The Commitments

[cobra kid]

Recorded it at the weekend and watched it yesterday. Forgot just how good it is and I now rank it firmly in my top 5.

[Gary C]

I saw it as I flipped channels and almost stopped to watch, but then every single detail of the film came to mind and we watched something else.

It was a great film but I feel as if I watched it yesterday it made such an impression.

[Eric Mc]

It's amazing how much of Dublin has been utterly changed since the film was made.

[valiant]

Eric Mc said:

It's amazing how much of Dublin has been utterly changed since the film was made.

So true.

I forget that there was serious deprivation and lack of opportunity in Ireland back then and when I talked to my parents about why they came over here their response was they didn't want to, it's just there wasn't any opportunity from them back home.

[ooo000ooo]

Everytime we see the scene with the horse in the lifts in Ballymun, my wife reminds that she used to get sent to stay with her aunt in Ballymun for her summer holidays, how st must it have been growing up in rural Ireland if 2 weeks there was something to look forward to.

[PurpleTurtle]

Great film and a fabulous soundtrack.

Some of the cast have had good 30yr careers off the back of it but I was always surprised that none of them became a big(ger) household name.

The teenage me definitely had a massive crush on Angeline Ball, the years have been very kind to her!

[ooo000ooo]

PurpleTurtle said:

Great film and a fabulous soundtrack.

Some of the cast have had good 30yr careers off the back of it but I was always surprised that none of them became a big(ger) household name.

The teenage me definitely had a massive crush on Angeline Ball, the years have been very kind to her!

A quick look on IMDB suggests a few of them have been popping up fairly regularly in other stuff - Imelda Quirke is currently in "Kin",
Andrew Strong has been in nothing but presumably is still doing live gigs as the Commitments. We saw one of their shows in Belfast a couple of years ago and he is as good live as he was in the film.

[cuprabob]

Remember seeing it at the cinema when it was released and it seems to have stood the test of time rather well.

[Eric Mc]

valiant said:

Eric Mc said:

It's amazing how much of Dublin has been utterly changed since the film was made.

So true.

I forget that there was serious deprivation and lack of opportunity in Ireland back then and when I talked to my parents about why they came over here their response was they didn't want to, it's just there wasn't any opportunity from them back home.

The story is set in the late 1980s/early 1990s (the film dates from 1991) when Ireland's potential was just beginning to emerge. Of course, when the Celtic Tiger took off just a year or so later that was the trigger for massive redevelopment, especially in Dublin and especially in the old North Wall/Dockland area. Some of the film was shot around there and the old warehouses form part of the back drop. They are virtually all gone now.

As for the flats, I thought that they used the Swan's Nest flat complex in Kilbarrack in the film. Roddy Doyle (who wrote the original book) is from Kilbrrack (although in his stories he changes the name to Barry Town).
Those flats (like Ballymun) have also been demolished.