NOTHING IS MORE PATHETIC THAN AN AGING ROCK STAR, UNLESS OF COURSE YOUR NAME HAPPENS TO BE JOE STRUMMER AND YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY REINVENTED YOURSELF FROM BEING PUNK’S FOUNDING FATHER TO A PURVEYOR OF CONTEMPORARY WORLD-MUSIC.
Film-maker Julien Temple, sometime chronicler of the punk movement (he made The Great Rock ‘n’ Swindle and The Filth and the Fury), has delivered a thoroughly researched, dynamic portrait of the man credited with injecting a shot of social awareness and political scepticism into a form not renowned for its lyrical subtlety.
As front man with The Clash, Strummer successfully blended a punk aesthetic to a restless musical creativity that reached its zenith in the ‘London Calling’ LP of 1980. Soon tiring of punk’s narrow sonic parameters, he led his semi-reluctant band mates into increasingly uncharted territory, haemorrhaging fans along the way. When The Clash inevitably imploded, Strummer found himself in a ten-yearlong wilderness, only to be redeemed through the melodic consortium that was The Mescaleros.
Temple, with the aid of testimonials from key figures in Strummer’s life—ex band members, girlfriends and sundry hangers-on—sets out to document the man and his music from inauspicious beginnings, to his untimely death in 2002 from a heart condition. Celebrity sound-bites from the likes of Bono, Johnny Depp and Martin Scorsese provide a measure of his enduring influence. Needless to say, the music is worth the admission price alone.—David O Mahony.Director JULIEN TEMPLE will be in the IFI to attend a sneak preview screening of this film on Saturday 12th May at 12.30pm. He will give a public interview following the screening. Temple has directed music documentaries on everyone from the Sex Pistols to Rolling Stones, Bowie, Petty, and The Scissor Sisters. We will also screen his documentary GLASTONBURY, completed last year, which he will introduce, at 1.30pm on the same day.