Quadrophenia is a 1979 British drama film based on the Who's 1973 rock opera of Quadrophenia. It was directed by Franc Roddam in his feature directing debut. Unlike the adaptation of the Who album Tommy, Quadrophenia is not a musical, and the band does not appear.

The film, set in London in 1965, depicts a period of emotional turmoil in the life of Jimmy Cooper (Phil Daniels), a young mod who escapes from his dead-end job as a postroom boy by dancing, partying, abusing Dexamyl, riding scooters, and brawling with rockers.

Plot

In 1964, a young London mod, Jimmy Cooper, disillusioned with his parents and dull post-room job at an advertising agency, vents his teenage angst by abusing Dexamyl, partying, riding scooters and brawling with rockers, accompanied by his mod friends Dave, Chalky, and Spider.

An attack by hostile rockers on Spider leads to a retaliatory attack. Jimmy participates, but on realising the main victim is Kevin, his childhood friend, he berates the other attackers but does not stop them, instead riding away on his scooter, revving his engine loudly in frustration.

A bank holiday weekend away provides the excuse for the rivalry between mods and rockers to escalate, as both groups descend on the seaside town of Brighton. Jimmy plans to be noticed as a 'face' and hints to Steph – a girl on whom he has a crush – that he would like her to ride with him, but she confirms plans to ride instead with Pete, an older, well-heeled mod.

To prepare for the weekend, the friends attempt to buy some recreational drugs from London gangster Harry North but are cheated with fake pills. After vandalising the drug-seller's car in retaliation, they desperately rob a pharmacy, finding a large quantity of Dexamyl.

After an early morning group ride from London to the south coast, the friends gather on the seafront, where Jimmy first sees a flamboyant scooter-riding mod he describes as Ace Face. Later, in a dance hall, Jimmy suggests that he will help Steph, whose escort is now chatting to an attractive American girl, to dance with Ace Face but on the dance floor ushers her away to dance by himself. Steph leaves Jimmy to dance with Ace Face, whereupon Jimmy plots to gain attention by climbing up onto the balcony-edge and dancing to much applause, annoying Ace Face. After diving into the audience, Jimmy is ejected by bouncers. Steph's escort leaves with the American girl.

The lads spend the night sleeping rough, meet up at a café the following morning, then proceed along the promenade, where a series of running battles ensues. As the police corner the rioters, Jimmy and Steph escape down an alleyway, where they have sex. When they emerge, they find themselves amidst the melee. Jimmy is arrested and detained, along with the volatile Ace Face. Fined a hefty £75——Ace Face mocks the magistrate by offering to pay on the spot with a cheque, impressing his fellow mods with his presumed wealth.

Jimmy's mother throws him out after finding his stash of Dexamyl. He then leaves his job, spends his severance package on more pills and learns that Steph is now his friend Dave's girlfriend. After briefly fighting with Dave, the following morning his rejection is confirmed by Steph, and his beloved Lambretta scooter is damaged in a crash involving a Royal Mail van. Depressed, Jimmy takes a train back to Brighton, taking increasing levels of pills and becoming more emotionally unstable.

Lonely and unsure what to do with himself, he revisits the scenes of the riots and his encounter with Steph. Then Jimmy is shocked to discover that his idol, Ace Face, has a menial job as a bellboy at the Grand Hotel. Jimmy steals Ace's Vespa scooter and heads to Beachy Head, riding close to the cliff-edge. For a time, he appears to be having an enjoyable ride in the sunshine, but then he stops and glares miserably at the sea. Finally, the scooter is seen crashing over the cliff-top, which is where the film began (with Jimmy walking back against a sunset backdrop).

Cast

John Lydon (Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols) screen-tested for the role of Jimmy Cooper. The distributors of the film refused to insure him for the role and he was replaced by Phil Daniels.

Most of the cast were reunited after 28 years at Earls Court on 1 and 2 September 2007 as part of The Quadrophenia Reunion at the London Film & Comic Con. Subsequently, the cast agreed to be part of a Quadrophenia Convention at Brighton in 2009.

thumb|Brighton seafront where the friends gathered after travelling from London

Jeff Dexter, a club dancer and disc jockey fixture in the 1960s London music scene was the DJ in the club scenes, and was the uncredited choreographer of 500 extras for the ballroom and club scenes. He also choreographed Sting's feet in his dance close-ups.

Trevor Laird (Ferdy) was scripted to appear in a party scene kissing and having sex with a white girl, but was excluded from the scene by associate producer John Peverall due to concerns that it could cause problems with distributors in South Africa and the southern United States. Toyah Willcox has said that cast members discussed going on strike over the incident.

Soundtrack

Quadrophenia is the soundtrack album to the 1979 film of the same name, which refers to the 1973 rock opera Quadrophenia. It was initially released on Polydor Records in 1979 as a cassette and LP and was re-released as a compact disc in 1993 and 2001. The album was dedicated to Peter Meaden, a prominent mod and first manager of the Who, who had died a year before the album's release.

The album contains 10 of the 17 tracks from the original rock opera Quadrophenia, as not all of the tracks were used in the film. These are different from those that appear on the 1973 album as they were remixed in 1979 by John Entwistle. The most notable difference is the track "The Real Me" (used for the title sequence of the film) which features a different bass track, more prominent vocals and a more definite ending. Most of the tracks are also edited to be slightly shorter. The soundtrack also includes three tracks by the Who that did not appear on the 1973 album.

Release

The film was first shown during the Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 1979. The film had its premiere at the Plaza cinema in London on 16 August 1979. It opened to the public the following day and grossed £36,472 in its opening week from four cinemas in London, placing second behind Moonraker at the London box office.

Reception

Janet Maslin, reviewing the film for The New York Times in 1979, called it "...gritty and ragged and sometimes quite beautiful", creating a "...slice-of-life movie that feels tremendously authentic in its sentiments as well as its details." Maslin states that the director's scenes of youth battles "...capture a fierce, dizzying excitement that epitomizes a kind of youthful extreme." Critic Matt Brunson

from Creative Loafing stated that the film "[m]anages to be both quintessentially British and irrefutably universal", giving it a 3.5/4 score. Reviewer Eric Melin from Scene-Stealers.com states that the film has a "...gritty, realistic feel and the themes of youthful rebellion and confusion are absolutely timeless, magnified by the specificity of the setting rather than being limited by it"; he also gave the movie a 3.5/4 score. Reviewer Christopher Long from Movie Metropolis commented that "[w]hen you're an angry young man [like the main character], there's no better way to prove you're an individual than to dress and act exactly like everybody else"; Long gave the film a 6/10 score.

Dennis Schwartz from Ozus' World Movie Reviews stated that the "...film lives through the superb raw angst-ridden performance of [lead] Phil Daniels"; Schwartz gave the movie a B+.

Home media

Sirius Publishing released the film on the now defunct MovieCD format in 1991. The package included three discs for the movie itself along with other promotional material for the format and other films offered by Sirius on MovieCD. The packaging also carries the logo for Rhino Home Video indicating some form of involvement in this release.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment first released the film on DVD in the United Kingdom in 1999 with an eight-minute montage featurette. It used the VHS print, resulting in a much lower-quality video than expected. Following this in the United States was a special edition by Rhino, which included a remastered letterboxed wide screen transfer, a commentary, several interviews, galleries, and a quiz. However, it was a shorter cut of the film, with several minutes of footage missing.

Rhino Home Video released the film on DVD on 25 September 2001.

On 7 August 2006, Universal improved upon its original UK DVD with a Region 2 two-disc special edition. The film was digitally remastered and included a new commentary by Franc Roddam, Phil Daniels and Leslie Ash. Disc 2 features an hour-long documentary and a featurette with Roddam discussing the locations. Unlike their previous DVD, it was the complete, longer version, and it was matted to the correct aspect ratio.

The Criterion Collection released a special edition version of this movie on 28 August 2012, on both DVD and Blu-ray formats.

See also

  • List of cult films

References

Bibliography

  • Ali Catterall and Simon Wells, Your Face Here: British Cult Movies Since The Sixties (Fourth Estate, 2001),
  • Liner notes on – songs Get Out And Stay Out, Four Faces, Joker James
  • Quadrophenia.net
  • The Quadrophenia Collection at Littledean Jail
  • Quadrophenia: Jimmy vs. World an essay by Howard Hampton at the Criterion Collection