Unlike other "VH1-style" docudramas, this film really gets to the heart of the one of the most influential and important bands of all time. The interviews contained are up close and personal. The live-on-stage footage is amazing. Joe Strummer was more than a London punk. He changed the face of music. I highly recommend this film to anyone who likes punk. These guys can't be forgotten.
Conventional
Fair comparison or not, Sex Pistols films (and books) are much more interesting. John Rotten/Lydon and Malcolm McLaren provide political, philosophical, and artistic context for their times and tunes. And the other Pistols provide a sense of danger and group class conflict. The words surrounding the Pistols enhance the tunes. (Sometimes the words are more interesting than the music).
In contrast, the "Westway" Clash stories are relatively literal. In a rare political scene, the Clash discuss being in a riot (pictured on "The Clash" LP). Joe Strummer provides a few nuggets of political context, but mostly the narrative is first person, micro-view. Later, Strummer gives a (too rare) glimpse of insight, stating the "socialist" Clash "had no answers, but tried hard to raise questions." I would have loved to hear more about Clash perceptions of the world, and how that parlayed to such explosive lyrics.
"Westway" editing seems dryly conventional. It's not minimalist punk, really, just square and linear.... And the dominant narrative is conventional; band forms, band grows, band gets stressed, band breaks apart. The band's rise and break-up is interesting. Still, I'd have liked more about The Clash's ideas, and less chronology of what they tangibly did. (Adding to conventionality, The Clash pay respect to Beatles, Stones, and The Who - where the Pistols tried to annihilate them. The Clash then, fairly or not, seem an extension of the 60's groups rather than a fresh break).
Props.... Love the New York coverage.... The Clash check out the sidewalk hip-hop scene... and New York boom boxes pump out The Clash's "The Magnificent Seven".... In interview, Joe Strummer has an amazing charisma. You almost live what he says, because he relives it so deeply as he speaks.
exceedingly well-made
"I just think that they certainly made the most exciting, vital rock music ever made, and certainly made it impossible for me to listen to any rock music ever again."
--Tony Parsons, journalist, from Westway to the World
The Clash was a band that was somehow actually able to live up to their label's marketing ploy of `the only band that matters'. Made up of a nucleus of Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Topper Headon and Terry Chimes, The Clash was a punk band who explored a variety of musical styles and was able to be both punchy, raucous, and more than active while still being socially conscious, responsible, and masterful musicians.
Westway to the World is a compilation documentary that attempts [and succeeds] to recount the legacy of this relevant band. Composed of interviews with band members, stock footage from the era, stills, photos, and concert footage, the film outlines the band's career in a basically chronological manner. The interviews form the backbone of the film, allowing the band members to tell their own story of and behind their careers. There is a lack of narration in the film, a detachment on the part of the filmmakers, and interviews are arranged into a story format that follows the career point by point with an obvious consciousness of its entirety throughout.
Interviews in this film occur with all principle members of the band, allowing them to speak for themselves, telling their own stories about how they carved their story. Band members speak in a way which recognizes their legacy while also seeming to remain relatively humble about such things. They remain generally very close to their roles of the period with an addition of worldly wiseness and calm. Recounting specific instances, the occurrences of their lives, the band, and the society around the band, each member communicates very distinct depth and knowingness regarding their situation. Information divulged here has a certain wise anecdotal quality, recollections not unlike fatherly recounts of half-justifiably irresponsible, half-worthy and conscious sort of lives. Interviews show an interesting contrast to the rabid, angry, and passionate showmen with calm, collected, contented yet still harboring inner fire individuals willing to sit down and talk.
Joe spends the film keeping to his role of untouchably genius prophet, with a certain cool that allows him to seem somewhat ordinary and a perpetual member of the masses despite his constant ability to spew pure profundity. Mick is a band member of extreme personability, one with obvious abilities to manage much more than the musical elements of a band, and one with very obvious abilities to serve as dual showman. Interviews with Paul reveal a member of unexpected positivity, humor, and understated knowledge spoken with a very lively twinkle in his eye. In fact, all three retain a certain militant twinkle in their eye, managed with an inner peace that can only be garnered with age and experience. Topper appears as a sort of withering outer seed which is overcompensated for by promotions of him by the other members, and soon his presence truly shows why he belongs so well with the others.
Filmed with beautiful clarity, with two-point lighting, warm in the front and cold, noticeable, and almost silhouette-inducing blue in the back, these interviews provide for the basic storytelling device of the film. Each member is positioned somewhat on the side of the frame in a medium closeup, in front of a black background. This bareness of the set and clarity of each interview allows the viewer to feel very close to the band member, inviting them to sit in on a conversation, even in light of each member's professional aversion to looking into camera. Here the film seems very obviously a film, but the director, Don Letts, makes for an environment that decreases his presence there as much as possible. Audience members may notice the subtle staged light behind the members, but their consciousness of watching a film is present in the beginning already, so such filmic touches are perfectly acceptable.
This stagnant, graceful, and understated interview environment is intercut with other footage as well as kinetic markings moving up the screen, as if the projector of the film was nearing its end and all the audience is left with is a blur of grease pencil drifting up the frame. This messiness allows the grace that is represented in this documentary feel infused with as much active, messy life of the band. First and foremost a well-done film, very professionally made and with what at least appears to be high production value, it also contains raw stock footage and kinetic placards to move the story ahead. It is very informed and able to succeed in being polished as a high-quality film, but still retains the insistent life that is so important to its subject.
Westway to the World covers a vast amount of material in a relatively short amount of time, covering the general youths of the members to examine how they became part of the band, the trials and successes of the band once together, and their legacy. It looks at the influences of the band, musically and politically, and how they affected the culture surrounding them by infusing their influences so seamlessly while appearing so ragged. The documentary shows each member coming from different areas of popular culture, bringing a different element of relevance to be siphoned into the group, and allowing them to resist the sometimes narrow world their genre keeps. Their penchant for becoming the power to resist being crushed by it is examined as they ascend from squatter art students to mass successes.
In addition to outlining the genesis of the band and the reasoning behind that, Westway to the World also spends time examining the cultural importance of the group. Members show consciousness of said importance by being attuned to throwing away unnecessary and oppressive cares while still minding style and being very upfront about that. They discuss the effects of being part of a group and minding popularity and labels, and they speak of writing lyrics in the proper context of their evolving career. This is a band which held their music to a top priority but wasn't indulgent enough in that to ignore the culture of rebellion surrounding them, the culture which demanded an onstage world made up of so much more than pure music.
Westway respectfully documents the legacy of a band that was absolutely teeming with life, a very passionate and energetic group with a legacy of untouchable relevance. It follows a band which paid attention to being socially conscious, generally straying from the world of inebriation thereby urging audiences to hopefully follow. It follows a band that was concerned very much with playing and being in the moment, in a very hard, fast, and wild sort of manner, giving performances infused with strength, stamina, and unbridled passion. Westway is a well-made documentary of a highly political band that puts forth the argument that they are what they are; the only band that matters.
This is the one DVD that I've watched at least 10 times. Seriously. The videos are fantastic, opening with a snippet of Clash on Broadway (with small, interlaced clips of the Clash VS. American interview squads and Joe Strummer solemnly intoning that `the enemy you know is better than the enemy you don't know') It effortlessly documents the Bonds theater fiasco and slips into the band soldiering on for the waiting crowds. `London Calling' fires away like an explosion, and soon cuts and breaks up into `This Is Radio Clash.'
All the videos are superb, but my favorite has to be the one for a live version of `Clampdown.' The visuals are fresh and striking, and it all ties together with the music perfectly.
However, the highlight of the DVD (besides the... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 17 June 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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"Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" sneers Johnny Rotten at the Sex Pistols' farewell performance. After seeing this picture you'll understand his disgust, but Julian Temple's sharp portrait of the ragged, raw band of working-class Brits won't leave you disappointed. The Sex Pistols left their legacy in a whirlwind 26-month reign, spitting out a caustic, confrontational brand of rock & roll that became the rallying cry for angry, disaffected youths in late 1970s England and defined the punk movement. Their story was first told two decades ago in the cynical The Great Rock and Roll Swindle, also directed by Temple but produced by the Sex Pistols' smarmy manager, Malcolm McLaren, who stage-managed the film into a self-promoting vanity project. For The Filth... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Julien Temple DVD Release Date: Released the 10 October 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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For those of us lucky enough to have seen the Ramones, this brings back memories. I remember sitting under the marshal stacks without hearing protection. Joey looked at me like I was nuts. And I was. These boys were loud. The interview with Joe STRUMMER is also of note, as it was the last one he gave before heading to rock and roll heaven. Long live the Ramones!! More Info about this DVD Director(s): Michael Gramaglia - Jim Fields DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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I'm an old fogie who actually saw the Pistols perform live in Dallas way back when. I was really entertained and educated by this documentary. Excellent reviews and chronology. For me, as a guitarist, the best part is one of the extras where Steve Jones shows how he plays several of the riffs and leads. More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 19 November 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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An appropriately rough-and-tumble visual scrapbook of the Ramones' 20-year run, Ramones: Raw is sure to please fans of the legendary punk band with over five hours of live performances and rare behind-the-scenes footage. The core of the disc is a rock & roll Frankenstein of ferocious live performances of their most well-loved numbers, including "Blitzkrieg Bop," "Rockaway Beach," and many others, interspersed with footage of the band on television and at venues around the world. But for veteran Ramones followers, the disc's real value comes in the supplemental features, which are crowned by an hourlong, never-before-seen performance filmed for Italian television. The extras also include rowdy appearances on everything from Howard Stern's early '90s TV series to the NYC cable access... More Info about this DVD Director(s): John Cafiero DVD Release Date: Released the 28 September 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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