by Emma Herder
I’ve always had an appreciation for film because of my father. He continuously recommends films for me to watch with him or on my own. As I was taking a History of Ireland class, we watched many different films based on the history of Ireland. I told my father about what we watched, and he recommended The Commitments (1991), which was set in Dublin, Ireland.
The film features Jimmy Rabbitte, who assembles a soul-rock band full of youths from the Irish working class. Jimmy advertised the band in the local newspaper and held auditions in his parents’ home. After much trial and error, he finally put together the band, The Commitments. It was cool to see that the people he recruited worked as tram conductors, horse farriers, butchers, or worked in a chip shop on wheels, or were unemployed.
As he brings in a wide range of Irish “musicians” to make the “hardest working band in the world,” there were a lot of internal disputes happening within the band, especially between the women singers and the men, which made it more authentic. Jimmy had to go through many other challenges, like buying power amps and speakers for the band. Furthermore, he had to find a place for the band to practice together, which they did in a rehearsal room above a bar and restaurant.
As the band rehearses, Jimmy’s passion shines through as he takes it very seriously and often dreams of being interviewed on television throughout the film. He also brought in the infamous Joey Fagan, who plays the trumpet, to mentor the young band. The band’s first performance together was in a church, where they experienced a lot of challenges with the band’s diverse personalities and a power outage that electrocuted Derek, a guitar player.
As the band’s rehearsals continue, the everyday lives of the musicians seem to get in the way, as some of their families aren’t on board with the idea of the band, or some need to skip to help their families out. There also seemed to be a problem with keeping the band’s relations on a professional basis, which would often hinder the chemistry of the band, and additionally lead to the drummer, Billy, quitting the band.
The Commitments were resilient through all the challenges they faced and continued to perform. However, with all things good comes the bad. The band ended up breaking up due to clashing egos, personalities, and they all wanted to pursue different things. This film was so fun to watch, as it was filled with Irish humor and portrayed the working class of Dublin in the 1980s-1990s. Watching this film made me appreciate soul and rock music more, and I’m excited to visit Dublin, Ireland.
