The Com­mit­ments remains a Dork Report 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 time and see if I still loved it after all these years. If The Com­mit­ments (the band) are the World’s Hard­est Work­ing Band, then The Com­mit­ments (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.

Remem­ber kids, heroin(e) kills

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 of his pre­vi­ous films Birdy in one scene) built on his suc­cess with musi­cals Fame, Pink Floyd’s The Wall, and The Com­mit­ments by direct­ing the mam­moth pro­duc­tion Evita. 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. And Glen Hansard just won some kind of award or another…

Two bits of fun trivia gleaned from the IMDB entry: the actual kid from U2’s Boy and War album cov­ers cameos in the film, and the script racks up a spec­tac­u­lar 145 f-bombs.

The World’s Best Dressed Band

Offi­cial movie site: www.foxhome.com/commitments

Buy the sound­track or DVD from Ama­zon and kick back a few pen­nies to The Dork Report.

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