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by BRETT WOODWARDI HAD it fixed in my mind - despite all evidence to the contrary - that director Julien Temple is a wanker. I was fully prepared to sit through his latest documentary with my arms folded tightly across my chest daring him to impress me and he did, greatly. Joe Strummer - The Future Is Unwritten is warm, moving, personal, insightful, historical and chocka with keen observations from the many knowledgeable interviewees. 
The nub: Joe Strummer never, ever recovered from the break up of The Clash. Despite the personal and creative rifts, drug and booze fallout, and the evil machinations of manager-impresario-conman-provocateur Bernie Rhodes, The Clash years were the best of Strummers life. A lot of macho taunts flew between fellow members when the band fragmented. Sheer bravado kept Strummer fuelled for a while - especially through the misguided Cut The Crap period. Speaking of which, does that guy Nick Sheppard still get around Perth venues playing a set of Little Richard covers, shamefully billing himself as 'the guitarist from The Clash'? Strummer failed to recapture the creative heights of 1976-83 and drifted in and out of various stages of largely undiagnosed or unacknowledged depression almost until the time of his sudden death in 2002. Temples doc suggests that Strummer may have just begun to let the sunshine back in during his final few years but that was cut short at 50 by a congenital heart condition that nobody, including Joe himself, suspected. I think my prejudice against Julien Temple is based solely on a long bygone interview grab where he came off as someone with a high and largely incorrect opinion of his own ability. By way of an apology to Temple, let me sketchily recap his impressive 30-year career. He was onto the Sex Pistols phenomenon from the first safety-pin prick with Sex Pistols Number 1 in 1977. He was pivotal in documenting the band's career, continuing with the seminal gagumentary Great Rock n Roll Swindle in 1980 and then the excellent wash-up doc The Filth and the Fury in 2000 (poignant yikes moment - Johnny Rotten cries over the death of Sid Vicious!). Temple had a similar romance with all things Bowie but unfortunately chose to begin visually documenting the Thin White Duke just as Dave took to making the worst albums of his career. Temple directed the video clip for Blue Jean and the subsequent long-form thingamajig Jazzin' for Blue Jean in 1984. Then came Absolute Beginners (1986) and a couple of definitive retrospectives of clips Bowie: The Video Collection (1993) and Best of Bowie (2002). Encouraged by his success with The Young Ones spin-off The Comic Strip in 1981, Temple tackled comedy in The Secret Policeman's Other Ball (1982) and the dire Geena Davis/Jeff Goldblum (not to mention some early Jim Carrey) vehicle, Earth Girls Are Easy (1988). For more than two decades though, video clips and compiles were Julien Temple's toast and jam. He has stood behind the camera for classics like Dexy's Midnight Runners' Come On Eileen; The Kinks' Come Dancing; The Rolling Stones' Undercover of the Night; Sade's Smooth Operator; The Stray Cats' Rock This Town; and Neil Young's Rockin' in the Free World. As he did for Bowie, Temple has put together clip collections for The Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Van Halen, Whitney Houston, Blur, Culture Club and, more recently, the Scissor Sisters. The Future Is Unwritten is obviously more narrowly focused than the great 2000 doc The Clash: Westway to the World which only begins its story around the time of Strummer's bar band the 101-ers. Stacked up against Dick Rude's shabby, necrophillic, cash-in biography, Let's Rock Again (2004), it's an absolute factual goldmine. Strummer was born John Mellors, in Turkey, somewhere between 1950 and 1952, depending on who you believe. Joe, it transpires, was awfully fond of mythologising a great many details about his background. We do know that he came from a comfortably middle class family; dad a diplomat; plenty of travel to exotic locales in his childhood. He didn't like school; rebelled and acted out; got into music early. It's broadly hinted at but not enough is made of the immense influence his brother had on a developing Strummer. Said sibling eventually dabbled in fascism; wound up confused and dangerously entangled with the National Front; and tragically OD'd on pills in the late 60s. Biographical details are told in simple chronological order with Temple alternating available footage with talking heads and some rather annoying grabs from, well, anywhere to fill in the gaps. Randomly snipped scenes from home movies (not necessarily those of the Mellors family), newsreels, 60s British TV and Lindsay Anderson's If thankfully disappear when the story arrives at the Summer of Love. Joe embraced all things both hippy and dippy. He threw himself into busking, squat living, Leftist causes and buggin' the Squares. Friends from this time, interviewed for The Future Is Unwritten, point out Strummer's constant reinventions of persona. It's a credit to Temple's care at balancing idol and fallible human that he explores Joe's sometimes mercenary, scheming and eventually hypocritical nature. Protest street performer Woody was reborn as Joe Strummer, a reference to his rudimentary guitar skills. Careering became more important when the young performer realised the limitations of the 101-ers. The flash fire of London punk consumed the heart and soul of the newly quiffed bad boy who was burning his record collection and disowning his former hippy pals at gigs and on the street. Temple was right in the firing line and so does a top job of covering the rise and fizzle of The Clash. By the time the band conquered New York City, egos were dangerously inflated, vices were being indulged without a qualm and the band combusted. In the mid-80s Strummer hooked up with Alex Cox for a bunch of half-arsed, south of the border films like Straight to Hell and Walker (for which he supplied the soundtrack). This began a longtime romance with Latin rhythms and melodies which stuck with him for the rest of his life. Strummer popped up now and then in the public eye for another 20 years. Each time his profile had taken another belting and his glory days were receding further into myth and memory. The final act of The Future Is Unwritten is an engrossing but deeply melancholy affair detailing a classic burn-out: failed studio and band projects; working for a pittance; fill-in guitarist for The Pogues; the stop-start of The Mescaleros; a rudderless career and muddy personal life. Hope shone when Strummer was revitalised by the birth of his daughters and later threw his energy into a radio show for which he was granted a free hand. Strummer's hippy busking background came full circle when he found himself returning to Glastonbury year after year, proclaiming rave music to be the future of the unwritten future - oops. He would arrange himself in front of a campfire, strum and tell stories people were charmed and entertained. Temple runs with the campfire motif and conducts practically all his interviews around a series of cozy, crackling blazes on a couple of continents. Strummer's pals, peers and band mates - amongst them Mick Jones, Topper Headon, Terry Chimes, Bono, Damien Hirst, Joe Ely, Flea and Courtney Love - all offer remembrances and some downright profound observations. Jim Jarmusch (who cast Strummer in Mystery Train in 1989) tells great drinking stories. Although it helps to star-stud the marquee, appearances from John Cusack, Johnny Depp, Matt Dillon, Martin Scorsese and Steve Buscemi don't offer much except celebrity endorsement. Temple uses the interviews to piece together a very personal story of a really likable guy who was once in a group proclaimed in their heyday as "the only band that matters". At just over two hours, The Future Is Unwritten never lags. A bittersweet live performance of Johnny Appleseed from Global A Go-Go, Strummer's second album with the Mescaleros - for me inextricably linked with David 'Deadwood' Milch's quirktastic new series, John From Cincinnati, ever since the song was used as the theme tune - rounds out the documentary. Joe leaves the stage after the number, exhausted, deliriously happy, striding like a man with a big future. It's enough to make you weep as, it seems, that future WAS written. FOOT NOTE:Help Brett avoid having to get a real job by buying or checking out details about his books (music biography, adult cartoons, kids' humour & action) at his website. In October, Melbourne gentleman's outfitters Leopold's Empire will release a limited edition run of four different T-shirts based on designs from Brett's It's Time To Go Home When The Ferris Wheel Breaks cartoon book. 16 September 2007 australianrules.com.au |
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