Review of Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007) by Generoso F — 19 Nov 2007

Who cares about Joe Strummer?...Temple fucked up in so many ways that we will never know.

A) You have one pointless talking head speaking about Joe's great talents as a lyricist while in the background they are playing "I Fought The Law" which was a cover of a track made famous by The Bobby Fuller Four. A song he didn't write. If you went into this documentary not knowing anything about Joe Strummer you would have no idea why he was important as they did not play more than 30 seconds of anything he ever wrote. Talk about his lyrics, perhaps at least? The one time they talk about he lyrics they get it wrong... In the Clash documentary which came out a few years back he (Strummer) admitted that "Bored With The USA" was just a anti-love song until Mick Jones added the USA portion to the lyric. The original song was "I'm So Bored of You" and Jones screwed "S.A."...In the Temple doc they go on about the politics of the song but it's all crap.

B) BONO! What the fuck? A list of useless jerks fills this movie, John Cusack, Johnny Depp, Matt Dillon...NOT ONE OF HIS MUSICAL CONTEMPORARIES APPEARS IN THIS FILM...They couldn't get a member of The Jam, The Buzzcocks, Sham 69 to speak on his behalf as an artist?

C) Julien Temple incorporated the exact same style he used in the Filth and The Fury (Sex Pistols doc) in making this. Juxtaposition of old movie clips (1984, IF, Animal Farm) and contrived new footage (the campfire rambling was extremely tedious and thanks Mr. Temple for not showing anyone's names on screen... I'll just whip out my hipster encyclopedia). Edited so quickly you never feel anything for any one moment...Less slick, more content or maybe by showing more creative content you'll prove that Strummer was that great afterall?

The film does do one thing which is further my feeling that The Clash were massively overrated...Strummer admitted in interviews in the past that he was nothing musically until he heard The Ramones playing as he at the time was in an incredibly lame rockabilly band, "The 101ers"...The movie makes his progression to punk seem very organic but in reality he just consistently copied other artists and sounds. If the Clash has any legacy is that they would play in styles that white audiences were unaware of: reggae, funk, etc These styles seemed off limits to white artists which the Temple doc eludes to but does not spell out properly. It made these styles more accessible to these artists but frankly their reggae covers (Police and Thieves, Pressure Drop, etc) sound very very amateurish to me. Their politics were misguided and very uninformed as well. Maybe that's why Temple avoided playing them.