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Quadrophenia (Special Edition)

Quadrophenia (Special Edition)

List Price: $24.99
Your Price: $19.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Horrible movie
Review: This movie is just plain awful. Sting's performance is unbelievably bad. Thi story is just stupid: Jimmy Cooper is depressed woe-is-me whiny boy who revels in teenage angst everyday. Only in the company of his "Mod" friends does he find some comfort for "horrible" life. Pure white boy pain. Sting prances about as the Mod leader (yeah, right) and once poor Jimmy loses everything from his dim girlfriend to his home and his belief in the Mod ideal, he tries to commit suicide, but stops at the last minute because he is too scared, like any sad white boy. The soundtrack from the Who is equally awful, since the Who were one of the WORST bands ever.

In short, this grimy, cheap Brit movie tries to explain to day to day suffering of the poor white boy, and succeeds as an exercise in in self indulgence and pretentiousness.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Scooter love story?
Review: This is basically the same story as Saturday Night Fever. Two gangs, hanging out and one guy (focus of the story) likes Girl A but Girl B is the one that likes him. He won't have it and will do anything to get Girl A. This is a bit more dark than Saturday Night Fever. Is it the grey English weather? The 60's film? I don't know - but Sting is a stylin' mod on a Vespa GS and is the envy of the entire Mod community. It shows how old he really is. Watch this to truley see the historic rivalry between the Mods and the Rockers. Plus it has tons of scooters and a riot in Brighton.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Could have been perfect....
Review: The film is such a gritty & powerful snapshot of life in early 60's England, set to the stirring music of The Who, that it is hard not to get swept up in the whole atmosphere of it, however, the remastering to DVD leaves alot to be desired, & the fact that several important scenes have been left out of the film with no reason or explanation, not even a "deleted scenes" feature on the menu, makes the DVD release hard to enjoy & some aspects of the story difficult to get for the first time viewer.
I would say try & track down a copy of the 80's VHS version, the audio might not be as good, but you get all the scenes & to be honest, the picture quality is no different.
Sorry, but the DVD just isn't worth it....

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: better than the uk version but missing scenes
Review: great dvd ...sound and picture are better quality than the uk version...but film freezes for a split second when jim and steph come out of the alley way.some scenes are missing but it does not spoil the film.
worth buying for the extras alone...glad i bought this dvd..i now have both versions and both good in there own right.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Ace!
Review: It's about damn time this movie gets re-released. I had the VHS version for a bit, which was also very impressive. In the past, the audio was very analog, and it didn't help matters when trying to understand the heavy English accented dialogue. And, in the past there was also the crusty 80s film, which is nice for vintage quality. This film is very important to mods and fans of The Who, and much was riding on the success of the digital remaster. In short, the DVD passes with flying colors. You can hear the dialogue better, and it looks better than ever. The sound and vision is crisp, probably as well as the day it was filmed. And, the extras are great. The interview with Sting really helped bring great importance to the nostalgia of Quadrophenia, and the music era it is based on. I also really liked the background info on the cast and crew, and what other projects they have been involved with since. I watch it often, and still play around with the extras, which means it is worth the money. It is a well done remaster job, and a great DVD put together. The only qualm is the subtitle feature, which is filled with a lot of related trivia to the genre and the music. It would've been even better if they subtitled the dialogue word for word, so that some of the non-English viewers can understand the strong accented dialogue better. It didn't bother me, but I imagine it would bother some viewers. The story is easy to follow, but most viewers might miss a line or two. Overall, this is a grade a DVD.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Completely Engaging
Review: I am a huge fan of the who, but didn't get around to seeing this movie until late one night a couple of weeks ago. I just happened to catch it. What a fantastic film.

I do somewhat miss the schizophrenic plot which was really the entire point of the album, but outside of that no more complaints can really be voiced. I think the portrayal of the mod scene here is extremely interesting, even if it is built up into something it wasn't. Also I loved Phil Daniels and Leslie Ash in their respective roles. Brilliant acting as far as I can see.

My two favorite scenes are as follows:

1. Jimmy running to the TV set upon hearing the opening chords to Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere and watching in awe as a very young Pete Townshend plays away.

2. Jimmy and his friends breaking into a pharmacy to steal some "blues" (upper pills)

Fantastic.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome
Review: I think this movie is awesome & how can anybody say that things were left out & it didnt live up to the deepness of the cd how could they possibly know what the songs on the album are about they didnt write them nor sing them on stage.In Jimmy's external features shown throughout the movie he gradually breaks through the external shell & u can see his deeper side coming through just at the end of the movie the music played throughout the beginning & middle of the movie is Jimmy's deeper side an actor plays the external the music plays the inner struggle of Jim & his mates.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: American Release
Review: I was really looking forward to this release, I put it on and the intro was thrilling with motion background of all the scooters, The menu is totally within the spirit of the production, the extras are cool although I cannot find the portrait of a mod extra as referred to easter eggs. Thats where the good bits end, The scenes that were cut are unbelievable, The franking machine scene the hairdresser scene the build up to the whole weekend, the paying for his suit the mod attitude in the tailors, The pub scene in the toilets before the party all adds up to the atmosphere, With these excluded it will leave the audience baffled as to the story line, as these scenes are cross referenced elsewhere in the movie. Quite frankly this is a massive let down, The soundtrack is a million times better, the video is cleaner, But only to be let down by the omissions, I was almost ready to send it back, But I have the two versions and can probably remake for my own use on my apple the correct version. I leave it up to you to decide wether you should buy this or not, I don't feel that the it's worth the money but on the other hand I would pay more for the same with the main scenes included.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Unfortunate
Review: I had stellar hopes for this movie, so my review will likely be biased. I love Quadrophenia the album. I love the story and the album and the depth. I love the honesty and the trueness of the portrayal of the suffocating nature of adolescence. The movie fails to capture this.

The movie fails to capture the second half of the album entirely, except for bits and pieces in passing. There is a strong focus on some things, but others are entirely left out. For instance, a trio of Jim's four personalities seem to be absent. There is no depth to his character - he simply seems like an irritable brat, and it is only the untarnished portions of the story that give him any semblance of sympathy.

But if not Jim, what does the movie focus on? There is an extremely heavy emphasis on the mod culture to which Jim almost belongs, and a fair amount of time spent on his family. In other words, the movie focuses totally on Jim's external world. Thus, when Jim breaks apart when the girl ditches him for his friend, it seems unrealistic and irrational, as there has been no emphasis on the buildup of tension within Jim.

Some might say in its defence that the film version of Quadrophenia is only a movie and cannot be expected to take care of internal dialogue and the like. I disagree with this strongly. It merely shows a great lack of ingenuity and creativity in the producers of this film. Even something utterly stupid and tacky a-la the tint changes in "Traffic" would have been welcome in place of the avoidance of Jim's psyche.

As I said, the movie grazes over the second half of the album. The love song, "Sea and Sand," is missing, as is the suicidal plea of "Drowned." But that's not too surprising because they cut out the climactic uncertainty of Jim travelling to a rock in the ocean and contemplating suicide. Also, they cut out the external climax of "Dr. Jimmy" and left the song relegated to the credits.

Any linear quality of the album was dispensed in favor of a simpler story. In the process, almost all of the best moments got cut out. The thing that irked me more than anything mentioned before has got to be the abandonment of "Helpless Dancer." All that song gets is a piddling out of context snippet just before the credits. I could cry just thinking about it.

I'm not suggesting, however, that the whole album should have been played in the movie - I understand that the length of the album would almost constitute a movie in its own right. I just feel that the whole story should have been represented in order, covering both internal and external aspects. When the album gets so butchered, you're left with a watered down yet shallow [pun] movie that rightfully never made it big. It's a shame, too, because the movie could have potentially popularized the album, had it effectively portrayed what happens in the album.

I only gave it as many as three stars because I don't want to drag down the average rating too much and thus influence newcomer's opinions on the concept of Quadrophenia.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I ride my GS Scooter with my hair cut neat
Review: I cant believe this film is so unknown, it should be a cult classic. I had been meaning to see this film for years but never got around to it since I hated the Who's first film outing, Tommy, so much. Quadrophenia is nothing like Tommy, its not a rock opera and is only slightly based on their album, they pretty much drop the whole Quadrophenic/Schizo plot and focus on what it was like to be a Mod in swinging 60s London. The main character Jimmy (played perfectly by Phil Daniels) struggles with his identity and the likelihood of "selling out" to society. There are fantastic scenes of Mods rolling around the working class neighborhoods of London on their scooters and fighting it out with the Rockers at Brighton Beach, great stuff. The riot in Brighton is pretty intense, Sting of all people really gets in to it. They just dont make "growing up" films like this anymore, truly a must see for anyone with a vague interest in the Who, Mods, Rockers, 60s English Culture and a great disliking for the [boring ] that passes for youth culture nowadays, has to watch Quadrophenia


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