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Movies / On DVD / Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten
Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten

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Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten (2007)

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Reviews Counted: 58

Fresh: 51

Rotten:7

Average Rating: 7.3/10

Consensus: Displaying Joe Strummer warts and all, The Future is Unwritten succeeds as both an engrossing documentary and a comprehensive examination of one of music's most legendary figures.

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 2 hrs 4 mins

Genre: Musical & Performing Arts

Theatrical Release:Nov 2, 2007 Limited

Box Office: $149,416

Synopsis: Filmmaker Julien Temple has spent much of his career documenting the music scene in England, including such seminal works as THE GREAT ROCK AND ROLL SWINDLE and THE FILTH AND THE FURY about the Sex... Filmmaker Julien Temple has spent much of his career documenting the music scene in England, including such seminal works as THE GREAT ROCK AND ROLL SWINDLE and THE FILTH AND THE FURY about the Sex Pistols. In 1976 he had originally set out to do a film about a different British punk band, the Clash; more than 30 years later, he directed THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN, a heartfelt film about of one of the leaders of the Clash, his good friend Joe Strummer. Born John Graham Mellor in Turkey in 1952, Strummer, the son of a career diplomat, traveled a great deal as a child, eventually settling down in England, where he became an artist and a musician and took part in the mid-1970s squatters' movement in London. He soon formed the influential punk band the Clash with Mick Jones and later headed the band Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros before his tragic death in 2002 from congenital heart disease. Temple speaks with many of the men and women who knew Strummer, gathering them around a campfire in Brooklyn Bridge Park to pay tribute to the Strummerville campfires where Joe would meet with friends and discuss life, love, and the state of the world. Among the celebrities and music fans sharing their thoughts on Strummer and his legacy are Flea, Bono, Martin Scorsese, Steve Buscemi, Matt Dillon, John Cusack, Johnny Depp, Mele Mel, Jim Jarmusch, Courtney Love Cobain, Anthony Kiedis, Damien Hirst, Roland Gift, and Joe Ely. Temple doesn't place his main focus on Strummer the musician but rather on Strummer the human being, delving into his childhood and politics, displaying his art, and including excerpts from Strummer's radio show, making it seem as if Strummer is narrating his own story. The amazing soundtrack features songs by Strummer's early group, the 101ers, as well as the Clash and the Mescaleros as well as the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, Bob Dylan, Big Audio Dynamite, Woody Guthrie, the MC5, the Slits, and others. THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN is a marvelous look at yet another major musical figure who died too soon. [More]

Starring: Flea, Bono, Martin Scorsese, Steve Buscemi

Starring: Flea, Bono, Martin Scorsese, Steve Buscemi, Matt Dillon, John Cusack, Johnny Depp, Mele Mel, Jim Jarmusch, Courtney Love-Cobain, Anthony Kiedis, Damien Hirst, Roland Gift, Joe Ely

Director: Julien Temple

Director: Julien Temple
Producer: Amanda Temple, Anna Campeau, Alan Moloney
Studio: IFC Films

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Release:

Jul 8, 2008

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Reviews for Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten

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This offers Strummer fans unlimited access to the man behind the legend. Though it really is for fans - who should run and buy it.

Full Review Source: Blunt Review | comment Comment
10/22/08
Emily Blunt
Blunt Review

Julien Temple's film is an energizing work of art, a visually striking and inspiring look at a band that never 'sold out' and the leader who saw to it that they didn't.

Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | comment Comment
06/20/08
Roger Moore
Orlando Sentinel

The big unanswerable question is: Do we wish Strummer would have listened to David Lee Roth's advice that "You don't have to take life so seriously, honey"?

Full Review Source: I.E. Weekly | comment Comment
02/03/08
Amy Nicholson
I.E. Weekly

Miracle of miracles, a valuable portrait of Strummer manages to emerge from the chaos, helped by the film's one consistent thread: tapes of a BBC World Service radio show he hosted in his final years.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
02/01/08
Peter Howell
Toronto Star
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[Director Julien Temple] stops short of hagiography, while exhaustively positing Strummer as one of the most important cultural figures of the 20th century.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
02/01/08
Jim Slotek
Jam! Movies

Temple, who chronicled the Sex Pistols...offers the full, sometimes bloated, context of Strummer's life through the testimony of his many friends and collaborators.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
02/01/08
Liam Lacey
Globe and Mail
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Temple gets at the heart of Strummer's character, at the unbridled joy that existed within his righteous anger, the satisfaction of knowing he was on the right side of history and hadn't had to sell any part of himself to get there.

Full Review Source: Capital Times (Madison, WI) | comment Comment
01/18/08
Rob Thomas
Capital Times (Madison, WI)

The film is the work of an admirer, but not an uncritical one.

Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | comment Comment
01/09/08
Philip French
Observer [UK]

Temple's film is a fittingly conscientious and absorbing tribute to his complex, contradictory personality.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
01/09/08
Steve Rose
Guardian [UK]

A beautiful, evocative collage composed of concert footage, photographs, interviews and film clips, as well as interviews with people who knew him, the film is a rigorously thorough biography and an impassioned accolade.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
01/04/08
Carina Chocano
Los Angeles Times
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Temple has plenty of cinematic tricks and willing interview subjects.

Full Review Source: New York Magazine | comment Comment
01/04/08
David Edelstein
New York Magazine
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Compelling viewing, even for people who don't care a bit for the punk scene.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
01/04/08
V.A. Musetto
New York Post
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One of the most compelling documentary portraits of a musician yet made.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
01/04/08
Marc Savlov
Austin Chronicle

Future is overlong and will best be enjoyed and understood by fans, but even newcomers will appreciate the essential drive of the man, who died of a sudden heart attack in 2002, and admire his ability to balance anger and ecstasy.

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
12/14/07
Tom Long
Detroit News
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The story illustrates how easily political art can be hijacked by the other side, and it illuminates the anguish of a man who spent the last 20 years of his life wrestling with his legacy.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
12/14/07
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader
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'Should you stay or should you go' really is the ultimate question.

Full Review Source: TheMovieChicks.com | comment Comment
12/14/07
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
TheMovieChicks.com

By the end of Temple’s rather long film, that is the person who emerges: a man no longer interested in changing the universe song by song but devoted to enriching his own corner of the world.

Full Review Source: Kansas City Star | comment Comment
12/07/07
Timothy Finn
Kansas City Star

Indulgent celebrity interviews..., repetitive details from Strummer's friends, and rapid-fire editing of found footage that sometimes matches the music but often just clouds the narrative.

Full Review Source: Salt Lake Tribune | comment Comment
11/21/07
Sean Means
Salt Lake Tribune

Those who loved the Clash or Strummer will be enthralled throughout.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
11/20/07
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

The end result is a documentary that feels very insider and exclusive... it's probably best suited to those who are already fans.

Full Review Source: KPBS.org | comment Comment
11/17/07
Beth Accomando
KPBS.org
 
 
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Latest News for Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten

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October 31, 2007: Interview: Julien Temple on Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten
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October 19, 2007: Trailer & Poster review. Opens in new window
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