The Future is Long

Julian Temple’s The Future is Unwritten is his 2-plus hours-long valentine to Joe Strummer. The love for an artist that motivates filmmakers to shoot a documentary on the subject seems to blind them to length as they scrutinize the life in great detail. Fortunately, the lead singer for the Clash’s story merits the treatment because his life’s journey had a fairly epic scope. He was born a diplomat’s son to some degree of privilege, but he reinvented himself first as a busker, then as a squatter, then as a punk, then as a rock ‘n’ roll star, then as the humbled star who had become everything he despised. Finally, with the Mescaleros and free of the baggage of the Clash, he found the music and way of life that it sounds like he was born to make.

Because Strummer has become a cult figure since his death, Temple’s decision to film interviews with those who knew him at a bonfire across the river from Manhattan seemed particularly resonant. It also echoed the communal theme of his days with the 101′ers and the rejuvenating circle he established at Glastonbury. Temple treats Strummer as a spiritual figure, but that doesn’t tempt him to shine him up as St. Joe. There’s hilarious, drunken footage of him and Mick Jones, surpassed only by a passage during which Topper Headon was so loaded he couldn’t untie his shoes.