I set out to do", turned his back on a life that he had created for himself but hated, and struggled long and hard until finally he came up with a life finally fulfilled his true, personal and soulful needs.

This isn't a movie about the clash. this is a movie about the rise and fall and (most importantly) the rise again of the amazing man that was joe strummer.