JOE STRUMMER: THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN

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Photo by Sho Kikuchi

The new Joe Strummer documentary appeared to be essential viewing. Stranger attended the premiere to find out.

Words by Holly Wicks

Bridgwater: not necessarily the first place you think of as a location for a film premiere. But, luckily for the town folk, the director of The Future is Unwritten – Julien Temple – holds a place in his heart for Somerset. He’s not alone. Joe Strummer lived out his final years in the county, and so Temple thought it fitting that the British premiere should take place in a town that meant something his friend.

The Bridgwater Palace (a former nightclub) played host to the film, packed with an eclectic mix of die-hard fans, close friends of Strummer’s and a wealth of Clash enthusiasts.

The film took off at a startling pace, Temple’s trademark sketchy collage directorial proving a little too distracting. The sound was at a level that complimented the Clash’s brash music, but tended to drown out the voices of the narrative thread.

That aside, the documentary was a visual treat, including a vast array of archive footage and suitably punky animation. Strummer himself narrated, from the outside looking into the world he created along with close friends, associates and bandmates. The majority of these informal interviews were conducted around campfires, a motif that ran through Strummer’s life.

Photo by Sho Kikuchi

The pace of the film thankfully slows in the second half, marking Strummer’s departure from the punk scene. There were some movingly honest contributions from his pre-fame circle of friends, many of whom were fecklessly dumped when Strummer famously switched from a hippy to a punk. Strummer’s contradictory behaviour was no secret, and although it was a source of irritation to those close to him, it also added to his creativity.

There were sound bites from Strummer’s American devotees, including Johnny Depp, John Cusack and Martin Scorsese, although all three looked a bit too buff to contribute any resonating quotes. Unsurprisingly, it’s Strummer’s Cockney associates who reveal the most memorable anecdotes.

The picture drawn from Temple’s latest directorial foray is not one of a close friend patting a slightly jaded rock star on the back; it’s a frank journey through the life of a complicated man with possibly too much ambition and not enough decorum to pull it off on his own.

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