Franc Roddam
Quadrophenia

This review of mine stems from an experience I had about a year ago. A colleague of mine, with whom I share a great passion for good music (and also for the band The Who), invited me to join a dinner one Sunday evening with some of his friends. On that occasion, he pleasantly surprised me by lending me the DVD of the film inspired by The Who's rock opera Quadrophenia and directed in 1979 by Franc Roddam.

I am well acquainted with the wonders contained in The Who's eponymous album (of which I own a copy) and I consider it one of those albums so significant that one would take it to a desert island (I believe that those who read these notes of mine have had, at least once in their life, the opportunity to listen to the record and notice its sumptuous and occasionally Wagnerian style). However, what made me cautious (and rightly so, given other experiences) was the classic gap that one notices between a work like a book (or in this case a concept album) and the film made from it, because something gets lost along the way, and anyone who has read a book or listened to a rock opera mentally constructs a film that is different from what is later realized by a film director. Just to say, the film Tommy was not exactly as fascinating as The Who's actual record (at least in my opinion). But I hoped in my heart that my colleague's enthusiastic opinion of the film Quadrophenia might dispel some of my principled reservations on the theme of film beauty/qualitative relationship with the work it is based on, and, in the days following that dinner, I turned on the DVD player and, comfortably seated in an armchair, watched the film (note well that just before, I had re-listened to the entire record, reliving all the pleasure that comes from an immersive headphone listening of such musical splendor).

Well, considering that what I was watching was the depiction of the existential adventures of an old acquaintance, namely the quintessential mod boy named Jimmy, something, however, prompted me not to be overly enthusiastic, but rather to closely follow the film adaptation to understand what wasn't exactly aligning (according to the original plot of the work). Certainly, the protagonist is the young mod who is in conflict with the surrounding world: a stereotypical-minded family, a frustrating work environment, and the inexorably classist and rigid English society of the time. The only outlet for a boy like this, considered unstable by society and with an ego split into multiple parts, is belonging to a group of peers (the mods, to be precise) who, aboard Vespas and Lambrettas, go at it with another group of motorized youths, the rockers. And, as historically happened in the summer of 1964 in Brighton, the two groups fight fiercely (the mods prevail), but Jimmy will be marked by these events because his rebellious lifestyle will get him kicked out of his home. Not only that, he will become disillusioned with everything: abandoned by his girlfriend, dissatisfied with work, realizing that his mod friends will be absorbed into the routine of daily life (especially a key figure like Ace, masterfully played in the film by Sting), he falls prey to an authentic existential crisis. But while in the film Jimmy throws his Vespa off the cliffs of the English coast facing the Channel, in the original work he acts differently. Taking a boat, he sails out to a solitary rock and here concludes that everything can be alright if one assumes that the sense of life lies in love for creation. Following this revelation, which denotes a sincere pantheistic love towards existence, it remains unsaid whether Jimmy drowns or is saved (the story underpinning Townshend's work remains ambiguous), but the listener is captivated by the compelling notes of the track "Love Reign O'er Me" that closes Quadrophenia. Unfortunately, this final part, of great philosophical impact, is not rendered by Roddam, who limits himself to an honest representation of the life of a maladjusted young man in mid-60s provincial British society. Undoubtedly very accurate (and with an outstanding performance especially by Sting), but 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.

To this, I also add that, for various reasons, since that night a year ago, I have not had the chance to return the DVD to that colleague of mine and to express my impressions due only to uncontrollable circumstances. In fact, he fell ill and sent me a message a few months ago saying that after a few days of high fever, he had to go to the hospital for contracting Covid. He was even in intensive care and is now undergoing a post-Covid recovery. With all that he has gone through, when it's possible to see him again, I will be delighted to find him still among us, and only subsequently will I explain my impressions of the film to him (I really think he will appreciate a divergent point of view which is the spice of life).