Joe Strummer

Last night, I went to the Oriental Theater to watch Julien Temple’s documentary of Joe Strummer, subtitled The Future is Unwritten (http://www.joestrummerthemovie.com), which was running as part of the Milwaukee International Film Fest. I found it interesting, but not outstanding.

It opens with a collage of images relating to Strummer’s early life—pictures of him and his mom and dad, which were interspersed with footage from Turkey and Britain, commentary from unnamed older folks who knew Strummer way back when, and snippets from newsreels, added to show why Strummer thought the way he did. We learn that Strummer’s brother, David, I believe, postered his room with Nazi propaganda and committed suicide at an early age. We also learn that Strummer was a hippy before he was a punk. It was amusing to see footage of him with long hair, but unsurprising to hear that he turned his back on all his hippy friends when he went punk. Anyone he associated with, at least in the early days, had to dress and act the part of a punk or they were ostracized.

The film traced Strummer’s life in its entirety. It showed how out of sorts and depressed he felt after the band broke up, and showed a strange side to him in his later years, when he’s walking down the street and enthusiastically describing the value of techno music. I admire that he always cared about the state of the world, and didn’t know that The Clash once reunited to play a benefit for British firefighters, and were able to raise $2 million quid for them. More people and bands should follow Strummer’s lead, and I believe that is partly why Temple filmed the movie the way he did, but, sadly, most folks are too caught up in materialism these days, and the system is becoming more like an insanely corrupt police state by the day, so he may be on of the last rock stars to take on the establishment so forcefully.

I don’t name myself as a diehard Clash fan, so a lot of the information presented in the film was new to me. I went to the movie to learn more, and I did, but it would have been helpful to know each interviewee’s name. I recognized many faces—Steve Buscemi, Bono, Matt Dillion, Anthony Kiedis and Flea from the Chili Peppers, Courtney Love, who starred in Straight to Hell with Strummer, and David Lee Roth, who pontificated that bands like The Clash need to understand they shouldn’t take life so seriously. However, since Temple chose not to include tag lines when new faces appeared, watching it was a tad confusing and frustrating at times. The names were listed at the end of the film, but that was hardly helpful. Nonetheless, it was a nostalgic look back at someone who has influenced and excited countless music fans, so I recommend seeing it.