But while the musical flame lit by the Clash has only burned brighter in the 21 years since their tumultuous breakup, Strummer himself remained an enigma both before and after his death from a heart attack in 2005 at age 50. With “The Future is Unwritten,” filmmaker Julien Temple ventures behind the bluster and certainty of Strummer’s political sloganeering to find a fascinating, inconsistent and ultimately confounding character.
The son of a British foreign service official, the man who would be known variously as John Mellor, Woody and Joe Strummer grew up globetrotting with his family from one diplomatic posting to the next, constantly reinventing himself to adapt to each new environment. That pattern followed him through British boarding schools, itinerant labor, West London squats, global stardom and a prolonged midlife search for his true purpose. Throughout his career Strummer was famous for his willingness to bypass the handlers and hangers-on who cling to rock stars in order to forge connections with ordinary fans. But as Temple’s interviews with old friends and bandmates reveal, he also shed those who were closest to him as frequently as he changed his hairstyle.
Temple, best known for his pair of Sex Pistols documentaries, “The Great Rock and Roll Swindle” and “The Filth and the Fury,” has plenty of material to work with here, including phenomenal archival footage and Strummer’s own voice-over as he ruminates on both his own life and on the nature of existence itself. Even those diehard Clash fans who could follow the twists and turns of the band’s story in the first half of the film blindfolded will find surprises as Temple recounts Strummer’s long wandering in the wilderness after the band’s denouement, as he tried acting in the films “Straight to Hell” and “Walker” (both directed by fellow restless Brit Alex Cox), a disastrous solo record and finally a musical rebirth as a member of the Mescaleros.
Later in his life Strummer took to hosting gatherings of friends old and new around huge campfires. Temple deftly recreates these in locations from London to California as devices to frame his interviews with Strummer’s friends and former bandmates, as well as with famous fans like Bono and Johnny Depp. Temple’s film may not fully explain all of Strummer’s mysteries, but it sure makes you wish you’d spent an evening talking to him and playing music around a roaring fire as the dew comes down.
