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Unmissable
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Tragic

FILM DETAILS

Certificate 15

Cast Bernard Sumner Peter Hook Stephen Morris.

Directors Grant Gee.

Screenwriters

Running Time 100 minutes

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Joy Division
Like Control, but more real...

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Plot
A documentary account of the influential late 1970s English rock band.

Review

The success of Control created the perfect climate for this documentary – but then again, Joy Division fans would have leapt on it any time.

Charting the rise of the band from its humble beginnings in urban Manchester, it hinges around vintage footage and entertaining anecdotes from Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris within a slick, visually inventive format. Other contributors include the late Tony Wilson, Control director Anton Corbijn and Annik Honoré, who’s relatively guarded in her first filmed interview about lover Ian Curtis.

The New Order boys are more frank, Sumner recalling how he sat down and finished his Sunday lunch after he got the call about Curtis’ suicide.

Newfound audio recordings help make this more revealing, if less affecting, than the drama that preceded it.

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Average user rating for Joy Division

It's not essential for fans

Although it has some fleeting good footage, thee's isn't anything here that a Joy Division fan doesn't know. For newcomers, though, it's a worthy viewing.   No Deborah Curtis, Hmm...   7/10   ... More

Posted by JohnChard at 05:33, 26 August 2011 | Report This Post

An interesting look at a great band. It somehow demythologises Curtis, showing him as a depressed, confused but brilliant kid more than anything else. Well worth a look, even if you are not into the music. ... More

Posted by The Ghost Who Walks at 19:32, 06 May 2008 | Report This Post

Joy Division

Oh, and by the way Empire, it was Peter Hook who said he went back and finished his lunch after hearing Ian Curtis had killed himself, not Bernard Sumner. ... More

Posted by Indio at 23:05, 04 May 2008 | Report This Post

Joy Division

Perhaps a little bit too self important at times (yes Ian Curtis was a great lyricist, but printing the lyrics on screen while the songs are playing always strikes me as being self-important and pompous, and there was no need for the repeated use of superimposed images of Joy Division over street lights and traffic (or the frankly embarassing shot of long haired kids dropping a rock on traffic), but overall this is a superior documentary about a rock band. I found this a more satisfying film ... More

Posted by Indio at 23:03, 04 May 2008 | Report This Post

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