Barnes & Noble

This unassuming little import from the United Kingdom exploded on U.S. movie screens in 1991, gleaning surprisingly enthusiastic reviews and -- despite an unknown cast with nearly impenetrable Irish brogues -- delighting American audiences. Director Alan Parker, whose films tend toward being overwrought, hit all the right notes in Roddy Doyle's engaging story about working-class youths who form a band to bring '60s-style soul music to their native Dublin. The group's ambitious manager (Robert Arkins) has to contend with an insufferably egotistical lead singer (Andrew Strong) and a bed-hopping trumpet player (Johnny Murphy) while fending off the amorous advances of a backup singer (Maria Doyle), but he manages to get "the world's hardest-working band" into a trendy nightclub nonetheless. The cast members -- many of whom made their film debuts in this movie -- still register appealingly in sharply defined roles, and their musical performances still impress as not only accomplished but exhilarating. Not yielding to his normal melodramatic predilections, Parker depicted the milieu with near-documentary fidelity, and he made the characters vivid and engaging. Still beguiling, The Commitments is every bit as entertaining today as it was when it premiered. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

"The Irish are the blacks of Europe, Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland, and the North Siders are the blacks of Dublin ... so say it loud -- I'm black and I'm proud!" Or so Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) tells his slightly puzzled friends as he tries to assemble a rhythm & blues show band in a working class community in Dublin in Alan Parker's film The Commitments. Jimmy is a would-be music business wheeler and dealer, and he's decided what Dublin needs is a top-shelf soul band. However, top-shelf soul musicians are hard to find in Dublin, so he has to make do with what he can find. However, after a long round of auditions, Jimmy makes two inspired discoveries: Deco (Andrew Strong), an abrasive and alcoholic streetcar conductor who nevertheless has a voice like the risen ghost of Otis Redding, and Joey "The Lips" Fagan (Johnny Murphy), a horn player who knows soul music backwards and forwards and claims to have played with everyone from Wilson Pickett to Elvis Presley. Before long, the band -- called the Commitments -- is packing them in at local clubs. But do they have what it takes to make the big time? Based on the novel by Roddy Doyle, who also co-wrote the screenplay, The Commitments is sparked by fine performances by its young cast and enthusiastic performances of a number of '60s soul classics; the cast, who play their own instruments, reassembled the band for a concert tour after the film became a hit. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 086162128929
• Source: 20TH CENTURY FOX
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1)
• Presentation: Pan & Scan
• Sound: Dolby Digital
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Español
• Time: 1:58:00
• Sales Rank: 17,354

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