Dublin meets Harlem

Alan Parker's boisterous, bawdy and crowd-pleasing homage to the universal power of music, "The Commitments," hit lightning in a bottle following its release 25 years ago--much like the fictional band it portrays. While it's a movie Americans may have to watch today with the subtitles on to catch all the fast-flying dialogue and profanities, it's a a film decidedly worth revisiting. Our CineVerse discussion produced these observations:

WHAT DID YOU FIND INTERESTING, OFFBEAT AND UNEXPECTED ABOUT “THE COMMITMENTS”?

• The cast consists primarily of native Irish musicians with no previous acting experience; over 3,000 Dubliners auditioned. These actors are really performing the music, and several of them actually later went on tour as a live band.

• The film has a loose, spontaneous feel to it with overlapping narratives and characters, much like a Robert Altman movie.

• You may not like the story or the characters much, but you could still walk away enjoying the movie merely on the merits of its music; about half of the film features performance footage.

IS THIS FILM RELATABLE AND RESONANT TO AMERICANS OR VIEWERS OF ANY ETHNICITY/COUNTRY, OR IS IT AN INSULAR, INTRINSICALLY IRISH STORY THAT’S DIFFICULT FOR PEOPLE OUTSIDE OF IRELAND TO APPRECIATE?

• The fact that non-black, non-American Irish folk can assimilate black soul and R&B music and do it justice sends the message that the music—as well as the film itself—is transcendent and universal.

• Much of the petty personal politics, infighting and challenges faced by this band are shared by musical groups of other cultures, too.

• Still, there are cultural references and in-jokes that many viewers outside of Ireland may not fully grasp, including the famous line about “The Irish are the blacks of Europe, and the Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland, and the Northsiders are the blacks of Dublin.” Also, there are class differences inherent to Dublin that may not be as readily apparent to people outside of Ireland.

o Kevin Hagopian, Pennsylvania State University professor wrote: “If the mixture of Ireland and the Mississippi Delta seems odd, listen to Irish rockers as diverse as Thin Lizzie, U2, Van Morrison, and Sinead O'Connor; Ireland's musical soul has always had affinities with Black music. In the Delta cotton patches, in Harlem and Detroit and Chicago and Memphis and the other urban ghettoes of America, it's often said that you've got to be laughin' to keep from cryin', got to be singin' to keep from weepin'. Ireland, a land of incredible beauty and destitution side by side, knows this well, and it has given birth to a literary and musical tradition that is as vivid and creative as any in the world, and perhaps more distinctively bluesy than any place outside of the Delta. Dublin itself, as James Joyce showed, is an immensely hospitable place for the melding of disparate aesthetic traditions into an alloy both rich and strong.”

OTHER FILMS DIRECTED BY ALAN PARKER

• Midnight Express

• Pink Floyd The Wall

• Birdy

• Angel Heart

• Mississippi Burning

• Angela’s Ashes

• The Life of David Gale