“I’m black and I’m proud.”
Re-mastered for its 25th anniversary, The Commitments comes top Blu ray courtesy of RLJ Entertainment.
Alan Parker’s award-winning film concerns Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) who knows he’s the world’s greatest band manager but he needs just one thing, a band. Auditioning everyone he can find, Jimmy gathers ten of the most talented, least experienced musicians from the rough streets of working-class Dublin with a plan to launch the greatest Irish Soul band in the world.
Director Parker deliberately picked a cast of unknowns for the main characters and it works perfectly. Showing how grim life was in Dublin at that time it also shows the determination and great sense of humour the people of the city had and that music can bring joy to everyone.
The music is excellent with many soul classics being re-done brilliantly and the language used is very funny but definitely earthy, at the time of release I think it had the record for the most f-bombs in a major film! A great feel-good movie with a bittersweet ending, this classic just gets better with time.
The Blu ray has an excellent 1080p transfer, details sharp with a good fine level of grain. Flesh tones look accurate and blacks are solid and stable. Audio gives you English DTS-HD MA 5.1 and the mix is very well done with dialogue and music crisp and clear, the movie was originally released in just stereo but this does not detract from that at all.
Extras are as follow:
- 25 Years Later: All-New Interviews with Alan Parker and Cast. Interesting recent retrospective about the film with the director and some of the cast with some very interesting stories on the making of the film.
- Audio Commentary with Alan Parker
- Four Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes. Vintage featurettes but still interesting to watch.
- Music Video
- Image Galleries & Collectible Booklet.
A fabulous release of a classic film.
FILM: 8.5 PICTURE: 9 AUDIO: 8 EXTRAS: 7.5
