Franc Roddam
1979
117 minutes
Most of what you know going in to Quadrophenia comes from your first exposure via a comedy skit by a novelty band called Travesty Ltd from the early 1980s. The skit was called "Rock and Roll Doctor", and the premise was a bunch of stoners calling in a radio advice show where the Rock and Roll Doctor would prescribe them whichever illicit drugs that best fit their situation. Callers would ask which drugs to take to go to an Aerosmith concert or a Ted Nugent concert, to come down from a bad acid trip they were experiencing, or various other stoner dilemmas. A common gag was that the host would have to remind them to turn down the music they're listening to or turn down the radio to avoid the inevitable obnoxious echoing feedback loop. One caller asks the host if he's seen Quadrophenia, and the host informs him that he has not, and the caller launches into a lengthy rambling story about the movie:
"Oh, you should, man! It's really good. It's got all this Who music in it, man, really good... it's about the Mods, you know, they're like early hippies, in England, but they're not hippies, they ride around on Mopeds, you know?"
He is prompted to get to the point, and the caller elaborates on his dilemma:
"Uh, yeah, yeah. Well, the Mods are like always taking these pills, uh, they're called Blues, man. I've never heard of Blues, man. Like, what are these Blues?"
The Rock and Roll Doctor then informs him that as far as he is concerned the blues are a genre of African American music. Blue is not a good drug color and he should stick to Reds instead.
It was quite a good skit as far as Cheech and Chong era drug humor goes. But somehow you never sought out the film, despite liking the music of The Who.
You'll be surprised to find that the star of this is the guy who is the guest vocalist on the Blur song "Parklife", Phil Daniels, who also stars in the video selling windows door to door with Damon Albarn. It's also got Sting in it as the ultimate cool moped-rider idolized by all the mods. And there's a scene where you get to see Ray Winstone's dick and balls. As much as you like Ray Winstone, this is not something you ever wanted to see, and you're glad you were spared this for most of your life.
You'll watch most of this on your computer on a Wednesday afternoon before hopping a bus and trying to finish watching it on your phone. You'll awkwardly arrive at the grocery store with only a few minutes left, and you'll watch the last five minutes or so on your phone in the meat aisle at Safeway trying to stay out of everyone's way. Not an ideal way to finish it, but one more film down and you're ready to move on to the next thing.
Time to choose something different: