There’s a rich assortment of movies about Ireland that you can watch on St. Patrick’s Day: Waking Ned Devine, Brooklyn, Finian’s Rainbow, Once, Ryan’s Daughter, Widow’s Peak and The Guard. (Or you can go dark and pick from my Best Films About the Troubles.)
But my choice is the warmly funny The Commitments (1991), the affectionate tale of an unlikely aspiration and an unnecessary fiasco. Not content to wallow in generational poverty, a young lad, Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) decides to gather a motley crew of his fellow North Dublin young folks and to form them into a soul band.
Now, North Dublin may be the most melanin-deprived place on the planet. So, why soul music? Jimmy, a natural leader, says:
“Do you not get it, lads? The Irish are the blacks of Europe. And Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And the Northside Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin. So say it once, say it loud: I’m black and I’m proud. ”
With the guidance of an older musician who has worked in the US, they improve, and even start to catch on. Unfortunately, these folks have never experienced success and are totally ill-equipped to handle it. Soon, the band is hanging together by a thread. If only Wilson Pickett, touring across town, can show up and help them with publicity…
The Commitments is adapted from a Roddy Doyle novel steeped in working class Irish verisimilitude. Director Alan Parker looked to local Dublin musicians and came up with a cast of first-time actors. Ironically, the one experienced actor and non-musician in the cast was Johnny Murphy as Joey “The Lips” Fagan.
The cast performed a 20-year reunion show. What have they been doing since they made this movie?
- Andrew Strong, who played the immensely gifted but thuggish lead singer Deco Cuffe, has spent decades as a rock singer within Europe, mostly with his band the Bone Yard Boys.
- Angeline Ball, who played the big-haired tart, Imelda Quirke, swept the Irish equivalent of Oscar/Emmy for best actress in a film and best actress in a TV drama in the same year, 2003.
- Maria Doyle Kennedy, another backup singer, went on to a significant musical career in Ireland where she is a renowned singer-songwriter. She also played Catherine of Aragon in The Tudors and Vera Bates in Downton Abbey.
- Glen Hansard, who played the busking guitarist, had some recording success as a solo artist and with his band The Frames. He also starred in an even better movie than The Commitments – the singer-songwriter romance Once.
- Colm Meany, who played the Elvis-worshiping dad, went on to a career in major films ranging from The Last of the Mohicans to Star Trek: The Next Generation. Meany also starred in two more movies stories based on Roddy Doyle stories The Snapper and The Van; neither film was bad, but neither was as magical as The Commitments.
Alan Parker also directed the musicals Fame and Pink Floyd: The Wall. He was nominated for the best directing Oscar for Midnight Express and Mississippi Burning. (The Academy overlooked his lurid and trashy Angel Heart.)
The Commitments can be streamed from Amazon, iTunes, YouTube and Google Play, usually for less than the cost of a pint of Guinness.