Here’s a downbeat, slightly miserable documentary about the Clash, a “redux” in fact by director Danny Garcia of his 2012 film The Rise and Fall of the Clash. Perhaps that earlier version had more to say about how the Clash came raging out of London’s punk scene in the 1970s; this one only really gets going in 1982 when Joe Strummer boots drummer Topper Headon out of the band for heroin addiction, then a year later kicks out guitarist Mick Jones. Rise and Fall Redux is a portrait of the band as a sinking ship, finally disbanding in 1986.
It is a film groaning with talking heads. Pick of them is Viv Albertine of the Slits who sums the Clash up nicely when she says: “They were best when they were small and angry … when they were hard and angry and poor.” Others indulge in a bit intellectual waffle. The only member of the classic lineup to appear is guitarist Mick Jones, not taking it too seriously. Asked about the secret of the band’s success, he grins slyly: “It was a mix of luck and fortunate timing.” There are interviews too with the disgruntled drummers and guitarists hired in later years to replace Headon and Jones, poorly paid and seemingly badly treated by the band’s svengali-like manager Bernard Rhodes.
In the end this a film for Clash fans, with little in the way of explainers; there’s not much, for example, about where the band came from or what it was like in the early days. There’s no recap of the stories about how Strummer met Jones and bassist Paul Simonon in a London dole queue, or how they were so frequently spat at on stage that in 1978 Joe Strummer contracted hepatitis from an audience member. It would benefit from a little more of the glory days, a little rise with the fall.
• The Rise and Fall of the Clash Redux is in UK cinemas from 8 August.
