“Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten” Review

Posted by Myrna the Minx on January 27, 2008 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

I saw Julien Temple’s documentary about his friend, Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, at the Nevada Museum of Art’s theater on Wednesday night where it was playing as a part of the NMA’s new film series (which is excellent by the way). Its clear to anyone whose been reading this blog for a while knows that I am no Joe Strummer lightweight. I think I’ve seen just about every Joe Strummer-related film every made including Let’s Rock Again and The Clash: Westway to The World, and Temple’s documentary stacks up pretty well. Actually, its a perfect combination of the two other documentaries. Let’s Rock Again featured Joe Strummer’s recovery from the “wilderness years” and his triumphant return with the Mescaleros, while Westway covers the years until The Clash break-up. The Future Is Unwritten includes some new archival footage of Joe Stummer’s childhood and the 101′ers, and some really unique animation of Strummer’s cartoons and notes.

What Temple’s film does do is portray Strummer as the flawed man that he was rather than painting him as an idealist’s rock and roll hero. Strummer is that, but he was also a man who slept with his friends’ girlfriends and cut people out of his life if they ended up on the wrong side of one of his career decisions as some of Strummer’s friends from his pre-punk days testified. Former 101′ers band mate, Richard “Snake Hips” Dudanski, (I think) seemed particularly hurt by the way Strummer turned his back on him in those early days. It seems fairly clear to me that Strummer was bipolar (or something close to it) and self medicated which helps explain some of his behavior. Temple did not identify the people he interviewed during the movie in anyway, so unless you know who Joe Ely, Tymon Dogg, or Jim Jarmusch are (or what they look like) for instance, you don’t know who is telling that funny story about their friend Joe Strummer. However, I think this technique only added to the idea that the movie was about a man rather than a myth. Gathering Stummer’s friends around his most beloved cultural institution–the campfire–was a fantastic idea. (I am going to assume that Temple included Johnny Depp’s ridiculously pompous philosophical sage routine as a bit of a chuckle–honestly I see no other explanation for it.) Paul Simonon was notably absent from the film although he played a starring role in Chris Salewicz’s book, Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer, and Mick Jones certainly had more to say about his relationship with Strummer. He certainly did in Westway and his had a very successful career since (check out the new video for Carbon/Silcon). I also expected to see a comment or two by Billy Bragg but he was probably touring.

I thought that one shortcoming of the film was the way it brushed very quickly over the important role The Mescaleros played in Joe Strummer’s re-emergence and confidence as an artist. For that story, you should check out Let’s Rock Again. I wish I could get a hold of the quote at the end of The Future Is Unwritten because it was really something–about how we can all change the world if we want to. I know, it sounds trite, but somehow Joe Strummer had a way of saying such things and meaning it that you could feel. In this case, there was an urgency to his voice that was heart-wrenching. It was the perfect way to end the film–Joe Strummer as a man who never quite gave up on people, as a man who never stopped believing that those people could change the world. His message has always inspired me. We’re all flawed, but most of us have good intentions. If only we could all feel more of Strummer’s urgency to change things.

And if any Burners are reading this, why isn’t “Techno D-Day” your theme song? Actually, I guess its probably not techno enough. The moment that got the most laughs in the movie was a scene that contained a voice over in which Strummer pontificated about the pleasures of smoking. At one point, he expressed the idea that non-smokers should be excluded from buying anything created by smokers as a protest against what he felt was an attack on a creative necessity. I’m pretty sure he was talking more about marijuana and not nicotine.

Don’t miss the next film in the NMA’s excellent series: Outsourced, which is playing on January 3oth and includes a question and answer session with special guest, executive producer of the film, David Skinner.