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Joy Division

The ad copy for Grant Gee's 2007 Joy Division calls it "the definitive documentary on Joy Division," and given the roster of participants, it seems a reasonable claim. Gee (Radiohead: Meeting People Is Easy) gathers the surviving band members for thorough interviews, as well as key players like TV host/music impresario Tony Wilson, album cover designer Peter Saville, and Ian Curtis' out-of-wedlock lover, Annik Honore (though Deborah Curtis elected not to appear onscreen, she is represented by words from her memoir Touching From a Distance).

Fans will have long ago absorbed every detail presented in this doc, but Gee presents the information artfully, putting special emphasis on how Joy Division is entertwined with the modern history of Manchester, the band's home base. By helping to transform pop music with a bridge from punk to modern rock, Joy Division helped a factory town gain a new identity as a modern city.

The surviving band members—Bernard Sumner (guitar and keyboards), Peter Hook (bass guitar and backing vocals) and Stephen Morris (drums and percussion)—provide the meat of the documentary. Hook, or "Hooky," provides the most gregarious commentary, but all are likeable, frank, and even self-critical in their recollections. Sumner recalls clearing the ignominy of clearing the dance floor of their local club by convincing the DJ to play their first pressing, and all lament that they didn't process the warning signs of Curtis' iminent demise. (We also hear the Curtis "regression therapy" tape made by Sumner shortly before Curtis' death.)

Of course, any recounting of the history of Joy Division will revolve around frontman Ian Curtis, whose death at age 23 ended Joy Division and began the history of the likewise influential New Order. As Saville puts it, "Ian's story is one of the last true stories in pop," before business seemed decisively to overtake art. Indeed, it's hard to see any post-milennial musicians (thus far) as having the kind of impact that spawns documentaries like this one.