Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten

Reviewed by:
Pete Hammond

He liked to say he wouldn't swipe money from a buddy, but "would steal their girlfriend." Joe Strummer wanted to be known only as a punk rock warlord seeking the "crazy truth" of it all. Julien Temple's (The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle) remarkably well-detailed doc fills in all the gaps in the life of the Clash legend, who was born as polite John Graham Mellor, and morphed into one of the most iconoclastic rock stars of all time before putting it aside to become an actor, father, husband, and radio star. Judging from the volume of home movies and awesome concert footage amassed here, it would seem Joe lived his entire life in front of a camera, as this Sundance Film Festival success covers every significant moment from his 1952 birth in Turkey to his December 2002 death of a sudden heart attack. Certainly this is worth seeing in theaters. However, you may have to hunt for it, as its distributor plans only a limited release before it hits DVD, where you will be able to skip the dull parts and fast-forward to some of the awesome musical sequences and interviews with the likes of Johnny Depp, Flea, Anthony Kiedis, and Bono, all around to inform the uninitiated that "Rock the Casbah" is not just that song from the cell phone commercial.