Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten Release Date: November 2, 2007 Starring: Joe Strummer, Bono, Steve Buscemi, John Cusack, Johnny Depp, Matt Dillon, Jim Jarmusch, Mick Jones, Topper Headon Directed by: Julien Temple
So punk godfather Joe Strummer, cofounder of the Clash (and with bandmate Mick Jones, one-half of the Lennon-McCartney of punk), ended up a hippie after all.
Really. How else to explain his preferred mode of socializing in his final years — around a campfire? Julien Temple set up Strummer-inspired campfires all around the world for this film, a warts-and-all-portrait and fitting tribute to the musician, who died of a heart condition in late 2002.
The hippieish, weed-and-wine mode of the campfire gatherings Strummer so loved actually doesn't represent any discontinuity from the punk ethos he subscribed to. He was interested in fostering community, through his music, through his BBC World Service radio show, through whatever medium gave him the chance to. By the same token, Temple's portrait shows Strummer as a loner, essentially, and someone who wasn't in the least bit above calculating acts of opportunism.
A complex guy, then, and an extremely engaging one. As is the picture, which begins with Temple using his usual collage-of-archival-footage method of contextualizing and ironically commenting on the chronology of Strummer's transformation from restless public-schooler to punk-rock godfather. There are extensive and exhaustive contemporary interviews, not all of them conducted around huge campfires. The most moving are with Jones, with whom Strummer became estranged during the Clash's final days. Jones's recollection of their unheralded, spontaneous reunion at a benefit show is a moving window on one of the things that made the Clash special — that is, they really walked the walk. Whether this movie needed the likes of John Cusack and Johnny Depp to reiterate that fact is open to question, and one also wonders at the conspicuousness of Clash bassist Paul Simenon's absence from the film. But these are quibbles, and one wondrous thing about the movie is that, true to its title, it doesn't feel in the least bit nostalgic. At its best, it throbs with immediacy, just as Strummer did.
READ MORE: Critic's Choice: Best of 2007
