MUSTANG SALLY RIDES AGAIN IN DOCUMENTARY
Viewers to peek behind scenes of iconic movie
THE Commitments famously brought a contemporary, urban Ireland to the world on the big screen, but a revealing new documentary has lifted the curtain on what really went on behind the scenes on the set of the iconic movie.
Writer Roddy Doyle reveals how he had to push to get his name on the screenwriting credits alongside English writing duo Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.
Angeline Ball tells how the gritty Dublin musical opened doors, while the film’s band musical director Paul Bushnell went on to become a leading LA record producer after
‘Jimmy Rabbite Sr is really just a cameo’
the director Alan Parker bought him a plane ticket to the US.
Singer-songwriter Glen Hansard’s experience was soured by harsh words from the revered director, but extras from the film still look back fondly on their brief brush with fame over three decades ago.
Busloads of locals would be driven out to sets all over Dublin city and credit union deposits in the area soared during the making of the movie.
Colm Meaney narrates the new RTÉ series, Back to Barrytown, which celebrates The Commitments, The Snapper, and The Van – 30 years on. Despite his memorable parts in the film, the actor considers his own role in the first of the trilogy as a cameo.
‘I think I only worked about 10 days on the film. Jimmy Rabbitte Sr is really just a cameo. It’s very memorable,’ he says smiling. ‘It’s a very high-impact cameo because the scenes are fantastic.’
Roddy Doyle remembers he was still teaching when he met up with three possible producers for the film while on a publicity tour to the UK during the midterm break of 1987.
‘There’s one guy who said, the f**k quotient was too high. That was the high point of the afternoon,’ he said laughing.
When he first watched the movie it took him a while to get used to seeing the characters created in his head being up on the big screen, but adds: ‘I settled into it pretty quickly and I felt it captured the spirit of the novel really well.’
Producer Lynda Myles brought on Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, who were behind TV hits like Porridge, to help to write the screenplay with Doyle.
‘We were very aware that people might notice we weren’t Irish and obviously the enormous help we had was this wonderful dialogue in the book,’ said Clement.
While some of the scenes were written by Doyle, and others were written by Clement and La Frenais, the Dublin writer wasn’t originally on the credits for the screenplay.
Doyle recalls: ‘There was a disappointment with The Commitments, it was the way the co-written aspect of it was handled because when I looked at the final script, it had Dick and Ian’s names on it but not mine, and then when I read it I realised, actually, I wrote a considerable part of this.
‘I had to fight for my right, not too long, but it was a bit… it could have been embittering.’
Husband and wife casting directors Ros and John Hubbard remember the very organic and painstaking process of hiring the actors. Their brief for the lead singer was a ‘super looking guy’ with a velvet voice.
‘We found some great people, great looking, great singers,’ said Ros. But then in walked 15-year-old powerhouse, Andrew Strong. ‘The adrenaline that fell into Parker’s body because we had been looking for quite a while,’ remembers Ros.
Angeline Ball remembers bonding with Maria Doyle Kennedy and Bronagh Gallagher at the audition.
‘We were the last three and we shared numbers on a ripped-up envelope – whatever happens, this is my phone number, and this is yours, this is yours – and Bronagh remembers Alan Parker walking by that room and looking in and that’s when… The rest is history.’
Colm Meaney, who narrates the film, which airs tonight at 9.30pm on RTÉ One, says in general there is an authenticity to the film that can’t be disputed.
His favourite line is when he memorably calls his son ‘you malignant little bastard’ in the scene where Jimmy Rabbitte Senior is asking Joey the Lips if Elvis ever took drugs.
Alan Parker is hugely praised in the film for his attention to detail and his award-winning depiction of the book which reminded him of his own upbringing in London.
But Glen Hansard’s abiding memory is his interaction with the director at the end of shooting over the singer’s refusal to turn up on set because it clashed with the first Frames gig.
‘Unfortunately, there was just a simple clash of dates, and I was like “I’m not skipping this gig”, everyone came out to the Purty Loft, we’d a night off and then the next day we’re back in work.
‘Then at the very end of the shoot, he took me aside, he said: “Glen, on every film that I do, there’s one...” and he said a word I won’t repeat, “and I didn’t think it would be you”. I was shocked. And for me, it kind of soured my experience.’
But band director Paul Bushnell had a very different experience of the legendary director. Parker helped the session musician to get his own fairy-tale ending.
‘He said “Bushy, what are you doing staying in Dublin, this is going to be a success, you’ve got to live in the United States”.
‘He bought me a ticket. It was the greatest thing he could ever have done for me. It changed my life entirely.’
It was a similar story for Angeline Ball. ‘It opened doors, it put me and all the rest of us on the map.’
‘I was shocked... it kind of soured my experience’