Rude Boy | 
 enlarge | Actor: The Clash
Studio: Legacy/Columbia
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $11.18
You Save: $8.80 (44%)
New (35) Used (15) from $7.65
Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 29253
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Explicit Lyrics, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 133 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 52399
UPC: 074645239996
EAN: 0074645239996
ASIN: B000FUTUYM
Theatrical Release Date: 1980
Release Date: August 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: ******BRAND NEW****** ** Over 1.5 million orders shipped worldwide and more than 500 000 items in stock, BUY FROM A TRUSTED SOURCE, ESTABLISHED SINCE 1998 - INETVIDEO ~~~
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
For their first film, the Clash could've easily cast themselves in the lead. The fiery foursome, however, were nothing if not unpredictable. Just as the little known Phil Daniels was the star of Quadrophenia--rather than the Who--the completely unknown Ray Gange is the star of the more verite-like Rude Boy. The year is 1978 and England has gone to the dogs, with the National Front on the rise and rioting in the streets. Ray, as he's also known in the film, is a bleary-eyed punk, who works in a hole-in-the-wall Brixton sex shop. The 20-year-old blows off steam by going to see the Clash. Sometimes he hangs out with them. Eventually, Ray becomes their roadie, but the band fails to convince him that the left-wing has any more to offer than the right. "I don't think you should mix your music with politics," he finally tells Joe Strummer. "It annoys me." In this re-mastered and expanded edition, the quartet performs "I Fought the Law," "White Riot" with Sham 69's Jimmy Pursey, and 15 other songs, both live and in rehearsal. As for Gange, he isn't a great actor, but he's an engaging presence, and Rude Boy plays like a rambling cross between Alan Clarke (Made in Britain) and early Mike Leigh (Meantime). It may be fiction, but feels like fact, and the abundance of early material from the Clash makes up for any shortcomings. Extras include interviews (Gange, road manager Johnny Green, and co-directors Jack Hazan and David Mingay), four deleted scenes, two bonus live tracks, and two rare BBC performances. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Brief History of an Era November 2, 2008
Music Lover (British Columbia)
I first saw this film in 1980 and not again until now, 28 years later. I loved it! The concert footage is fantastic and there is a lot more of it than I remembered. What struck me was the accurate rendition of 1970s Britain, mostly forgotten nowadays. Young people today have no idea of how easy things have been for them in their lives, in comparison to the youth of that era. Watching the film puts the songs of The Clash into perspective. If you are a Clash fan, or just curious about this time, this is a must-have film for your collection!
4 Stars for the Clash footage alone... October 7, 2008
K. Macfarlane (Toronto)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm writing this review more as a response to an earlier review, that I felt was inaccurate. I felt compelled to clarify, especially as someone who's seen the movie more recently than the 1980's. I did not buy the movie (but rather chose to rent it) based on the claim there was "only 15-20 minutes of Clash footage and therefore it was not worth the price of the movie" First off, the movie IS worth the price because of the Clash footage alone, EVEN in this age of YouTube. There is a beautiful, moving scene with Mick Jones singing "Stay Free". He's in the studio, wearing headphones, and all you hear is his cracking voice. (a similar scene with Joe as well) and scenes of Joe Strummer singing at the piano, alone, as well as amazing live Clash footage. Lots of it. The movie isn't great, it's a bit depressing in spots, a bit of a mess, really, but the Clash footage came around often enough, and hung around long enough and was amazing enough, to make me want to go out and get the DVD afterall. And if you're a Clash fan, then I can't see you being disappointed with the footage either.
 only ok February 26, 2008
betsy (NYC)
It is ok , there is some good footage of the Clash early on , touring, but the rest is kinda pointless. Ray G's character is annoying and the side story of blacks pickpocketing,, What is the point? the Clash did alot to address race issues without that little side show. Watch it for the Clash footage only.
5 Stars for the live performances... December 16, 2006
Patrick M. Doyle
Maybe 2 stars for the movie itself. I found the plot hard to follow. The scenes with acting are quite forced and insincere. The filmmakers tried to include a political tone - and i couldn't make much sense of it. Perhaps I'll try to figure it out upon a second viewing.
The live performances, however, are electrifying. It is fortunate that The Clash have been documented live during this period in their career. They were TIGHT. The most amazing part for me was the recording of "All The Young Punks" with Joe Strummer singing into the mic with headphones on. That part is simply breath taking.
I watched the BBC performances - also electrifying, but a bit polished - unlike the raw footage featured in the film.
If you are a major Clash fan, this is obviously a must have.
London Falling October 13, 2006
Otto Luck (Detroit)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
If there's any consolation to some of punk's inspirational touchstones like Pete Townshend, The Stooges, and The MC5 being usurped by the Year Zero brigade, it may lie in their spiritual and sonic influence on groups like The Clash, none of whose members have ever had much good to say about "Rude Boy," the part fiction/part documentary/part performance film, now finally available digitally over here in the U.S., in which they had little input until it came time to help Bill Price salvage the soundtrack.
What passes for a plot revolves loosely around the hiring of Ray Gange, playing himself, as a roadie for the 1978 "Sort It Out" tour. Gange, whose life is frequently hazed by a heavy alcohol intake, apparently has nothing better to do between shifts at a porn shop than having sex in toilet stalls, waiting for his dole check to arrive in the post, and hanging out with the band and his vertically-challenged skinhead mate. Most of the dialogue would benefit from subtitles unless you're able to cut through the heavy Pom accents - made even more impenetrable by the effects of fermented malted grains - or translate "jack the lad," "down the nick," or "stroppy wankers." I haven't a clue.
There's an undercurrent of social commentary at work here on the parts of directors David Mingay and Jack Hazan that I don't even have a prayer of trying to convey, having slept through political science, economics AND social studies in high school. Many of the exterior shots from in and around a pre-Thatcher London are perpetually shrouded in gray and depict skirmishes between police in riot gear, the National Front, and uh, the anti-National Front (see what I mean?), abandoned council flats tagged with racist graffiti, and a malaise which hangs over the proceedings like a funeral shroud.
With The Clash's name appearing above the title, though, most won't come here for either a message or character development. Gange, on film and reportedly in real life, spirals downward, drowning in a sea of tipple and stumbling through several scenes so seedy that you're tempted to start shooting up. There's no doubt he has a knack, but I'm not sure if it's for acting or vomiting.
Actually, that's entirely unfair. Admittedly no actor, Gange had the role presented to him by Mingay and his acceptance was based more on a chance to get close to his favorite band than any utopian vision of film stardom. The bonus interview footage reveals a bright, cerebral guy who saw his payment from the producers as a way out of the country, and his performance exudes such a natural and understated sense of scruffy charisma that it's easy to forget he's in character. Although barely conscious through most of the first two reels, it's hard to not to love Gange, in a drooling-floppy-eared-dog-that-perpetually-humps-your-leg-as-soon-as-you-get-in-the-door way.
Any notions that the band many feel to be the best of its generation was living a life filled with limousines, five-star hotels, champagne and groupies on ice in the dressing room, and nights of glory under the bright lights are scotched early on as they stagger from one spartan accommodation to the next, crammed into small cars alongside their gear, road manager Johnny Green practically bartering his soul in exchange for replacement equipment and Joe Strummer acting as his own wardrobe manager (as if!), washing his Brigade Rossi t-shirt in a hotel sink.
Since the camera crew wasn't cheek-by-jowl with the band 24 hours a day, they were asked to re-enact and/or improvise certain key scenes from which their legend has grown for the sake of substance and continuity, including the arrests of Paul Simonon and Topper Headon for pigeon sniping from atop their rehearsal space which formed the inspiration for "Guns on the Roof," and the Glasgow Apollo dogfight between bouncers and fans which landed Simonon and Strummer in the chokey.
Despite revelations that "Rude Boy" may not have been filmed as close to "as it happened" as originally represented, there's plenty here to recommend it, such as (and you had to see this coming) the concert scenes, which are the picture of spontaneity, abandon, and chest-thumping bravado, The Clash lining `em up and knocking `em down with little or no regard for their or their crew's physical well being, wedged onto postage stamp-sized stages and in many instances, sharing them with their audience. For Strummer, the guitar was less a musical instrument than a stage prop, but Simonon, Headon, and Mick Jones show no compunction about wielding and rattling theirs like sabres.
The BBC clips of "Clash City Rockers" and "Tommy Gun" are contemptuous and white hot, the band brazenly throwing down a gauntlet on enemy turf and stepping over it on their way out the door. The interviews of Hazan and Mingay shed a little light on just what the hell they were trying to accomplish with this project and Green still seems woozy, nay gobsmacked, by it all some 25 years later. He oughta write a book. Wait, he already did? Never mind.
If you're looking for an ending that ties things up into a neat, tidy package, though, look away now because quite frankly, it doesn't exist, "Rude Boy" coming full stop with questions unanswered, conflicts unresolved, and anthems unwritten.
Just like The Clash.
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