Review of Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007) by Dan B — 24 Jan 2010

This is very nicely done. Having the various groups of people around camp fire seemed a nice touch anyway, before I realised the more concrete reason for doing it, related to Joe's later life (which I knew nothing about). And all the narration from him, plus relating speech and music from his radio show to related parts in his story and his musical influences and history, brought him alive and made it more convincing. And then all the testaments of all those other people who knew him. And then all the little things we see, taken from anywhere, some footage of his life, and some just from movies and wherever that fit the theme, all adding up to a big feeling of the whole story conveyed in pictures.

And the main theme here is his searching, and confusion, ups and downs, lost times and found times, of what spirit it is he's trying to tap into, to convey in his music, and however else. And seems he found his answer in the end. And nice to see this also in a real context, of real life, where he obviously had some 'issues' and was not always an angel, struggling through life, somehow driven to communicate and connect (which might have its less healthy reasons too) and sometimes finding it, sometimes losing it, sometimes maybe looking for it in the wrong places, but always it being to connect and come closer to genuine human 'togetherness', which is symbolised, or even realised, for him in the campfire. And he sums it up in a way, and provides a brilliant quote (about Punk specifically, but not just) when he says towards the the end that he approaches everything with a punk rock attitude and that that 'the punk rock attitude is being simpler in your manners to fellow human beings'.

I actually never was much into the Clash. I could have seen them, but didn't bother, I could have seen him later, but stayed at home even though it was 100 yards from my home. That maybe is my problem. I loved 'Armagiddeon Time' and bought that 'Black Market Clash' 10'' with it on, and played it all the time, loved 'London Calling' and bought the single at the time, and had some of the earlier singles (sold them when I was poor, now regret it), but somehow they were on the whole too flat and maybe too cerebral for me, never really hit the gut most of the time like other music, but that's maybe down to whatever issues I had/have, but a lot more of his humanity is shown here, and you can see why people who knew him were so touched by his huge drive to connect with other people.

If I'd seen this a long time ago, or known him myself, I'm sure I'd have taken a lot more interest, and it doesn't really matter that I'll probably never really hugely rate either the Clash or any stuff he did later. Or maybe I'm just not listening to it right. I'm willing to accept that. This is good viewing for anyone interested in the question of finding some kind of purer human connection in our world.