The tiresome debate over what is and isn't punk, now entering its fourth decade, only gets interesting once the topic moves beyond music and style. Ideally, punk's defiant DIY ethos should embrace passion and sincerity, not snotty ambivalence, which is why the Sex Pistols and their selfish, contrived nihilism have always seemed pretty vacant. Johnny Rotten scoffed in a recent Spin interview that he "never considered the Clash punk," but while Rotten used his platform to sneer about how little he cared, Joe Strummer made it clear that he absolutely did, and then rammed home why we ought to as well.

In the rousing, affectionate "Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten," filmmaker Julien Temple (2000's Pistols doc "The Filth and the Fury") explores the life and legacy of the late Clash frontman using a riveting blend of home movies, rare performance footage, and odd touchstones like an animated "Animal Farm," along with remembrances from friends that don't seem so much formal interview as they do toasty Irish wake. And though young John Mellor's beginnings were not totally atypical - the son of a diplomat, he resisted buttoned-down privilege in favor of art school, Marc Bolan curls, and subway busking - his morph into sexy Joe Strummer, rock star and activist, is almost as fascinating as his eclectic post-Clash life, after he dismantled "the only band that matters."

Temple illustrates the evolution of Strummer through the rise and aftermath of the Clash, as Strummer's informed, searing lyrics and Mick Jones' musical gifts led to a kind of fame that Strummer admits turned them into "the people we were trying to destroy." Strummer railed against his popularity, ultimately retreating to search for a way to be relevant without feeling directly liable for bombs aimed at the Middle East that read "Rock the Casbah." Cue acting ("Mystery Train"!), composing, charity work, and a radio show on the BBC World Service, snippets of which offer a glimpse into Strummer's fiery soul. By century's end Strummer had settled into the Mescaleros, which would lead to a mini-Clash reunion in the autumn of 2002, mere weeks before Strummer's heart fatally attacked him at the age of 50.

There's a great sound bite at the end of "The Future Is Unwritten" concerning the untimely loss of any remarkable talent: "It's kind of greedy to expect it to last forever. That's their fire burning at extra strength for us, and that's a lot to ask of people, to burn like that." Now, I couldn't tell you who uttered this gem, because Temple declines to identify any of his interviewees as they're huddled around bonfires, be they an old school chum or Johnny Depp in his Jack Sparrow beard braids. And that sense of communal equality, come to think of it, is fairly f**king punk itself.

David Von Ancken's exciting neo-Western "Seraphim Falls" starts off with a bang, literally, as a seemingly serene mountain man, circa 1868, takes one in the shoulder while he's trying to enjoy some roasted rodent. Underneath all that bear fur - and howling in agony during the excruciating bullet removal scene - is Pierce Brosnan, and for the next couple of hours Liam Neeson and his henchthugs will track their wounded prey through the snowy peaks and arid valleys of Nevada. But why the cat-and-mouse game, we wonder? Though the film's title is the answer, Von Ancken disperses his information very slowly, so much so that the conclusion you have reached will likely need to be revamped.

Set against the stunning cinematography of John Toll (he also shot Malick's "The Thin Red Line," one of the loveliest movies ever), "Seraphim Falls" incorporates elements of the road movie, as we learn enough about the adversaries through their dealings with others, such as a frontier family and a wagon train of missionaries, to tide us over until the inevitable showdown. Brosnan has never been better (Neeson = always good), and though the wheels loosen toward the end with the semi-silly introductions of a mystical native (Wes Studi) and a possible mirage (Anjelica Huston), Von Ancken makes up for it with his final scene, which should satisfy some and madden others. Compromise is so 2007.

Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten

(NR), directed by Julien Temple

Opens Friday at The Little

Seraphim Falls

(R), directed by David Von Ancken

Screens Friday at the Dryden Theatre