Director Julien Temple explores the wild life of the singer and songwriter, who was the frontman of popular Anglo-Irish Celtic punk band the Pogues, who found fame in the 1980s and 1990s. The film combines interviews, archive footage and animations as it charts the singer's early days in Ireland, his time on the streets of London, and his time with the Pogues and beyond
Julien Temple has earned his reputation as punk's documentary laureate, having essayed the careers of Joe Strummer, the Sex Pistols and Wilko Johnson. This film finds him taking on anotherrabble-rousing musician, Shane MacGowan, the founder and original singer of the Pogues. The man himself cuts a ghostly, ill-looking figure in his early 60s, but given the industrial quantities of drugs and alcohol he admits to imbibing from a young age, it's remarkable he's still alive. Although born in Kent, MacGowan was at his happiest spending time on the family farm in Tipperary, and it would be Irish influences that influenced the Pogues' sound, along with the anger and energy of the London punk scene. However, the singer is the first to admit that success and excess blunted his creativity, while the never-ending cycle of touring resulted in him suffering a breakdown. Temple works hard to make the film hang together, weaving his familiar magic using old audio interviews, animated segments and archive snippets. But MacGowan comes across as a belligerent and sometimes bewildered participant in his own story, and his interviews with Johnny Depp (a producer on the film), Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie and former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams make for uncomfortably awkward viewing.
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Shane MacGowan | Shane MacGowan |
| Johnny Depp | Johnny Depp |
| Bobby Gillespie | Bobby Gillespie |
| Gerry Adams | Gerry Adams |
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Director | Julien Temple |
