FIlm: Dir. Julien Temple - Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten

Dir. Julien Temple
Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten
[Documentary]









Fans of The Clash are famously hard to please. During the commercials at the screening of The Future Is Unwritten that I saw, someone in the audience violently erupted following the advert for a new, Russian-themed vodka called Stolichnaya, dismissing it as “counterrevolutionary bourgeois shite”. Of the many talking heads commenting on Joe’s life and legacy in the film, some (including, but not limited to, Bono and Johnny Depp) were subject to furious tirades from all corners of the room. Needless to say, at times it felt more like Question Time than cinema.

I consider myself a Clash fan and, as some would no doubt attest, I can be hard to please, but I nevertheless found Julien Temple’s biopic to be charming, heart-warming, reasonably informative and, crucially, well-researched. Exploring the bad and the good in equal measure, Temple has avoided much of the hagiography that so often plagues rockumentaries, especially in the case of the deceased, instead gathering together a motley assortment of family members, ex-girlfriends, old colleagues, former band members and random celebrities to provide a balanced and thoughtful account of the life of one of rock’s most iconic and enduring heroes.

Covering John Mellor’s days in a brutal barding school, his brother’s suicide, his phase as “Woody” in art school and the London squatting scene, his time in pub rock band the 101’ers and, of course, his transformation into Joe Strummer and the Clash era, as well as the post-Clash years, Temple’s film is hugely ambitious. However, most of the important phases in Joe’s life are covered in impressive detail even though, puzzlingly, no mention is ever made of The Clash’s underrated second album, Give ‘Em Enough Rope, or their early flirtations with America under producer and mogul Sandy Pearlman.

As alluded to previously, another of the film’s strengths is that it pulls no punches, taking a serious look at Joe’s womanizing habits, the fist fights, his manipulation of fans, the megalomania, his mistreatment of drummer Topper Headon and the fact that, much like the Sex Pistols, The Clash were a manufactured group - a boy band, if you will.

The only significant criticism that can be levelled at The Future Is Unwritten (and it is a big one) should be aimed in direction of those who have been responsible for putting it together. Obviously intended for devoted fans (names of the various contributors don’t appear in subtitles on screen, so if you don’t know your Don Letts from your Tymon Dogg, I imagine it would be very difficult to follow), it offers very little new information, only new perspectives on that which is already known, bringing into question the purpose of its existence. Too inaccessible for newcomers, it seems to offer all us fans a hearty pat on the back and very little else, recycling opinions better analysed in Pat Gilbert’s essential Clash biography, Passion Is a Fashion.

That said, two hours of self-congratulation doesn’t come much better than this. All together now: mi-idnight ‘til six, man… 76