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Rating: It's 1979 when "Quadrophenia" hits cinemas, a film based on the famous and eponymous double album by The Who, which also serves as its main soundtrack. Despite the critics of the time heavily criticizing all the sex, drugs, and violence present in the film, it still manages to resonate with the audience, becoming a cult film that has among its various merits the ability to "capture" the youth culture of the '60s.
The story presented in the cinematic adaptation of "Quadrophenia" is slightly different, arguably better, than that of the album from which it's derived. The themes are the same, but Jimmy's madness here is less emphasized, depicted more as a transitional phase due to adolescence rather than as a pathology. And it is precisely adolescence and its inherent problems that are the main pillar of the film. Through the protagonist's confrontation and mistakes with the aforementioned drugs, violence, and sex, we see what was—and often still is—the life of a young man going through one of the most delicate phases of his life, in this case with negative consequences.
Accompanied by The Who's splendid songs, presented not in order but in alignment with the plot, and full of epic moments and images such as the Brighton riots (which actually happened, by the way) and the splendid, artistic, and moving finale, "Quadrophenia" is a little masterpiece that I recommend watching if you are a fan of the album.
Unforgettable.
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By Confaloni
The film is an honest representation of a maladjusted young man in mid-60s provincial British society, but it misses the profound philosophical impact of the album's ending.
Someone like me who has loved the Quadrophenia album and its underlying message cannot be so satisfied, as if it were a pleasant dish not cooked in the best way possible.
