# Quadrophenia (film)

Quadrophenia is a 1979 British film about a boy who loathes his job and parents. He seeks solace with his mod clique, scooter riding and drugs, only to be disappointed.
    Directed by Franc Roddam. Written by Dave Humphries, Franc Roddam, Martin Stellman, and Pete Townshend, based on the 1973 rock opera by The Who.

## James Michael "Jimmy" Cooper

* [notices Ace Face working as a bellboy in a hotel] Bellboy! BELLBOY!
* [shouts from the cliff top after deciding not to be a mod] Me!
* [shouts while leaving to attack the rockers who attacked Spider] We're gonna murder 'em! we're gonna fuckin' murder 'em!
* You shut up and piss off! You're all wankers and cunts! Wankers and cunts!

## Peter Fenton

* If you don't work, you don't get paid no money. And I like money.
* You'll be getting like them bloody beatniks before you know it. Ban the bomb and do fuck all for a living pouncing about all day.

## Other

* Father: You're barmy, you are, staying out all hours. Getting up to God-knows-what, dressing up like a freak. Stand still when I'm talking to you. Wouldn't be at all surprised if you're not on drugs. I know what you get up to down that club, you and your mates. You've gotta be part of a gang, haven't you? Gotta be a mod, or this, or that. Haven't you got a mind of your own?

## Dialogue

    Steph: Going to be one of the faces?
    Jimmy: What do you mean going to be? I am one of the faces!
    Kev: I don't give a monkey's arsehole about the Mods and Rockers. Underneath, we're all the same, aren't we?
    Jimmy: No, Kev, that's it. Look, I don't wanna be the same as everybody else. That's why I'm a Mod, see? I mean, you gotta be somebody, ain't ya, or you might as well jump in the sea and drown.
    Kev: That's why I joined the army. To be different. To get away from all this. Don't matter where you go, there's always some cunt with stars and stripes who wants to push you about.
    Kev: Hi Jim. What's the matter with you, then?
    Jimmy: Well, that gear you got, it's leather.
    Kev: That's it. Goes with the bike, dunnit?
    Jimmy: 'Ere, I never realized.
    Kev: Never realized what?
    Jimmy: You's a rocker.
    Kev: What, am I black or something?
    Jimmy: Well you ain't exactly white in that sort of get up, are you?
    Father: What's this rubbish, then?
    Jimmy: [watching The Who on TV] Ready Steady Go!
    Father: Ready what?
    Jimmy: Ready Steady Go!
    Father: Ready Steady Go? Bunch of louts. Bloody moron. I suppose they wear wet jeans n'all, do they? Hey? What? What? Is that how you're supposed to play a guitar now, then? Hey? Oh, gawd help us. Here, have you seen this?
    Mother: I haven't got time for all that rubbish.
    Father: I can sing better than that little ape. You call that singing? Sounds like a drowned dog. That'll make you deaf, you know.
    Jimmy: You and Pete getting a bit strong, then?
    Steph: Nah, 'course not. He's a laugh, that's all.
    Jimmy: Bit flash, though, ain't he?
    Steph: I wouldn't be with him otherwise, would I?
    [Sneaking in late at night, Jimmy finds his mother and father on the couch in front of the TV. Mother is unhappily watching a program while father is passed out next to her.]
    Mother: Where you been?
    Jimmy: Fell asleep on the train. I wound up in bloody Neasden.
    Mother: Ridin' about on them motorbikes all night, I'm not surprised. It's not normal.
    Jimmy: Oh, yeah? What's normal, then?
    Mr. Fulford: Mr. Cale tells me that you spent the weekend in Brighton. I imagine you were involved some extent in the disturbances there?
    Jimmy: Yeah, I was there.
    Mr. Fulford: Weren't arrested or detained or anything like that were you?
    Jimmy: No.
    Mr. Fulford: I must say I find your attitude fairly incomprehensible. I feel I must warn you, Cooper, that we can't tolerate this kind of absenteeism amongst our junior staff. You've a good steady job here, Cooper. Plenty of young men would give their eye teeth to be in your shoes.
    Jimmy: Yeah? Well, find one, then!
    Mr. Fulford: I beg your pardon?
    Jimmy: You heard. I said find one, then! Yeah, I'll tell you what you can do with your eye teeth and your job, you can take that mail and that franking machine and all that other rubbish I have to go about with and you can stuff 'em right up your arse!
    Jimmy: [after finding Dave in bed with some girl] What the hell are you doing?
    Dave: What do you think I'm doing?
    Magistrate: It seems strange to see this procession of miserable specimens. So different from the strutting hooligans of yesterday, who came here to pollute the air of this town. Yes. These long-haired, mentally unstable, petty little hoodlums. These sawdust Caesars, who can only find courage, like rats, by hunting in packs, came to Brighton with the avowed intent of interfering with the life and property of its inhabitants. And so far as the law gives us power, this court will not fail to use the prescribed penalties. It may perhaps discourage you, and others of your kidney who are infected with this vicious virus, that you be ordered to pay a fine of 75 pounds.
    Ace Face: I'll pay now if you don't mind. You haven't got a pen, have you, Your Honour?
    Dave: You're fucking mad, you are, getting chucked out. You should have stayed around. You would've been well in.
    Jimmy: What d'you mean?
    Dave: She was all on her Jack Jones, wasn't she?
    Jimmy: Steph?
    Dave: Yeah. Fucking Fenton gets off with this beatnik chick. And she's all on her own, ain't she. Well, I'll tell you, I would've been up her like a fuckin' ferret. Well, if I hadn't know that you and her were so...
    Jimmy: So what? I ain't gone on her, you know.
    Dave: Leave it out, everybody knows you fancy her. I reckon she's a right good bunk-up, lads.
    Jimmy: Oh, you animal!
    Mother: Drugs and filthy pictures! Running riot everywhere! You're a little animal, you are. You wanna be locked up! I've done my best, look what I've got for it! A bloody mad thing! You're a little savage! Get out of my house! Go on! Get out!
    Jimmy: All right.
    Mother: You're no son of mine!
    Jimmy: Nothing seems right, apart from Brighton. I mean, Brighton was OK. Going to court with the Ace and that. And, like, I was a mod there, you know? I mean that's something, innit, eh?
    Steph: Oh, what are you talkin' about? Brighton was a laugh. That's why we went down. It was a giggle, that's all.
    Jimmy: Oh, yeah? And me and you, then? Was that just a giggle?
    Steph: Oh, what do you think? All right, so I fancied you. We had it off together. But that don't mean nothin', does it?
    Jimmy: It did to fuckin' me!

## Taglines

* Hell On Wheels!
* The Year Was 1964, and The Battle Was Just Beginning!
* A Way Of Life [rerelease]
* We are the mods, we are the mods. We are, we are, we are the mods.

## Cast

* Phil Daniels - Jimmy Cooper
* Leslie Ash - Steph
* Philip Davis - Chalky
* Mark Wingett - Dave
* Sting - Ace Face
* Ray Winstone - Kevin Herriot
* Gary Shail - Spider
* Garry Cooper - Peter Fenton
* Toyah Willcox - Monkey
* Trevor Laird - Ferdy
* Andy Sayce - Kenny
* Kate Williams - Mrs Cooper, Jimmy's mother
* Michael Elphick - Mr George Cooper, Jimmy's father
* Kim Neve - Yvonne Cooper
* Benjamin Whitrow - Mr Fulford
* Daniel Peacock - Danny
* Jeremy Child - Agency Man
* John Phillips - Magistrate
* Timothy Spall - Harry the Projectionist
* Patrick Murray - Des the projectionist assistant
* George Innes - Cafe Owner
* John Bindon - Harry North, gangster
* P. H. Moriarty - Barman at Villain Club
* Hugh Lloyd - Mr Cale
* John Altman - Johnny 'John the Mod' Fagin

## External links

* Quadrophenia quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Quadrophenia at Rotten Tomatoes
* Quadrophenia (film) at Allmovie