Quadrophenia - 3 stars out of 5 stars

Tommy was not the only rock opera "The Who" wrote.They also did "Quadrophenia"on which this film is based.However this is a straight out film not not the traditional musical form of "Tommy"Filmed in b&w with a all british cast it can be hard to follow sometimes and the story is not so different from others about alienation and frustration and confusion as you come of age.What this film does have is a good soundtrack and a small acting role for Sting that was funny I thought.The real difference over this film and US films of the same ilk is that in the UK there was a class system and along those lines a sort of social systems between "Mods"those young who dressed neatly and rode motor scooters and the"rockers"who wore leather jackets and boots and rode motorcycles.Music tastes also varied as did some other facts of young life.However just as some of the youth here crossed the line in say,interracial dating,some in the UK tried to also cross the line in music and attitudes.This is not a great film,maybe not even a good one,but far more enlightening and important than Tommy was IMHO !!! I took 2 stars off because of B&W and UK accents as well as a incoherent in places script.released in 1979 it runs 117 minutes.Trailer URL follows the pix and a IMDB summary below.

London, 1965: Like many other youths, Jimmy hates the philistine life, especially his parents and his job in a company's mailing division. Only when he's together with his friends, a 'Mod' clique, cruises London on his motor-scooter and hears music such as that of 'The Who' and 'The High Numbers', he feels free and accepted. However, it's a flight into an illusionary world. Written by Tom Zoerner <Tom.Zoerner@informatik.uni-erlangen.de>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYlSjawXzko