{"id":732,"date":"2008-03-29T21:38:31","date_gmt":"2008-03-30T01:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/29\/the-commitments\/"},"modified":"2022-10-26T10:57:53","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T14:57:53","slug":"the-commitments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/the-commitments\/","title":{"rendered":"The World’s Hardest Working Band, The Commitments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Commitments<\/em> remains a favorite, even some 17 years after first seeing it in the theater. I’ve owned the soundtrack since then, but for whatever reason, had not revisited one of my favorite films. But having recently seen and loved Once<\/em><\/a>, costarring Commitments alum Glen Hansard, I was inspired to check it out one more time and see if I still loved it after all these years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If The Commitments (the band) are the World’s Hardest Working Band, then The Commitments<\/em> (the movie) may be the World’s Most Unashamedly Crowd-Pleasing Movie. There’s not a single scene that doesn’t charm, amuse, or get me rocking to the sweet sounds of soul music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
“Is this the band then? Betcha U2 are shittin’ themselves.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Where are they now? Original members Dick Massey and Kenneth McCluskey still tour as The Commitments. Director Alan Parker (look for VHS copies of one his film Birdy<\/em> in one scene) built on his success with musicals Fame<\/em>, Pink Floyd’s The Wall<\/em>, and The Commitments<\/em> by directing the mammoth production Evita<\/em>. Andrew Strong (Deco Cuffe), a wee 16 at the time, still has his golden voice and is now a solo artist. Maria Doyle Kennedy (Natalie) is now a star of the television series The Tudors<\/em><\/a>. And Glen Hansard just won some kind of award or another…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two bits of fun trivia gleaned from the IMDB entry<\/a>: the actual kid from U2’s Boy<\/em> and War<\/em> album covers cameos in the film, and the script racks up a spectacular 145 F-bombs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Commitments remains a favorite, even some 17 years after first seeing it in the theater. I’ve owned the soundtrack since then, but for whatever reason, had not revisited one of my favorite films. But having recently seen and loved Once, costarring Commitments alum Glen Hansard, I was inspired to check it out one more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,2],"tags":[998,191,999,357],"class_list":["post-732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-4-stars","category-movies","tag-alan-parker","tag-glen-hansard","tag-ireland","tag-musical"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/commitments-feature.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa9lhB-bO","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":712,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/once\/","url_meta":{"origin":732,"position":0},"title":"Glen Hansard and Mark\u00e9ta Irglov\u00e1 falling slowly in Once","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"March 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Now this is a musical (of sorts) I can get behind. The unnamed \"Guy\" (Glen Hansard, already a rock star in The Frames and a movie star from The Commitments) is a street busker, playing popular songs for pennies during the day, and saving his own passionate compositions for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "4 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Once","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/once-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/once-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/once-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/once-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/once-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1239,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/the-swell-season-live-at-rumsey-playfield-central-park-new-york-september-17-2008\/","url_meta":{"origin":732,"position":1},"title":"The Swell Season live at Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, New York – September 17, 2008","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"September 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Glen Hansard (of The Frames and The Commitments) and Mark\u00e9ta Irglov\u00e1 recorded an album together called The Swell Season, and now tour under the name. They fell in love while filming the excellent Once, and are now a couple. 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It's no accident, oversight, or deliberate act of Hollywood misogyny to banish women from this 24-hour\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "4 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/glengarry-glen-ross-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/glengarry-glen-ross-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/glengarry-glen-ross-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/glengarry-glen-ross-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/glengarry-glen-ross-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2120,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/the-therapist-experience-the-girlfriend-experience\/","url_meta":{"origin":732,"position":3},"title":"Sasha Grey Provides The Therapist Experience, in The Girlfriend Experience","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"August 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience is a low-fi, partially improvised production loosely associated with his periodic palate-cleansing experiments including Schizopolis, Full Frontal, K Street, and Bubble. Working with real locations and relatively cheap cameras, this class of thrifty productions allows Soderbergh a rapid turnaround from conception to finished product. 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Just as with adapting a novel to a movie, there is no simple translation from one media to another -- a play takes place from a fixed vantage point, there is no editing, and no digital\/optical photographic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/main-menu\/movies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Parker Posey in The House of Yes","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/house-of-yes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/house-of-yes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/house-of-yes.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/house-of-yes.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/house-of-yes.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1817,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/ive-loved-you-so-long\/","url_meta":{"origin":732,"position":5},"title":"Kristin Scott Thomas is unshowy but brilliant in Philippe Claudel’s I’ve Loved You So Long","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"June 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Writer \/ director Philippe Claudel's I've Loved You So Long is a textbook exercise in the dramatic withholding of narrative information. Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) is released from prison after serving 15 years for an unspecified crime, and is unwillingly housed with her sister L\u00e9a (Elsa Zylberstein). 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