REVIEW: "THE COMMITMENTS" (1991) STARRING ANDREW STRONG, ROBERT ARKINS, MICHAEL AHERNE, ANGELINA BALL and BRONAGH GALLAGHER; BLU-RAY & REGION 2 UK DVD RELEASE FROM RLJ ENTERTAINMENT LTD - Cinema Retro
Can
it really be 25 years since the release of The
Commitments? An acclaimed hit with audiences and critics alike when first
seen, it quickly grew in stature into something of a modern classic and has
remained perennially popular ever since. It has also inspired touring bands, a
major stage production and a few million sub-standard karaoke renditions of the
iconic Mustang Sally (and other
ditties) in pubs up and down the land.
Unemployed
Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) dreams of being a band manager, and places an ad
in the local paper – “Have you got soul? If so the world’s hardest working band
is looking for you.†Various losers, opportunists and drop-outs turn up at his
door to audition, but bit by bit he manages to put together an inexperienced
band comprising ten members: men, women, backing singers, guitarists,
saxophonists, a drummer and an unlikely lead vocalist in the shape of slobbish
Deco (Andrew Strong). Their specialty is soul music and, with Jimmy’s undimmed
enthusiasm driving them (“say it once, say it loud: I'm black and I'm proudâ€)
they begin rehearsing for their debut gig. The name of the band: The
Commitments.
Tensions
run amok among the band members, but despite their off-stage bickering they
prove surprisingly terrific on-stage.
Around Dublin their reputation grows and they find themselves on the verge of
greatness, receiving glowing reviews in the local press and growing
word-of-mouth hype. On the night of their biggest gig, saxophonist Joey ‘The Lips’
Fagan (Johnny Murphy) assures the band he has arranged for soul and R&B
legend Wilson Pickett to join them on-stage after performing his sell-out gig
in Dublin. By this point, the bands’ internal politics are at breaking point.
Can they keep their tempers at bay long enough to hit the big-time, or will
this show mark the final curtain for The Commitments?
Director
Alan Parker does a wonderful job, creating a hilarious view of working class
Dublin. He doesn’t shy away from the bleaker, grittier elements, showing
rundown shacks used as shops in the middle of a ramshackle housing estate,
drunken pub brawls, foul-mouthed street altercations, dreary living conditions,
garbage piled high, and people bickering about sex and music through their
unremittingly glum, booze-drenched days. There is nothing glamorous about the
film: it is a feel-good movie in some
ways, but there is equally a feel-bad vibe running beneath it all at the same
time.
The
band is thrown together from an advert in a local paper, with potential talents
auditioning in Jimmy’s cluttered front room, or even out on the street, while
he watches from an armchair or even from the bath-tub with his shower cap on.
Parker’s characters use words like ‘fuck’ or ‘shit’ as regularly as they use
basic determiners and nouns, yet he somehow invests them with love and warmth
and makes them people worth rooting for. Over his career, Parker worked on a
number of successful musicals including Bugsy
Malone (1976), Fame (1980) and Evita (1996). Critics have drawn parallels
between The Commitments and Fame, citing this as an Irish
counterpart. Although Parker is a great director, it is surprising to note he
only has 19 directing credits to his name. With him, it’s all about quality not
quantity: he has proven himself a brilliant director across numerous genres
with films such as Midnight Express
(1978), Shoot The Moon (1982), Mississippi Burning (1988), Angela’s Ashes (1999) and The Life of David Gale (2003). Parker
shows up briefly in a Hitchcock-style cameo as a producer at Eejit Records, the
label which shows interest in signing the band.
Using mainly non-professional or inexperienced actors, Parker undertook an ambitious audition process to cast the film, trawling through the Dublin amateur music scene to unearth the right people for the roles. Following ads and auditions, blood, sweat and tears, he finally assembled his ideal band.The role of Deco Cuffe went to 16-year-old Andrew Strong, the son of the film’s vocal coach Rob Strong. Although he had never acted before, he does a splendid job as the rough Dubliner with an incredibly strong and soulful voice, absolutely perfectly in line with the character as described in Roddy Doyle’s source novel. Upon viewing The Commitments, it comes as a huge shock to learn Cuffe was only in his teens at the time of filming as he certainly has the face and eyes of someone many years older. To coax such a performance from someone so young with no prior acting experience is a testament to Parker’s abilities as a director of actors.
Of the female cast, Bronagh Gallagher leaves a lasting impression as the feisty (and foul-mouthed) Bernie McGloughlin, one of the backing singers known as The Commitmentettes. Her performance is witty and excellently sardonic. The other two backing singers, Angeline Ball and Maria Doyle, are both good too and get the chance to prove they can carry a tune by belting out some songs in the latter half of the film.
Primarily Parker chose to cast people who had some musical experience as this is key to the success of the feature. As the film progresses so do their abilities as musicians, so in order for this to be believable, they needed to be able to sing/play at this higher level. Very occasionally, their status as novice actors is betrayed by an awkward delivery or unconvincing expression, but these blips are few and far between – they certainly don’t hinder the feature in any significant way. If anything their performances feel more honest and less polished, adding to the grittier elements The Commitments strives to convey. When explaining why he had chosen his cast, Parker stated "I cast everybody to be very close to the character that they play in the film. They're not really playing outside of who they are as people."
The Commitments was adapted from Roddy Doyle’s 1987 novel of the same name. It was the first instalment in Doyle’s Barrytown trilogy, the other two being The Snapper (1990, book) and The Van (1991, book). All three feature a member/members of the Rabbitte clan, a working class Dublin family. Actor Colm Meaney was the only member of the original instalment to appear in the other two films adapted from these source novels. Although The Commitments is easily the most successful of the three as a movie, The Snapper did also garner a number of positive reviews and was well received at Cannes in 1993. The film version of The Van however, was less favourably received with a number of negative critiques.
The success of The Commitments almost led to a sequel with Warren Leight employed to write a script but, to date, nothing has come of it which is probably just as well. Doyle in particular has never welcomed a sequel, stating “I hope it's never made. I just think that, whereas The Commitments was very much a labour of love, Commitments 2 is definitely an act of cynicism.†In more recent years, a musical stage production opened at the Palace Theatre in London’s West End, which ran for two years. There are plans for the show to tour the UK and Ireland in 2017.
Fans of Irish music may recognise the four members of hit band The Corrs in supporting and minor roles throughout the film, before they became famous around the world. Lead singer Andrea is cast as Jimmy Rabbitte’s younger sister Sharon, while the remaining three have smaller roles scattered throughout the pic.
The Commitments received a number of award nominations and wins, including a BAFTA for Best Editing, Best Direction and Best Adapted Screenplay; a Brit Award for Best Soundtrack; a London Film Critics Circle Award for British Director of the Year and the British or Irish Screenwriter of the Year; plus numerous others. It also finds itself included on a number of ‘Best…’ lists including the BFI 100 Best British Films of the Century.
This 25th Anniversary Blu-ray and DVD has been released by RLJ Entertainment Ltd with numerous bonus features: a downloadable digital copy of the film; 25 Years Later: new interview with Alan Parker and cast; audio commentary with Alan Parker; four behind-the-scenes featurettes; music video; image galleries and a collectible booklet. If you’re a fan of the movie, then this edition should have your mouth watering in anticipation.