Joe Strummer Doc: Future Is Unwritten
onetet
1,754 Posts
Who's seen this?From Julien Temple (Sex Pistols docs Filth and the Fury, Great Rock N Roll Swindle).Opens in Bmore this weekend (Charles Theatre). I think it's already had a showing or two on the IFC channel? And came and went in the UK?
Comments
and, for the record, he saw it on demand.
This movie has been doing poorly at the box office, and I wonder how much of that is due to this strategy. Seems like docs more than any other genre lend themselves to at-home viewing.
Reminds me of when Steven Soderbergh's Bubble came out on DVD simultaneous to its theatrical run... theatre was empty when I went, and I don't know anyone else who saw it in a theatre (cool little movie, too).
Anyway, these sort of strategies are interesting, and show more awareness of technological realities, than, say...
uh-oh. what kind of artsy-fartsy touches are we talking about here?
One example (and it is NOT a "spoiler alert" because it's a relatively minor part of the movie): when Joe is talking about how his mind was blown when he first heard the Rolling Stones, we see a rocket launching into space, followed by stock footage of teenagers screaming. And this all happens almost simultaneously - bam! bam! bam! - so when you're trying to process what the Stones meant to young Joe Strummer, there's all this other stuff throwing your focus off. Lotta scenes like that.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't see the flick, but this is just something to watch out for.
The "artsy" touches I actually liked. Temple used an approach similar in style to Filth and The Fury (stock footage, stills, animation) to good effect here. It broke up the talking head monotony and gave a nice feel to the whole thing.
It definitely deepened my respect for dude, who came across as a genuinely good human being.
Illest moment: Strummer handing out flyers for a post-Clash solo gig to passerby in Atlantic City who have no idea who he is.
Thanks for the warning. I'm glad I saw this, but largely just for some of the footage ... the way it was assembled bugged the shit out of me. Very low-grade '90s VH1 editing style IMO. You hear that Strummer went to a boarding school, and then we're cut to some sped-up b+w footage of an old British schoolmaster wagging his fingers as students -- that sort of thing, and it never lets up.
I was particularly bothered by the lack of identification of what we were seeing. They rarely let us know whether we're seeing archival Strummer-related footage or just generic stock footage. So when we hear Strummer went to art-school in the early 70s, we see footage of art students from that era and artwork from that era, without any clue if we're seeing Strummer, his friends, and their work, or just random people from that time or place.
This carries over to the interviews. Okay, most people in the world don't need Bono or Johnny Depp to be identified when they're being interviewed. But some people would need to have Jim Jarmusch (for instance) identified, and then there's the many people whose names I can't mention because I had no idea who they were while they were talking!
This was another major complaint of mine. I didn't mention it offhand 'cause I didn't want to make it sound like it was not worth seeing, but the lack of ID bugged me too. I've been known to bust people out right here on the Strut for running pix of obscure people and not identifying them, so Lord knows it was going to be a botheration in this movie! Hell, Afro-Punk did the same thing, but at least that movie identified these folks at the end, along with a picture and bio! But in the Strummer movie, you just get this rote list of names and you're supposed to guess who is who...
By the way, was Chrissie Hynde in this picture?
I highly recommend the movie. I liked the recreations using old movie footage. I would have liked to have some people identified. Who was the dude talking when they were showing the "I Fought The Law" footage? Joe Ely? And where the hell was Simonon?
...and that's another thing - he probably was in the flick, you just didnt recognize him since they didn't ID (and time has not been kind to a lot of those UK punkers...)
Simonon has aged remarkably well. He looks exactly the same. He's a painter now. He just formed a band with Fela's old drummer, Tony Allen.
No idea! I'd say I identified about 2/3 of the people on camera, tops.
I also feel like the film could have handled the later period of Strummer's life a lot better. Okay, I get that it wanted to be a film about Joe Strummer as a person, and the Clash is just one period if his life. But if that's your film's perspective, you have to make the post-Clash years equally compelling -- and even if that's damn near impossible, the film didn't pull it off.
It handled the confusion he felt following the death of his parents and the loss of his band very well. And yeah, for Strummer to assemble new bands, step back on stages, and record new albums was clearly a personal triumph given the depleted state he was in. But then the film sugarcoated the reality of those albums and tours, with gushing reviews from friends like, um, John Cusack. Someone new to Strummer's music might assume his later albums are accomplishments equal to, say, London Calling -- they're given equal time and approached equally uncritically.
Strummer's life does suggest a certain narrative arc that the film could have capitalized on more. It does show that he basically came of age as a hippie, destroyed all vestiges of that life as he remade himself a punk, and then late in life made his peace with his hippie self. The film does make that point -- but casually. It could have focused more directly on him reconnecting with the people and ideas of his hippie past, which he clearly did.
Also, I think that his reunion performance with Mick Jones provided the climax the film needed. Again, not to place all importance on the Clash, but rather to show a)Strummer making peace with his past, and b)showing that both dudes came together not for $1,000,000 arena tours but for a working-class benefit show that honored Strummer's political roots. Film touched on this things, but should've focused on em.
There was one brief segment that killed me: a young anonymous punkette being interviewed probably around the time that Combat Rock was out. implying - no, outright saying - that the Clash were past their prime...
I'm a huge Clash fan, but weren't they?
I haven't seen the Temple movie (although I intend to), but I highly recommend this documentary of one of Joe's last US tours, moving and funny stuff:
Joe Strummer - Let's Rock Again
i love the bit where a guitarist who worked with strummer mentions that at one stage he asked him "joe are we ever going to work together again?" and joe ambiguously replied "Don't be stupid man!"