julien temple don’t surf

Last weekend proved to be a new low in what can pass for documentary film making.  Especially in the case  where brand celebrity names are confused with the priority of the subject matter at hand.

As a huge Clash fan, I was looking forward to the newly released Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten documentary.   My anticipation was even greater because the director, Julien Temple, had called up my husband, Joel and his longtime writer friend, Charlie Bertsch, to participate in the LA campfire sequence. At their own expense, they flew down to spend a chilly night at the top of a small mountain in Griffith Park for the shoot.

The interest in Joel was based on his interview of Strummer for the Jan/Feb 2000 Punk Planet , entitled "Clash of the Titan"*. This interview was republished in 2004 in Antonino D’Ambrosio’s collection,  Let Fury Have the Hour:  The Punk Rock Politics of Joe
Strummer.  Charlie has a piece in this book as well, the meditation "Always Paying Attention: The Life and Legacy of Joe Strummer".

Regardless of my personal interest in the film, by way of Joel, it should have been a smashingly beautiful portrait of punk’s political poet.  Instead, I surrendered over 2 hours of my life to the worst portrait of an artist I’ve ever seen.  The film is so deeply disappointing that I could write reams of criticisms if I had the time and inclination.

Rather, here are some of the lowlights to save you the pain of viewing it:

• (Way) too much time dedicated to Joe’s childhood
• Poor and distasteful selection of imagery derived from a literal translation of text from interviewees
• Absolutely NO context for who is talking and how they are related to Joe
• Dark and seemingly disrespectful portrait of Mick Jones
• No coherent narrative, let alone any implied subtext
• Extremely minimal discussion of Joe’s political interests and explicit conflicts
• Liberal and irrelevant use of B-list celebrities like Courtney Love, Johnny Depp, etc.
• Who gives a fuck if Joe Strummer was nice to Courtney after Kurt died?  This is significant because someone actually cared about her for a fleeting moment?
• Bono, alone on a beach, because he’s too good to join the crowd at the campfire? This is how exciting the narrative wasn’t