The film’s initial lure may be the absolutely cool Motown tunes but the humor and honest camaraderie among the band members will keep you hooked until the end.
Tools:
Recommend review to a friend »
English-born director Alan Parker has consistently notched a wide variety of movie hits throughout a career that has spanned over 30 years. Parker has directed his share of serious dramas like "Midnight Express", "Mississippi Burning" and "Angela´s Ashes" but he has also managed to create some of this generation´s better-known modern musical dramas and musical comedies. They include "Fame", "Pink Floyd: The Wall", "Evita" and 1991´s "The Commitments". My college roommates, who were both very musically inclined--one´s a dance major and the other, a music major--introduced me to "The Commitments" way back when. How we got stuck with each other is another colorful story all together but the truth of the matter is, these guys opened up my horizons to appreciating another side of the music world that does not, believe it or not, contain U2 at the center of the universe.
In terms of modern musicals, "The Commitments" has to rank as one of my top 2 favorites, if not my absolute favorite. I first saw it on ye olde VHS format and have put off buying the unfortunately bad first release of this movie on DVD--which was put out as a butchered pan and scan version four years ago--until now. Finally, 20th Century Fox has given the film its due recognition and is releasing "The Commitments" in a fabulous 2-disc Collector´s Edition DVD set with a brand new anamorphic widescreen transfer and digitally encoded 5.1 audio plus lots of juicy extras. What more can a fan ask for?
So what makes "The Commitments" so appealing, you might ask? Well, take a seat. Let me put on some Otis Redding and I will fill you in.
Based on Booker Prize winner and Irish comic writer Roddy Doyle´s novel of the same name, "The Commitments" is an energetic blend of quick-witted comedy piled on with a healthy helping of soul-moving Motown rhythm and blues classics. Set in the poor slums of North Dublin, it is the least likely place one would expect to find American soul music. Well, that is exactly the question asked by a pair of struggling wedding band musicians (are there any other kind?) Outspan Foster (Glen Hansard) and Derek Scully (Kenneth McCluskey) when their manager Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) suggests that they form a band that plays soul music. In one of the funniest lines ever to sprout from the lips of an Irishman, Rabbitte muses that, "The Irish are the blacks of Europe. Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. North Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin." Can´t argue with that kind of logic! And in an instant of pure inspiration, Rabbitte again puts his mouth to good use, motivating his all-white ragtag band of musicians and singers with the resounding battle cry, "Say it once and say it loud, I´m black and I´m proud!" Oh my gosh! With one-liners like that sprinkled all over the film, it is only a matter of time before you start keeling over on the floor with laughter. Seriously, "The Commitments" put many other comedies to shame just with this kind of brilliant writing.
Jimmy Rabbitte, an unemployed slacker who fancies himself as some kind of music expert, sells cassettes, videos and T-shirts to flea market vendors for a living. Often fantasizing about being famous one day, Rabbitte jumps at the chance to manage a band, gathering a diverse group of musicians and singers to form The Commitments to play what he refers to as "Dublin Soul". Fueled by his own ambitions, Rabbitte uses his crafty negotiating skills to provide the band with sound equipment, instruments and of course inspiration, in the form of gorgeous Imelda Quirke (Angeline Ball), the object of desire of every guy in the neighborhood. With most of the band members being amateurs, the only fellow in the band that has any experience playing music professionally is trumpet player Joey ´The Lips´ Fagan (Johnny Murphy) who claims, to the skepticism of the others, to have played with many soul legends in America. Seasoned and full of musical wisdom, Fagan is, among other things, also religious and a sexual animal, a colorful character ready-made for a movie like this. Of course, who can forget the big voice of the band, Deco Cuffe (Andrew Strong), a large, obnoxious and disheveled fellow who irritates the hell out of his band mates. However, once he opens his mouth to sing, all is naturally forgiven. With his distinct and scruffy baritone voice belting out Motown hits with passion, a much older looking 16-year old Strong puts in the performance of a lifetime, infusing the film with an energy that is not easily surpassed.
Starting from a horrendous first rehearsal, the group slowly hones its sound into tight and near-perfect performances of great R&B hits like "Mustang Sally", "Take Me To The River", "Dark End of the Street", "In the Midnight Hour" and much more. For a band that was put together just for this movie, they sure sound convincingly good. Now, one would think that a band that plays well together would probably stay together. Well, not true for this group of misfits. With so many diverse characters with different working class backgrounds, personality clashes are inevitable. As the band scores gig after gig, what started out as friendly jabs and teasing slowly festers into full-blown bickering that threatens to tear the entire band apart. As the various backstage shenanigans among the band members begin to take its toll, the music that may have brought them together in the first place, may in the end, not be able to keep them together for long.
"The Commitments" is a hip-shaking delight from start to end with never a dull moment. The movie does not pretend to contain any earth-shattering message or profound insights into the human condition. It does, however, showcase the best-sounding soul music this side of Dublin. Its brutal honesty about the savage conditions of the Irish working class and its wicked humor tries to capture the true plight of a group of kids trying to make something out of their unpleasant environment. For many of them from this part of the world, the only realistic chance out of the slums is through music. This may be the first time in the lives of these kids that they have managed to accomplish something worthwhile. And we get to experience all the ups and downs together with the band as they taste both the sweet smell of success and the decay of failure. Even if things did not work out as planned, they would all have been better for it.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]11562[/release]