Documentary’s Confusing Montage Captures Tumultuous Life of Joe Strummer

Joe Strummer elevated the Clash to punk rock stardom, but he wasn’t known for kindness and consideration. He was notorious for bullying at his British boarding school; he deserted his first band for a group of strangers; he drunkenly revealed bandmate Topper Headon’s heroin abuse to reporters. Many interview subjects in director Julien Temple’s new documentary “Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten” complain about Strummer’s Machiavellian tendencies to use and abuse those who surrounded him. His life was characterized by destruction and reinvention; footage of a wrecking ball is used in the film to symbolize the end of each stage in Strummer’s life.

With a focus on the transitions throughout his existence, the movie is a memorial to the complicated artist and individual that is Strummer, who shifted identities as fluidly as he changed his name. John Graham Mellor, the diplomat’s child, begat Woody, the hippie squatter, begat Joe Strummer, the lead singer of a definitive punk rock band.

Similarly, the documentary is a fast-paced, chaotic jumble of images and videos woven around a chronological biography of Strummer. Temple strays from the typical organized rockumentary structure to make a choppy film, visually interesting but difficult to grasp. The only consistent scenes are a series of crackling, campfire interviews with friends, colleagues and even random admirers. As interesting as the anecdotes are, lack of interviewee identification and coherent flow leads to confusion for the audience. Among a barrage of unrecognizable faces, the familiar features of Johnny Depp, Matt Dillon and John Cusack are a welcome break. They may not provide any insight into Strummer, but they’re easy to recognize and understand.

A hodgepodge of multimedia, from typical home videos and concert footages to not-so-typical stop-motion sketches and movie clips, accompany interviews and narration. At one point, Strummer’s childhood is interrupted by footage of Elvis Presley in West Germany. At another, snippets from the animated “Animal Farm” supplement the story of Strummer’s vagabond years in London. Some effects are laughably over-the-top—to show Strummer’s poor academic record, his progress report is illuminated only with the thin and shaky gleam of a flashlight. Some restraint on the part of the director and the editor would have shown consideration for viewers struggling to follow his beautiful mess.

The multimedia mayhem is overwhelming, but it reaches a rhythm by the middle of the documentary. As Strummer starts his musical rise to the top, the film gains a more fluent narrative structure, and the visual asides become more purposeful. The stress of following the interviews and biography lessens, and Temple’s obvious love of his subject matter emerges. After that, the random video clips amuse more than confuse.

In the end, there are two approaches to “Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten.” One can strive to remember the voice of each person, maybe jot down a note or two on a spare piece of paper; one could commit to memory the face of each individual in Strummer’s life in order to better understand the context of each interview. Alternatively, the viewer could sit back and let this crazy mishmash of a documentary consume any semblance of order and sense about Strummer. The movie does not enlighten with information and facts; instead, it visually acknowledges the raw, nonsensical muddle of the life of an icon. And in achieving that purpose, even Elvis footage fits.

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