The warmth of a campfire will bring out the heart of a story, the passion of a song and the front-man of friends. In Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten,"" director Julien Temple turns again to the punk scene - in the 1980s he directed ""The Great Rock 'n Roll Swindle"" starring the Sex Pistols - in an intimate look at the adventurous life of the late Clash frontman. The film manages to capture Strummer's famous political edge while also focusing on his struggle to avoid appearing as a sell-out.
""Strummer"" has all the things a punk movie should have - frenzied music, obscure clips from old Orwell movies and slimy singers with bad teeth - but it really hits by humanizing the punk legend. Temple takes us on a journey from Strummer's childhood at boarding school to the exotic capitals of the world (Joe's father was a diplomat), stopping along at the depraved glory days of the Clash until finally resting where Joe finds honest maturity.
""Strummer"" has the power to take us to a place of maturity and inner peace that few recent punk films have. Excluding 1998's ""SLC Punk!,"" 2000's ""The Filth and the Fury"" (also directed by Temple) and 2007's ""Punk's Not Dead,"" there have been few quality films as honest to the lifestyle and philosophy of punk as ""Strummer."" Like Strummer did in his later days, Temple uses campfires to bring people together. Flames flicker in front of Strummer's family, old friends and those he influenced, a touch that brings the audience into the conversation. At times, audience members won't feel like they're in a theater, but sitting on the other side of the campfire listening to a former bandmate spinning yarns about a mutual friend.
As the documentary progresses, Temple bonds the people around the fire to the audience members as they talk about Strummer as a man who would fight for the rights of anyone to perform. As flames flicker in front of him, Grandmaster Flash recalls Joe chastising the crowd for booing Flash off the stage in New York. Temple uses recollections like these to warm the audience to Strummer's sense of equality. By capturing this concept, Temple is able to represent the ambitions, ideals and fears of a man who embodied not only a genre of music, but an entire way of life.
It is quite amazing to see how many lives were affected by Strummer. The film features interviews with former bandmates Topper Headon and Mick Jones, as well as a dizzying list of collaborators and friends including Flea, Don Letts, Steve Buscemi, John Cusack, Jim Jarmusch, members of the Mescaleros (Strummer's last band) and even Bono (who worked with Strummer on a tribute song for Nelson Mandela). All of these accounts build a picture of the late Strummer, who passed in 2002, as a man who wanted to change the world. The movie affirms Strummer's victorious struggle to maintain his dignity and shouts his immaculate taste in music.
""Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten"" is currently playing at the Orpheum Theatre.
