*** 1/2
Directed by Julien Temple
Not rated
Opens Friday
Julien Temple’s documentary follows the dramatic life story of Joe Strummer of The Clash. Strummer was born in Turkey, attended art school and became a squatter in London before forming his first rockabilly band. After seeing the Sex Pistols, he decided to go in a different direction with The Clash. After their breakup in the mid-1980s, he floundered in his depression, recording soundtrack albums and disappearing from time to time. In the 1990s, he found a new life with his band the Mescaleros, before dying in 2002 at age 50.
It’s a great story arc, and it makes the movie worth seeing, but Temple’s filmmaking may frustrate some. He uses talking heads but doesn’t tell us who they are—so we have a parade of bandmates, girlfriends, musicians, friends and producers, with absolutely no idea who most are. As for the archival material, Temple has amassed a great collection of Clash performance footage, though it’s mostly chopped up; we rarely hear an entire song.
Still, Temple includes a terrific sequence in which he intercuts two performances of “White Riot,” one from a small club in 1977 and one from a giant stadium in 1983, brilliantly illustrating how big the band grew and how far they fell. Certainly the movie could have been worse; it could have been directed as one of those ultra-bland PBS jobs. Too bad Temple’s vision takes it too far in the other direction.