Product Description

Acclaimed director Alan Parker's landmark musical comedy is back for a spectacular encore in this all new widescreen collector's edition release of The Commitments. Fueled by raw talent and driven by dreams of glory, a dozen dead-enders from Dublin's gritty North side share a passion for soul music that takes their band on a wild roller-coaster ride from the streets to the stage...to superstardom! Packed with over 4 hours of extras, including audio commentary, brand new songs, and a never-before-seen retrospective documentary, this exhilarating 2-disc DVD is your backstage pass to experience the "world's hardest working band" as never before. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome once again - The Commitments!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7030 in DVD
• Brand: Twentieth Century Fox
• Released on: 1999-11-02
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.20 pounds
• Running time: 118 minutes

Amazon.com
An irresistible, comic drama from director Alan Parker (Evita, Mississippi Burning), overflowing and alive with passion, humor, and music, The Commitments showcases some old R&B standards in a new light. A headstrong, fast-talking, ambitious young Dubliner (Robert Arkins) fancies himself a promoter of talent, and sets about assembling and packaging a local Irish R&B band. His group of self-absorbed, backbiting, but stunningly talented individuals begin to succeed beyond his wildest dreams, until petty jealousies and recrimination threaten to scuttle the whole deal. A moody, vivid, and soulful exploration of the Dublin club scene as well as a showcase for some wonderful unknown actors, the film (and its wonderful soundtrack) also features the actual band covering classic soul tunes from the likes of Otis Redding and Sam and Dave. It's that combination of soul and soul music that makes The Commitments a special little film. --Robert Lane

From The New Yorker
Alan Parker's film is a loose, friendly musical comedy about the brief career of an Irish soul band. The Commitments are the brainchild of an energetic young music enthusiast named Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins), who lives in a poor Dublin neighborhood. He puts together a ten-piece group that learns, eventually, to play precise and spirited versions of soul classics in the Memphis style. The music of the Commitments isn't original, but that doesn't prevent it from being enormously entertaining: the band's hard-won proficiency charms us. Parker concentrates on the day-to-day details of rehearsals and performances; he seems to revel in the complexity of the group's musical, emotional, and sexual interactions, and he does full comic justice to the petty irritations of life in a band. The movie gives us a vivid picture of Dublin's poverty and urban blight, but it's more interested in capturing the rhythm of the characters' wit than in showing us how oppressed they are. What holds the Commitments together is a combination of Jimmy's ingenuity, their common pleasure in making music, and the daily challenge of responding to their fellow band members' provocations with quick, profane humor. The kids' verbal sparring is another kind of music-maybe the true sound of Dublin soul. Until the last half hour, when the direction gets a little pushy, the picture has an offhand, unassuming grace. Most of the Commitments are played by young Dublin musicians who answered a casting-call advertisement. They're a vivacious and spontaneous crew: Andrew Strong, Angeline Ball, Maria Doyle, Glen Hansard, Kenneth McCluskey, Félim Gormley, Dave Finnegan, Dick Massey, and Michael Aherne. The only professional actors among them are Bronagh Gallagher and Johnny Murphy (as the group's guru, a fiftyish trumpet player known as Joey the Lips). Colm Meaney does a very funny turn as Jimmy's Elvis-worshipping dad. The screenplay is by Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, and Roddy Doyle, from Doyle's novel. The songs are great-chosen, with unusual intelligence, from the repertoires of Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, and other soul giants. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Hallelujah! Widescreen and extras all the way!
For the better part of four years, I've complained about this fantastic movie going in and out of print, but ALWAYS ONLY available in the lousy pan-and-scan (instead of widescreen) format.

This film, masterfully directed by the great British musical/drama cinematic maestro, Alan Parker (e.g., Evita, Angela's Ashes, Fame, etc.), deserved better treatment, and finally, let's thank the good executives at Fox Video for listening! A double-disk widescreen presentation with plenty of bonus features! Hooray!

Keep in mind that this is one of the greatest films ever made in the 1990s, so influential and original to the extent that it made the British Film Institute's list of the best 100 films ever made in Ireland and the British Isles during the last century. Yet eerily, I can only count on two hands the number of people who've seen it! This has gotta change!

Now the film is issued on DVD as it was meant to be seen -- in full stereo and widescreen glory. I like the fact that Fox Video gave this "little" picture a chance, that it heard the complaints from rabid fans for years and finally did something about it!...

Say it Once, Say it Loud!
"The Commitments" is a raucous and joyful celebration of music. It's a gloriously simple and lovable tale, told with passion, profanity, and a deep understanding of how music can infect even the most despairing life with joy. About time the movie got its proper release on DVD.

If you've never seen "The Commitments" because you cringe at the notion of white Dubliners singing American soul tunes, well, I hear ya. I fully expected watered-down music along the lines of Michael Bolton butchering Percy Sledge. However, I was wrong - the music, in the context of the movie, is pure and genuine, and performed by young actors who understand that you don't have to pretend to be anything you're not to get soul. Besides, Jimmy Rabbitte, the mastermind behind the band, gives them all a thoroughly convincing speech that assures the lads and lasses from Dublin that they, too, are qualified to sing soul.

The movie - well, it's wonderful. Hilarious, free, sometimes moving, life-affirming. I almost wish the movie let the characters develop a little more before the inevitable and mythical ending, but then Joey the Lips gently reminds me (and Rabbitte), "this way, it's poetry." He's right - this is the proper ending for these guys, and the movie.

The DVD offers some great extras, including a revealing making-of doc, where we learn that director Parker combed the nightclubs of Dublin nightly, looking for fresh talent. I also love the 10-years-later feature, where we get to revisit our old friends again. These are suitable extras for a movie that just plain makes you feel glad to be alive - how much more can you ask of a movie than that?

GREAT movie, HORRIBLE dvd edition
an excellent movie with a talented cast--especially a surprisingly amazing 16/17 year old lead vocalist who
puts meat loaf and other vocal screechers to shame.
this guy actually has pipes!

by now you know what's great about the movie itself,
what you may NOT realize is that this dvd edition is
FULL-SCREEN, and is NOT in its ORIGINAL ASPECT RATIO.
unfortunately, i doubt there is the kind of 'willy
wonka and the chocolate factory' movement behind a
small relatively unknown gem like 'the commitments.'
'willy wonka' was recently, to much outrage, release
in fullscreen format, but the studio release an apology
and a street date for a widescreen edition.

were it a dvd with better sound quality (come on,
it's about music, after all) that wasn't cropped
into a fullscreen format, i would rate it 4 stars...

(i mean, would you want to have the original mona
lisa (or other favorite work of art) given to you,
but because you only have 8 x 10 frames, have somebody
cut an 8 x 10 section of the painting and frame it
for you? would you write a poem but have somebody
tell you, 'sorry, i only have room in our publication
for 5 lines of it--we'll just trim everything else'?
when are people going to realize that it's a waste
of movie buyers money to release any film in any
format other than its original aspect ratio? 'chariots
of fire' is another excellent example--only available
fullscreen. go figure...)

i would even rate this dvd higher than 4 stars
if there were any added features, bonuses, etc.
if you've got a clean vhs or laserdisc copy, stick
with that until they do this movie justice and release
a better than average dvd edition.