JOE STRUMMER: THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN (2007)

[rra]

JOE STRUMMER: THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN (2007) - ****

Young people foolish enough to totally buy into the Punk Rock myth will be quite jarred when they see Julien Temple's new documentary THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN. They'll see that the leader of that movement's most musically accomplished act was a long-haired hippie squatter when manager Bernie Rhodes recruited him simply because he "looked the part."

Indeed Rhodes, who had helped create Punk's poster-bad boys in the Sex Pistols (and flaunted his claim as being the "inventor" of Punk Rock), was hoping to capitalize on their success with a new manufactured band.

He carefully choreographed everything from their specialized leather warddrobe, their on-stage rebel personas, and casted struggling rockers who were working pubs nightly for a few measely Pounds in pursuit of rock glory. This was to be Rhodes' glorified "rebel" boy band.

The problem was, when he told Joe Strummer and the rest of The Clash to go "political" with their music, the machine pulled a SkyNet and revolted.

Joe Strummer was much like The Clash in that his future wasn't clearly set down in stone. Born John Graham Mellor to a career British dipomat, he wasn't the good ole bourgeoisie boarding school boy of the suburbs that was expected to become an iconic and influential voice for the disenchanted youth and peoples of a generation.

If we are to believe director Temple, it was Joe's wide childhood exposure to Africa and Latin America, along with his early "freestyle" rock lifestyle, that may have set The Clash apart from the Sex Pistols.....and way ahead.

If Johnny Rotten was spouting nihilistic themes which amounted to dropping F-bombs and crying about "no future," The Clash played with sheer urgency as the self-appointed "heralds" who sought to raise concerns and issues after the failure of governments, the media, and fellow rock acts to address them.

A memorable sequence in FUTURE is when David Lee Roth, a pure incarnation of rock n roll indulgence and vanity if there ever was one, criticized The Clash for being "too damn serious."

Yet with their landmark masterpiece album LONDON CALLING, The Clash were the first English Punk Rock band to crash successfully across the pond into American charts and radio airwaves. Of course that giant leap was helped by recording some simply smurfin great music.

Critics have attacked FUTURE's campfire monologues for not telling the audience who these people exactly are, but I think its a small touch of brilliance.

While the viewer will recognize some celebrity faces of inspired Clash fans in Bono, Johnny Depp, John Cusack, and Flea, the rest of the faces belonging to friends and colleagues give about a humanizing portrait not bound by the limitations that such "roles" are given immediately by most rockumentaries. Along with the late Joe Strummer eeriely narrating his life from the grave, via his old BBC radio gig, they are all ghostly voices brought together by this sole burning fire that is the legacy of a rock hero, and a unique epoch in rock history.

But as bright as the fire blazes, it can equally be as deadly. If Strummer can be praised for the budget-pricing of Clash merchandise and records in spite of losing quite a fortune, he could also be quite a bastard. From someone that once remarked "I wouldn't steal money from a friend...I would steal his girlfriend instead," money was nothing to him, but fame was everything. Strummer turned back on pre-fame friends and openly slept with his bandmates' women.

After the Clash defied Rhodes and fired him, they struggled for years in their rise to the top without sacrificing their moral intensity. By the time their hard work paid off with an Americna Top 10 hit in their classic "Rock the Casbah," Rhodes was back, and the creator finally got his way. Strummer's jealousy and ego was exploited, and before he realized it, "The Only Band That Mattered" was no more.

Bono is right in that as great as the Clash were, they should have been around longer than 5 years. Then again, there is a poignant moment when the gang, none of them knowing that they were actually working on their last album, are being interviewed. While Strummer goes off about how The Clash will stick around and still rock out their message to the masses, drummer Topper Headon rolls his eyes.

The future is unwritten, but there are always scribbles in the margins.

[Janitor From Mars]

I have to see this film.

I'm a Clash-phile. Can't get enough of The Clash. I cried on the day Joe died. I cared more about the music than this "manufactured rebel band" bullshit that is pushed in the intro to that movie.

The Clash made my teenage years easier and the music continues to give me solace when I need it the most.

[rra]

brad007 said:

I have to see this film.

I'm a Clash-phile. Can't get enough of The Clash. I cried on the day Joe died. I cared more about the music than this "manufactured rebel band" bullcrap that is pushed in the intro to that movie.

The Clash made my teenage years easier and the music continues to give me solace when I need it the most.

Well, I think UNWRITTEN is about how the Monster defies Frankenstein.....and how indeed the future is unwritten in that any one person, and people for that matter, could bring inspiration, courage to millions of people, and shake many out of apathy.

[weaselboy]

This is a truly marvelous film, covers many underwritten chapters of Strummers life include his solo carrear, brief time as a firemaking rave entuhsiast and especially his dark childhood. Overall the films most pwerful message rings true, as Strummer said "people can change anything, without people you're nowhere". A brilliant epitaph to the belief that one man truly can make a difference.

[rra]

weaselboy said:

This is a truly marvelous film, covers many underwritten chapters of Strummers life include his solo carrear, brief time as a firemaking rave entuhsiast and especially his dark childhood. Overall the films most pwerful message rings true, as Strummer said "people can change anything, without people you're nowhere". A brilliant epitaph to the belief that one man truly can make a difference.

That was a great ending......his cover of Marley's "Redemption Song," from his last album before his untimely death, is tremendously emotional.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRwmZ2bp_B0

[Janitor From Mars]

Yes, I played the Mescaleros albums religiously right after he died. Great stuff.

[rra]

brad007 said:

Yes, I played the Mescaleros albums religiously right after he died. Great stuff.

What I hate is that if Joe had lived, The Clash would have gotten back together for a reunion tour. I so would have done whatever it took to go see that gig.

[Libertine]

I'm reading "Passion Is A Fashion" at the moment. Alls I've learnt is everybody in the band and everybody associated with them, seemingly bar Paul, are dickheads.

I bought this DVD for my Dad but neither of us have watched it yet.

[rra]

blindgunfighter said:

I'm reading "Passion Is A Fashion" at the moment. Alls I've learnt is everybody in the band and everybody associated with them, seemingly bar Paul, are dickheads.

I bought this DVD for my Dad but neither of us have watched it yet.

Watch it.....

I need to read PASSION IS A FASHION, which I believe goes deeply into the initial "manufactured" pre-lim creation of The Clash....

[The OP]

I'm glad the cat's out of the bag about Bernie Rhodes. I've brought that up in several discussions in which people tell me the Sex Pistols were manufactured and fake unlike the authentic Clash. I love both bands though.

That said, I still have to see this movie. I too got emotional when I heard about Joe's death. The Clash was one of those bands that make you feel like you're saved when you listen to it. It's like a religious experience.

[rra]

taxcollector said:

I'm glad the cat's out of the bag about Bernie Rhodes. I've brought that up in several discussions in which people tell me the Sex Pistols were manufactured and fake unlike the authentic Clash. I love both bands though.

That said, I still have to see this movie. I too got emotional when I heard about Joe's death. The Clash was one of those bands that make you feel like you're saved when you listen to it. It's like a religious experience.

A scene in THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN is when Terry Chimes talks of how he quit The Clash because he didn't give a fart about politics, but Strummer/Jones/Simmone....that's all they debated inbetween the booze, LSD, and girls.

Both were acts with manufactured personas, or at least were casted with people that fit the role (the best example being Sid Vicious)

There are two ways for CLASH fans to interpret the act's history: That indeed they were phonies, or they were jobbers who took the ball and ran with it beyond the expectations of their peers and master Rhodes.

FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN follows that second interpretation, for an act who even went too far perhaps with their own fanbase with SANDINISTA!

While its imperfect, and maybe too self-indulgent for its own damn good.....there is an edge to many tunes in SANDINISTA! that was leaps, bounds, and years away of their fellow "Punk" acts.

So yeah, I liked how Flea named it among the most influential records for him. "SANDINISTA! pushed the envelope, and really that is the proper goal for a rocker. If you aren't striving to improve yourself or to do something new, what's the point then?"

[The OP]

The thing is, from my experience there is the creative side of a band and a business/marketing side. Writing songs and marketing a group are two different things, and often require different people in those roles. That's part of why bands have managers in the first place.

People always want to try and combine the two elements, but they are often best kept separate. If The Clash and Pistols had not written their own songs and just relied on image people would've seen through it. The public isn't THAT dumb. Maybe they could've had some big records at the time, but people wouldn't still be talking about the Clash and the Pistols if they were really so phony.

[rra]

taxcollector said:

The thing is, from my experience there is the creative side of a band and a business/marketing side. Writing songs and marketing a group are two different things, and often require different people in those roles. That's part of why bands have managers in the first place.

People always want to try and combine the two elements, but they are often best kept separate. If The Clash and Pistols had not written their own songs and just relied on image people would've seen through it. The public isn't THAT dumb. Maybe they could've had some big records at the time, but people wouldn't still be talking about the Clash and the Pistols if they were really so phony.

"Ideas win out over Facts."

With THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN, at least from that creative stand-point, the Clash are portrayed as being genuine and in a way actually living out their persona. Plus, they were some damn great musicians.

As you said it yourself, listening to their work for the very first time....there is raw liberation from within. The greatest musical regret of my life was that I wasn't even alive when the Clash were together. God knows I envy and hate those that had the privlige of seeing them live.

There was a friend of mine who went to a Clash gig at a NYC nightclub in 1980, and apparently the (greedy) owner oversold a ton of tickets, and 50 something people were royally screwed and locked out. The Clash found out about this swindle, and scheduled a special gig the next night at the same club for those ticket-buyers who got smurfed.

What act would do that today?

[rra]

My next review...will people have seen it? Some Clues:

*It stars an actor who once upon time was the baddest bar bouncer in cinema!
*The villain's named after a curse word.
*The budget is about as big as a John Edwards haircut.

[The OP]

rra said:

taxcollector said:

The thing is, from my experience there is the creative side of a band and a business/marketing side. Writing songs and marketing a group are two different things, and often require different people in those roles. That's part of why bands have managers in the first place.

People always want to try and combine the two elements, but they are often best kept separate. If The Clash and Pistols had not written their own songs and just relied on image people would've seen through it. The public isn't THAT dumb. Maybe they could've had some big records at the time, but people wouldn't still be talking about the Clash and the Pistols if they were really so phony.

"Ideas win out over Facts."

With THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN, at least from that creative stand-point, the Clash are portrayed as being genuine and in a way actually living out their persona. Plus, they were some damn great musicians.

As you said it yourself, listening to their work for the very first time....there is raw liberation from within. The greatest musical regret of my life was that I wasn't even alive when the Clash were together. God knows I envy and hate those that had the privlige of seeing them live.

There was a friend of mine who went to a Clash gig at a NYC nightclub in 1980, and apparently the (greedy) owner oversold a ton of tickets, and 50 something people were royally screwed and locked out. The Clash found out about this swindle, and scheduled a special gig the next night at the same club for those ticket-buyers who got smurfed.

What act would do that today?

Once I went to see the US Bombs when I was a teenager, and even though the show had been advertised as all-ages they told us it was only for 21 and up. We had driven all the way to Detroit! Then we met lead singer Duane Peters in the coffee shop next to the club and he went in and got a bunch of people's IDs for us to use to get in. It was amazing!

That just reminded me of the story, and also because the Clash clearly influenced the Bombs a ton.

[jobberjoe]

it was an interesting movie that was a little overlong