By: Cameron Carpenter

Label:
IFC films

Fuck Bono. Fuck U2 3D.If you are going to spend money on a rock'n'roll movie rent or buy this. As if to reinforce this point, the most cringe-worthy moment in "Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten" is when Bono, solo, sits by a campfire in the early evening (sunglasses on of course) and pontificates about what The Clash meant to him and how "pissed" he is that they aren't still around. The Clash had no choice but to implode and this lengthy and detailed documentary by noted Sex Pistols lensmith Julien Temple shows when, where and why it had to happen. Unfortunately it didn't happen before the dismal Cut The Crap album.

We all know how this movie ends. It opens with various radio reports from around the world declaring that Strummer had died days before Christmas in 2002 at the age of 50. Temple uses two recurring devices to thread the story together. Strummer was a big fan of bonfire chats where friends sat around, chatted and played music, and, was a host of a BBC World Service radio show heard around the world. Throughout the film we hear Strummer narrate his radio show and play the music that influenced and affected him, and we see groups of friends, family and band mates gather around fires and tell their stories. The characters around the various campfires are never identified but let their stories weave the tale. (The site of Johnny Depp in pseudo Jack Sparrow garb elicited laughter at the screening I attended).

There is a lot of great Clash footage presented which includes grainy images of a reunited Strummer and Mick Jones playing a firefighter's benefit in England weeks before Strummer's passing but there is more combined footage of his life before and after The Clash and that is where the most intriguing bits are to be found. Also of note is the soundtrack for the film, which is extraordinary and a more than worthy companion piece to this moving and thought provoking documentary.