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Rise And Fall Of The Clash, The
Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: April 29th, 2014.
Director: Danny Garcia
Cast: The Clash
Year: 2012
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The Movie:
Directed by Danny Garcia, 2012's The Rise And Fall Of The Clash documents, just as it sounds, the meteoric rise from the pubs of London to the stadiums of America that The Clash experienced in the 1970s through the early 1980s. The documentary, made up of newly shot interviews and a load of archival clips covers this aspect pretty quickly as we learn what made Joe Strummer, Paul Simonon, Topper Headon and Mick Jones so important to so many people. From there, the focus narrows in on the band's inevitable downfall beginning with the sacking of Headon for rampant drug use and the subsequent change in sound and direction that the band experienced in the years that would follow, culminating in Mick Jones being kicked out with Strummer struggling to keep The Clash relevant under the control of their manager, Bernie Rhodes.
Obviously any input from Strummer is handled through archival clips from various sources but Mick Jones is in this quite a bit and is blunt about his being booted from the band and what that was like for him. He doesn't offer a whole lot of new insight into the band's inevitable fall but of course, his input here is invaluable. We don't get any new on camera commentary from either Topper Headon or Paul Simonon. Jones does at least seem grateful that he and Strummer were able to get on stage together one last time before Strummer's passing shortly thereafter in 2002.
We also get input from post-Jones Clash members Vince White, Nick Sheppard and Pete Howard. White in particular, who is interviewed while swigging from a big bottle of beer, is pretty open and even emotional about his time in the band and the problems that they all encountered together. The three add on members seem to have enjoyed their experiences by vastly varying degrees but they all more or less agree that they were just hired guns and that Strummer was most definitely being manipulated by Bernie Rhodes to some fairly bizarre degrees during this period.
Another interviewee of note include The Clash's security head Ray Jordan. He seems to have seen everything, from the good to the bad, and is pretty open about some of Strummer's hypocrisy and about Rhodes' tactics in terms of controlling the band's sound, style and output. Not surprisingly Rhodes declined to be interviewed for the documentary. There are a few sound bites taken from recordings in which we hear his voice used sporadically but his direct involvement probably says more about how all of this turned out than any interview likely could have. A few other friends and collaborators also appear here, including Pearl Harbor, Viviane Albertine, Dan Donovan, Terry Chimes and Rude Boy director David Mingay. There's a wealth of great archival clips and photos used throughout the presentation.
This could and should have gone deeper than it does. It mentions Strummer dealing with depression but never goes further into that aspect of his personality than that nor does it really elaborate on how it affected his interactions with his band mates. Regardless, this is a decent 'warts and all' look at what brought down one of the most important bands of all time. Clash experts might not gleam as much as they'd hope from it but for those who haven't committed the band's history to memory, it proves a pretty interesting watch.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Rise And Fall Of The Clash arrives on DVD framed at 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen in a transfer culled from various sources of varying degrees of quality. Some of the old film sourced footage is pretty grainy and riddled with print damage while some of the video footage is soft and shows tape rolls - but it is what it is, that's just the nature of archival footage. The newly shot interview clips are crisp and clean and colorful. The disc is well authored, there aren't any compression issues. This isn't the type of movie you seek out for blistering video quality, but what's here looks perfectly fine given the origins of the movie.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix on the disc is very good. The music is spread out very effectively and while this is mostly just music and dialogue, when effects are used there's some good directionality and presence to them. Some archival clips, the tape sourced ones in particular, have some hiss that likely couldn't be eliminated but outside of that there's nothing to complain about here. Levels are nicely balanced, dialogue is clean and clear and all in all this sounds very good.
There are no extras on the disc, just a static menu offering chapter selection.
The Final Word:
The Rise And Fall Of The Clash puts a lot more emphasis on the fall than the rise but it makes for a pretty interesting watch regardless. The filmmakers managed to dig up some interesting footage, much of which we haven't seen a hundred times over, as well as some pretty revealing interviews.
