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 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 ihe 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.
