SXSW Film Review: I Get Knocked Down

About 15 years into Chumbawamba’ existence, a strange thing happened: The British anarcho-punk-dance outfit had a hit single. And not just a hit single - they had the sort of single that is forever associated with a particular era, a song you hear played at sports arenas and school dances and exists on cover versions of varying quality.

The song, of course, is “Tubthumping” (“I get knocked down/ but I get up again”). In 1997, having signed to a major label (see, kids, there was once this thing called the “music industry” ...), Chumbawamba became that oddest of pop objects: A long-term underground (and in their case, deeply political) band that became famous overnight. To their credit, Chumbawamba did their level best to turn their moment in the sun into attention for lefty causes (and shoplifting). But, as the head of their American label puts it, all of it “went over our heads.”

In I Get Knocked Down, former Chumba front-ranter Dunstan Bruce and BAFTA and Emmy winning co-director Sophie Robinson explore the before and after of this cultural moment through the lens of, well, Dunstan Bruce (and a few members of the band, but mostly Dunstan Bruce).

Bruce, a “struggling” former global star, interrogates What It All Meant (and Means) by comparing their anarcho-pop roots with their hit-making moment. There’s even a moment where Bruce very self-consciously tracks down anarcho-punk godfather Penny Rimbaud of Crass, essentially to get the older man’s blessing for having a hit.

Meanwhile, in fantasy sequences, Bruce is being stalked (and insulted by) a person in a suit wearing a giant mask of that weird baby thing from the cover of the Tubthumper album, acting as conscience and insecurity.

If you are interested in the inner life of Dunstan Bruce, the film is an engaging look at that overly time-honored theme, a middle-aged white guy struggling with his own relevance. If not, I Get Knocked Down can seem like not quite fish nor fowl. Bruce does a decent job of showing the band’s early years but a bit more time on the actual music would have been helpful: why they wanted to engage wider popular culture and how they did it. But the movie isn’t about the band, it’s about Bruce. “Once upon a time I really thought I could change every world,” Bruce says, sadly. “But that was way back when I was someone.” Yeah, well, get in line.

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I Get Knocked Down

24 Beats Per Second, International Premiere
Thursday, March 15, 10:30pm, Alamo Lamar
Online: March 12, 9am-March 14, 9am