johnbalance
I was torn about what rating to give this as it's not without it's merits. The film works as a time capsule of late 70's Britain with real life footage of National Front protests and anti-fascist counter protesters clashing with police. The concert footage of the Clash in action is undoubtedly the highlight. As a narrative led film it's kind of all over the place. Ganges unsympathetic main character fails to hold the viewers interest. He basically wanders the film in an alchoholic haze, can in hand. His character is utterly useless in his capacity as a roadie for the band and leads to some continuity confusion when two other roadie characters are talking about him as though he's gone yet the next scene has him still there. The sub story about a group of black youths falling foul of the law which seems to have no connection to the main Clash story is puzzling as well. It appears to be a critique of police harassment of black urban youth yet the featured characters are actually portrayed as engaging in criminal activity so it kind of misses the point.
ignaciodelgado2003
Brilliant. The live footage is mind blowing. It captures the time perfectly. Ray Gange is spot on. A Clash fan must. If you don't get it, you just don't get it. I could never see this movie too many times. Joe Strummer is part Elvis, Dylan, Springstein, Guthrie. Mick Jones was the perfect composer to bring it all together. Paul Simminon was the perfect art director. Bernie (Sir Not Aprearing in this film) was the mad scientist. Topper (Bruce Lee) is one of the all time greats. Brigade Rosse. As far as I am concerned, the greatest rock movie of all time, though I do love Stop Making Sense and the Last Waltz. But once again, it's all about the live footage. It just reaffirms the complete brilliance of the only band that matters.
delia-19
I followed the Clash from 1979 and was quite curious to see this movie. I admit the Clash concert and recording sequences were great (even though it seems like White Riot was always in the live performances.) The dialog was very hard to hear or understand for that matter and Mick Jones was trying his best to play the tough guy. I don't even know what the storyline was, but it seems like all these Clash songs were linked together and a movie worked around them. All that aside, the best part of the film was Joe Strummer at the piano (what a gem in the middle of this muddle!). This would have worked better if it was a bootleg Clash concert movie since the band's energy was captured pretty well with this movie's grainy texture. Rent it, but don't buy this unless you want to remember what we dressed like in the late 70's early 80's.
marc-137
Read Marcus Gray's The Last Gang in Town.... I watched the film a couple of times, like other contributors, with many questions in my head about what it was really about, how much The Clash co-operated with it, why the film is presented in the way it is, who on Earth Ray Gange is...This book clears up those questions... The film is flawed, but as a document of the times, and especially the power of The Clash as a live band (there's not any better footage of them around - although they overdubbed the live tracks).... What a band...
AD
