Start :: The Commitments

OK - first movie entry. These will probably change a lot in format from film to film. I may give a straight-up review. Maybe some memories about the movie and why I have it in my collection. I may talk about the actor that's connecting the two films, but since this is the starting point, there's no connection yet.

I love The Commitments, so it makes for a fun kick off to the project. It's also got a cast of relative unknowns, leaving me with only one other DVD in my collection that I can connect it to (which you'll see in the next post), which is perfect for the starting point.

I was in a band similar to the Commitments when I was in high school. It was the last day of junior high, on the bus ride home, when my friends Pete Benson and Jeremy McCormick said to me, "We should start a band. Like the Blues Brothers." I played drums, Pete played piano, Jeremy played alto sax. Our friends from junior high band would all be in: Scott More played guitar, Ray Callender played trumpet, Russ Johnson played trombone. Steve Madura was in choir, he could sing for us. Once high school rolled around at the end of the summer, we had scrounged up a bass player and second guitarist, plus pegged Sean McLean to play baritone sax. We had a 10-piece band, jamming on some old Blues Brothers songs and whatever else we could find with a horn section in it. We practiced every week in either my basement or Jeremy's (his brother also had a drum kit). We played the annual AFS Revue talent show at the high school to rave reviews ("Peter Gunn" and "Sweet Home Chicago"). Everything was great.

But of course not everything worked out well. We could never decide on a name for the band, going with Untitled one year. Third Rail another. Black and Blues for awhile. Untitled again for our senior year reunion show. Some members of the band left or graduated school. Replacements Jim Windelborn and Andy Vanatta came in on bass and guitar. Scott moved to trombone when Russ left the band. Tim Campbell played harmonica for a couple songs. We started having band meetings to discuss the direction of the group more often than we practiced. Some of the horn players wanted to do more jazz. Others wanted to rock more. Side project bands started eating up everyone's time. That and girlfriends. Meetings were held to decide who should be in or out of the band. It was high school. It got ugly.

But in the midst of all this, I rented The Commitments for the first time. I watched, saying, "That's us!" A few of the other guys in the band watched it too. We even tried playing a few songs from the Commitments soundtrack albums. It was one of the first movies I remember really finding myself identifying with. Of course our band didn't fare any better than the one in the movie. But we still had a great time trying.