The Bottom Line
- A brilliant portrait and tribute to Joe Strummer, legendary frontman for The Clash.
- A fascinating history of a punk rock band and its world influence.
- Delves deep into Strummer's background and ideology.
- Great soundtrack with cuts from The Clash, The Mescaleros and others.
- none worth mentioning.
Description
- Temple uses Joe’s drawings, concert clips, sound from Joe’s radio show to establish Joe’s persona and effect on the world.
- Bono, Johnny Depp, Martin Scorsese, John Cusack, and others describe Strummer’s influence on their work and art, in general.
- Temple conducts interviews around a bonfire. Strummer believed gathering around bonfires created a sense of community. .
Guide Review - Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten (2007) - Movie Review
Strummer’s real name was John Mellor and, as son of a British diplomat, he lived in Turkey, Egypt, Mexico and Germany during his childhood--relocations that influenced his world view and music.
Temple uses home movies of Mellor’s childhood, in boarding school, art college and as a drop out. His initial musical engagement was with a hippie squatter band, The 101ers. He played guitar and called himself Woody--after Woody Guthrie. When Strummer met Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, the three were immediately so in synch in style and ideas, they formed The Clash. Woody became Joe Strummer, quickly eschewed the squat, his hippie friends, former band and everything--except drugs.
Temple includes film clips of Strummer and The Clash dropping LSD, and shows Joe dealing with a band member’s heroin habit. Drugs, celebrity, ugly infighting and personal excesses took their toll on The Clash. The band disbanded.
Joe set about reestablishing his life. He got released from a bad contract by making a noncommercial record, acted in movies--then withdrew from public life to figure out what he would do next. He emerged with a new band, The Mescaleros.
Later, Joe rued that The Clash made every mistake possible and in pop stardom, had become what “we were trying to destroy.“ He said hippie and punk cultures both espoused personal freedom, his core value.
The Future is Unwritten is an exceptionally well made documentary that is sure to conjure up a lot of memories and emotion for Joe Strummer fans, and provide a highly entertaining history lesson for those who don’t know much about the punk scene, its ethic, roots and influence.
