Wonkette Movie Night: The Commitments

'There's a band around called Free Beer. Always draws a big crowd.'

Filmed in Dublin in 1990, The Commitments is bleak, its cinematography portraying the gritty side of the city with barking dogs on chains and kids breaking windows in abandoned buildings. The Dubliners in this part of town keep living their lives against that backdrop and the music brings color and light.

Based on a 1987 novel by Roddy Doyle, The Commitments is the first film from The Barrytown Trilogy, with The Snapper (1993) and The Van (1996) telling the story of a working class family, the Rabbittes. And that’s who this film starts with, one of the sons, Jimmy Rabbitte, a young man dreaming of managing a band. He is a fan of American soul, and idolizes performers like Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Wilson Pickett.

He has put an ad in the local paper looking for a singer to join his musician friends and a variety of creative types knock on his door. The question he puts to each one is simple, “What are your musical influences?” Jimmy doesn’t find his lead vocalist this way but instead stumbles across one who is drunkenly singing at a wedding. Deco Cuffe is a loud, obnoxious, misogynistic lout but the boy can sing.

Slowly the band comes together, 10 people who each bring their own talents and life experiences to the group. But bands have personality clashes as history has shown, from the most famous names to three teenagers with big dreams banging on instruments in a garage. And The Commitments are not immune to that kind of conflict that artistic passion can bring to a group. It is the music that pulls them together.

In the beginning they play one of our favorite games, coming up with band names. His friends have been using “And And And” but Jimmy thinks that sucks along with “A Flock Of Budgies” and “The Fucking Idiots.” It takes someone with experience to find the perfect match and the trumpet player, Joey Fagan, helps bring the style and depth the band needed. Putting them in suits and black dresses, Joey dubs them The Commitments.

I kept waiting for the awful thing that usually happens in these kinds of films, so they can show themselves overcoming adversity … and it doesn't happen. The adversity is that of everyday life. I think that is what I enjoyed most about this movie, its simplicity. It shows us the lives of a group of people trying to accomplish something with humor, heart and great music.

The Commitments stars Robert Arkins, Angeline Ball, Andrew Strong, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Colm Meaney, Johnny Murphy, and Bronagh Gallagher. Directed by Alan Parker.

The Commitments is available for free on the Internet Archive. Free with ads on Pluto TV. $3.99 in the usual places.

To make requests and see the movie lists and schedules go to WonkMovie.

Our animated short is an uplifting tale about a love of music. The Boy And The Jazz was created by Flavio Dos Santos.

Our next Movie Night selection is O Brother, Where Art Thou? $3.99 in the usual places.