Rating: 
Summary: A Must Have !
Review: I was at the U.S. premier of "Westway..." and had the honour of interviewing Don Letts (director and co-founder of Big Audio Dynamite) in front of the packed house after the vieving. What a fantastic day! All that I can say is this is a Great movie! The interviews are fascinating and the footage is historic. This is a must have for any fan of music, period. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Cutting the Crap
Review: I'm a 41 year old DCer and die hard Clash fan. Joe Strummer and the Clash changed my life - Joe's no-nonsense lyrics helped me cut through the crap and see the light of political realities and not the network-manufactured pablum we're force-fed every night by Dan Rather and Peter Jennings. The Clash made me the person I am today. This film is a great and enlightening tribute to their genius and influence, and really drives home the brilliance of their musicianship. I just wish there was a way to find out the availability of source film clips that Don Letts wove together to create this film.
Rating: 
Summary: an ok intro to the clash
Review: If you were a big clash fan like I was as a teen way back then, you might find this documentary ok. Not great, not horrible, just ok. There is not enough live footage and too much interviewing (although it's great to see Joe's fire and focus). If, on the other hand, you are someone who missed them the first time around, this is an ok intro, and an intro is all. You get a wee sense of the excitement of their shows, the exploding punk scene and life back in the 1970's. As far as depth, there isn't much. The teasers about the Clash/Pistols UK tour and Joe's interest in the Ramones first lp barely scratch the surface. Not to mention other superficial explanations of several key Clash odds and ends. There will be better Clash documentaries than this. It seems someone filmed plenty of their early shows and lots more (the film Rude Boy is worth checking out although it's been 20+ years since I saw that), so, maybe someday we will get the definitive Clash documentary. If not, this is better than nothing.
Rating:
Summary: awesome DVD about The Clash
Review: In WESTWAY TO THE WORLD director Don Letts takes footage of old Clash shows and works them around interview footage with the band members. The result is a riveting documentary, sure to please Clash fans, both casual and diehard. From their origins in mid-1970's England to their worldwide fame and breakup, it's all here. Even the backing music, during the interviews, is music by The Clash. "Guns of Brixton," "Bankrobber," and other songs play behind Joe Strummer's resonant baritone as he describes the band's trials and tribulations, war stories and the stories behind the songs, and these songs sound great. Chapters describe landmark Clash shows, from dingy clubs in their early days to Shea Stadium in NYC during the height of the popularity. Interviews with Joe Strummer yield amazing lines, which seem to put everything about music and life in perspective. Topper Headon seems to nearly cry as he recalls his addiction and exit from the group. Strummer's recall of an encounter with Paul Simonon (bass) and Mick Jones (guitar and vocals) in which he thought he might have to punch Mick then "leg it"? HILARIOUS. Why didn't he punch the beefier Simonon? Paul looked quite "tasty," said Joe, and we know that Strummer didn't fancy a fight with him. I laughed so hard I almost choked on my soup. The concert footage on this DVD will make you want to sing, and the interviews will make you want to laugh and cry. The Clash was such a great band. This DVD is for everybody who ever thought so. Joe Strummer, Rest in Peace. Ken32
Rating:
Summary: awesome DVD about The Clash
Review: In WESTWAY TO THE WORLD director Don Letts takes footage of old Clash shows and works them around interview footage with the band members. The result is a riveting documentary, sure to please Clash fans, both casual and diehard. From their origins in mid-1970's England to their worldwide fame and breakup, it's all here. Even the backing music, during the interviews, is music by The Clash. "Guns of Brixton," "Bankrobber," and other songs play behind Joe Strummer's resonant baritone as he describes the band's trials and tribulations, war stories and the stories behind the songs, and these songs sound great. Chapters describe landmark Clash shows, from dingy clubs in their early days to Shea Stadium in NYC during the height of the popularity. Interviews with Joe Strummer yield amazing lines, which seem to put everything about music and life in perspective. Topper Headon seems to nearly cry as he recalls his addiction and exit from the group. Strummer's recall of an encounter with Paul Simonon (bass) and Mick Jones (guitar and vocals) in which he thought he might have to punch Mick then "leg it"? HILARIOUS. Why didn't he punch the beefier Simonon? Paul looked quite "tasty," said Joe, and we know that Strummer didn't fancy a fight with him. I laughed so hard I almost choked on my soup. The concert footage on this DVD will make you want to sing, and the interviews will make you want to laugh and cry. The Clash was such a great band. This DVD is for everybody who ever thought so. Joe Strummer, Rest in Peace. Ken32
Rating: 
Summary: Where's the bonus disk?
Review: It's a great documentary, but I agree with the previous reviewer that more material needs to be released. The DVD release should have taken advantage of the opportunity to get more material into the hands of fans. I would have paid good money for the footage from Rude Boy minus the irritating story about the rude boy of the title. I'm sure there's personal footage that would prove fantastic, i.e. the Sex Pistols DVD. And what about their videos? For completeness, it looks like the upcoming Jam release will be the 70's punk DVD to beat. That said, the documentary sheds some light on the chemistry of the band. Most effective are the moments that imply the band members are truly disappointed that they made mistakes that led to the breakup of the band, that they now know they had something special, lost it, and would never get it back. And with the passing of Joe Strummer, this sad fact is now proven to be profoundly true.
Rating:
Summary: Rest In Peace Sweet Prince...
Review: It's with a heavy heart that I sit here and try to put into words what The Clash's music has meant to me ever since I bought an import 7" of "White Riot" b/w "1977" back in, uh, 1977, so at the risk of being accused of playing I-was-a-punk-before-you-were-a-punk, let's concentrate on this amazing documentary put together by ex-DJ Don Letts, punk rock insider and the man who purportedly introduced the London punk scene to dub. This past Christmas, I was dragged kicking and screaming into the DVD age with the purchase of a DVD player and this, my first DVD. Letts unveils a plethora of crystal-clear live footage, none of which I even knew existed, and most of which looks like it was shot yesterday. Thankfully, the majority of said footage concentrates on the band pre-"Combat Rock," before they began to lose the plot and while they really were The Only Band That Mattered. Weaving the live material with band interviews that are actually interesting and compelling (what a concept!), Letts tells the story of a bunch of regular Joes (no pun intended) that on any given night, might well have been the best damn band on the planet and a group of guys many of the naive among us (myself included) felt were going to change the world. The interviews reveal Joe Strummer to be, not surprisingly, the master storyteller in the group, Paul Simonon to be not as quiet as many of us thought, Mick Jones to have dental work rivalling that of Mike Meyers as Austin Powers, and, sadly, Topper Headon as a mere shadow of his former self, barely intelligible most of the time. Bonus features include a Letts-shot featurette, "The Clash On Broadway," additional interview footage, photos, a discography and many other things I'm still too technically inept to describe with any degree of accuracy. If you're looking for a testimonial as to why you should shell out the long green for this DVD, all I can say is that the first time I watched it, I never moved once and I'm not even sure I remembered to breathe. Highly recommended for not only Clash fans, but music lovers in general, and a glowing testimonial to the beautiful noise made by a bunch of ragged louts with guitars and amplifiers and how that noise can change the lives of so many.
Rating:
Summary: Great film about a great band
Review: Like the great rock documentaries The Kids Are Alright and The Filth and the Fury, Westway to the World is th story of a band (the Clash) told by those who were in the band (Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Topper Headon, and Paul Siminon). The Clash probably stayed together two years too many (they hung up their spurs in 1985), but their peak years from 1977-1981 were well worth it. Westway captures the exuberance of the punk period into which the Clash thrust themselves in 1977, and documents their own journey up til the departure of Jones (the McCartney to Strummer's Lennon) in the early Eighties. I picked this up in the days after Joe Strummer's passing in December 2002, and I can safely say this is a fine tribute (albeit released before his untimely death). Strummer was easily the most lucid of the original punks (only John Lydon rivals him for candor and interesting insights into the era), and his interview segments are worth the price of admission alone.
The other band members aren't forgotten, though, and each details his own musical background and evolution in the band. Once the film is over, you find it sad to know that 1.) the band can never truly reunite and 2.) there will never be a band that can match them for expanding the range of punk. So let the kiddies have their Avrils and their Blink-182. The Clash were the real deal, and this film captures just how damn special they really were. RIP Joseph Mellors
Rating:
Summary: check it out
Review: the clash are and always be my all time favorite band cause of them i was open to so many diffrent styles of music such as punk, raggae, dub, and such others they had the momentum and they just came to a grinding hault along with the punk movement and i don't wanna get into a whole discussion about punk bein' dead or not but it's nothing now like it was then you didn't have to have a mohawk or the most perfect spikes on your jacket
Rating:
Summary: Westway To Excellence
Review: The Clash's "Westway to the World" documentary directed by Don Letts is one of the most intresting pieces of rock film since Paul McCartney did his tribute to Buddy Holly back in 1986. What I found so intresting about this documentary was how it was able to capture The Clash for who they were; a great live band with a message. Politically speaking, every Clash fan knows how far to the left they were; this film provides us more with the attitude that they took in order for the song to be written. It is also able to capture one of Joe Strummer's last interviews. The Clash have, and will always be considered fraternal twins to The Beatles. The Marxist song-writing and their powerful delivery is probably the way John Lennon's solo career would had developed. Hell, this IS the band he wishes he was in. My hat goes off to the way this film was presented. It wasn't just a one camera ordeal but creative slides of fascinating filmmaking. All four members also spoke their truth of the band, and why it had to fall apart. This compilation is for the die hard rock fan that wants to know why rock music (or any genre) still matters. It also helps us understand why the ability to perform a song can affect so many people. Liberal or Conservative, left or right.
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