I Get Knocked Down (2021)

Directed by: Dunstan Bruce, Sophie Robinson | 88 minutes | documentary, music | Starring: Dunstan Bruce, Lou Watts, Boff Whalley, Alice Nutter, Harry “Daz” Hamer, Penny Rimbaud

Which is more famous: the band name or the catchy opening line of ‘Tubthumping’ (1997)? Probably that last one. The song that started with “I get knocked down (but I get up again)” was the only major hit by British band Chumbawamba and you can safely count it as one of the most iconic songs of the nineties. In documentary ‘I Get Knocked Down’ singer Dunstan Bruce, now 59 years old and with white-grey hair, but still with a boyish haircut, looks back on his childhood in Billingham, the early years of the band, the success, his ideals and what has come of it. He does this together with filmmaker Sophie Robinson (who knew nothing about the band other than that song prior to her commitment to participate in this film). And that might actually be a blessing; because a large part of the public will enter this documentary with the same foreknowledge.

Chumbawamba was founded in 1982 (!). The band was politically engaged from the start, although the word ‘band’ might be a bit too much honour. Connected by their joint squat, Southview House in Leeds (which Dunstan still visits with Harry Hamer because the current resident happens to pass by, which the director notices) and their anarchic lifestyle (“We questioned everything, shared everything”) were Dunstan, Harry, Alice Nutter and Lou Watts are enthusiastically part of the band. It didn’t matter that you couldn’t play an instrument, in that respect the history of Chumbawamba is the opposite of contemporaries, where neat auditions were held.

Dunstan has never lost that social commitment. He feels angry about the current state of the world. He expresses his frustrations at the beginning of the film: “We are going to hell, slowly, inevitably. What have all those years of protesting actually led to? What’s the point of all those petitions I signed?” The charismatic singer admits that he once thought he could make the world a better place. “That was a long time ago, when I was still someone.” Completely understandable feelings. Whether you are a one-hit wonder, “knee deep in this middle-aged malaise” (as he poetically calls the midlife crisis), or have always contributed in the shadows in your own way to a more livable world, that feeling of helplessness happens to everyone sometimes. “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take this anymore,” he shouts through a megaphone over the dunes, laughed out loud by his only witnesses: seagulls.

To sharpen his frustrations, the documentary visits him by the ghost of Chumbawamba’s past, likely Duncan himself, who wears the iconic mask that graced the album’s hit single Tubthumping. ‘I Get Knocked Down’ jumps through time, from visits to old band members (at Alice Nutter’s house, doing laundry in her living room crammed with DVDs; to Harry Hamer during a theater performance, where Dunstan critically asks him if he’s still is politically engaged (“I joined the fucking labor party, how did that happen?”)). The ghost makes regular appearances, criticizing Dunstan’s train of thought, ridiculing him.

But Dunstan won’t be fooled. He’s got up again, so to speak. His new band, Interrobang, gives him the opportunity to make his voice heard. He still feels at home on stage. In the end, ‘I Get Knocked Down’ is more of a Dunstan Bruce show than a band biopic, but that is not hidden either. ‘I Get Knocked Down’ is honest, funny and holds up a mirror to the viewer. If you have any warm feelings about ever roaring along with Tubthumping, feel free to give this documentary a chance. The cutscenes at the end in which we see a wide arsenal of singers passing by, singing Tubthumping in their own way, are the icing on the cake.