As the frontman of The Clash from 1977 onwards, Joe Strummer changed people's lives forever. Four years after his death, his influence reaches out around the world, more strongly now than ever before. In acclaimed filmmaker Julien Temple's 'The Future Is Unwritten', Joe Strummer is revealed not just as a legend or a musician, but as a true communicator of our times. Drawing on both a shared punk history and the close personal friendship that developed during the last years of Joe Strummer's life, Julien Temple's film is a celebration of Joe Strummer--before, during, and after The Clash.
Julien Temple, one of the early documentarians of the London punk scene and director of the 2000 Sex Pistols film The Filth and the Fury, turns his attention now to that other seminal British band: The Clash--or more accurately, to the band's co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and lead singer, Joe Strummer. The Future is Unwritten is more than just a biography of Strummer; it is a tribute and exploration of a musician, artist and devoted humanist. Though Temple respects and admires Strummer (his influence is exalted by close friends, peers and fans like Bono and John Cusack), he doesn't romanticize this larger-than-life personality and presents Strummer honestly and not always in flattering light, though the director's fondness for his subject is constant. Most movingly, Strummer himself provides the narration via reassembled excerpts from a variety of interviews and the BBC radio show he hosted during the nineties. In the wrong hands, this could be contrived, but in this masterful documentary it serves as a testament to not just Joe Strummer the myth, but Joe Strummer the man, telling us his story in vivid detail. The Future is Unwritten is a moving and personal portrait of a musician who helped shaped not just punk, but modern music as a whole. --Kira Canny
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
The Two Joe Strummers:
My favorite part of this documentary is finding out about Joe Strummer's youth and how living in a number of foreign countries fostered in him a love of all kinds of music. However this is not an homage to Strummer or The Clash but rather a kind of behind-the-scenes expose of both Strummer and his band. Clash fans might be turned off by much of this, they will certainly be dismayed to find that The Clash was the brainchild not of Strummer but of a Malcolm McLaren-like manager named Bernie who introduced... more info
great doc about a great artist:
So, I was trying to get my hands on this movie for a little while. I tried to download it, then it seemed to only be available from Europe, but, I finally got a hold of it from Amazon.
It's really a great documentary. It's well put-together and will give you a lot of good insight on the life and legacy of Joe Strummer: whether you know him from the 101ers, The Clash, The Mescaleros, etc.
Quality material, not just another recycle job!:
This is a very good documentary; lots of great footage. It really seems like a fresh retrospective. Some of the other stuff that's come out between 'Westway' and this, seems to have less to offer than 'This is video Clash', the late '80's quickie compilation. GREAT STUFF, from the beginning to the final incarnation of the band (i think the last album was a little better than the reviews, but not as good as what Husker Du was generating at that time). WHAT A BAND! I think Mick Jones had the right idea... more info
Julian Temple Does Good Here:
The structure of this doc gives the illusion of being casual and free flowing, but it's a clever structural ride taking us thru Joe Strummer's emotional journey as a struggling artist, cultural hero and disappeared recluse. While it is sort of organized around a 'wake-like' celebration (a sort of street assembly featuring sing-along hootnany clips and open fire-barrels) it's really about Joe's motivations and response to how his political committment is slowly co-opted by the system that he tried to... more info
