Documentary Watch : Joe Strummer: The Future is Unknown

I have been watching music documentaries and like in the early days of cable and satellite TV and VHS tapes, in these days of streaming, there are so many options. I find a half dozen Clash docs with even the most basic search. But I wanted to watch the well regarded and well promoted The Future Is Unwritten- the story of Joe Strummer. 

It is as fantastic as one can hope so. It covers the early years through the Clash as a new band to stadium superstars to his wilderness period back to being productive. There are a ton of stars. They are not identified but 95% of the time they are recognizable or identified well by dialogue. There's Terry Chimes, Tymon Dogg, Joe Ely, Keith Levene, Topper Headon, Don Letts, and Palmolive from the Slits. Mick Jones and Bernie Rhodes appear in footage. There’s fans like Johnny Depp, John Cusack and Bono and those who crossed paths in those post-Clash/pre-Mescaleros wilderness years- Xander Schloss, Steve Buscemi, Jim Jarmusch, Flea and Courtney Love 

The theme of the interviews is the idea of gathering around the campfire and that fits the final plot. There’s music from all over his life that sounds familiar and is Strummer on radio DJ ing and playing his favorite songs which stretched from Dylan and Guthrie to Tim Hardin and Nina Simone to U-Roy and Andres Landero There’s tons of footage of Strummer too. 

It’s nice to see the doc offering a candid view of Strummer equally the good and bad. I am sure it was a push of being the idealistic troubadour and getting your music to the masses. This probably hurt not only Sandinista but tore his band up and probably tore him up as he was getting away from his ideals as the Clash grew bigger. Strummer wasn’t good at conflict and Bernie Rhodes squeezed his way into the Clash music making process. I still wonder what Strummer could have done (with or without Jones) without Rhodes intervention. 

I became a Strummer fan during his Wilderness years. It’s nice to see it covered here - Earthquake Weather and the movies he was involved in - Walker, Straight to Hell and Down By Law. I’m not sure what else Strummer could have done. He needed that time to find his way back. Strummer gets an unexpected Hollywood ending though sadly he passes at 50. However, he was creatively refreshed again with the Mescaleros. He even was on South Park and worked with Johnny Cash. Then famously, he reunited with Mick Jones for a fire fighter benefit five weeks before he passes. Julien Temple sets out to make the definitive film on Strummer and succeeds