Just plain awful
punkviper | Pittsburgh, PA USA | 05/25/2007
(1 out of 5 stars)
"I'm not even sure where to start with this review. First off: blatantly false advertising, this DVD is a typical low-budget, cash-in, poor excuse for a documentary and has N-O-T-H-I-N-G to do with the London Calling album! It's a career-spanning retrospective with a bunch of UK journos sitting around blowing hot-air cliches that any Clash fan has heard a thousand times over, with the added irritation that what they say is not only worn out & trite but sometimes flat out WRONG (listen to the mohawked, thick-accented yobbo get the point of Tommy Gun completely wrong). You do get Mickey Gallagher (Clash keyboardist, and father of the kids that sing the Career Opportunities version on Sandinista) chiming in with his 2 cents, and Don Letts acting like he was in the band. Gallagher is too busy giving credit to Norman Watt-Roy (bassist from Ian Dury & The Blockheads) for Clash songs, and Don Letts spends the whole time being a Mick Jones apologist (yes, we know Mick gave you your career in Big Audio Dynamite, but c'mon) even to the point where the whole thing ends with a band-photo close-up/fade-out of Mick's face! Okay, apparently Joe was just along for the ride. Ridiculous!
Seriously, this whole thing is a mess. Pointless, cheap, vapid commentary, nothing you don't already know, and most of the footage has been done to death as well. The only redeeming footage being the Tom Snyder footage, the U.S. Festival footage, and the Tokyo show with Pearl Harbor. Other than that, it's just another typical money-grab by a bunch of people only remotely associated with the band (if associated at all). Absolutely not worth your time, better to just go watch Westway again. Joe has gotta be rolling over in his grave over this one.
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