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Re: Quad the movie



In message <33778813.5322@sccoast.net>, "Mark R. Leaman"
<mleaman@sccoast.net> writes
>The scene is cut so that you don't see the scooter making a clean
>transition from cliff to the air, and on to the rock. Jimmy could have
>fallen off, or jumped. It's not clear, and it appears that he goes off
>with it.

You see the scooter flying forward before it makes it's descent.  The cliff is
in view so you would've seen a falling figure had there been one.


>
>> especially as you see Jimmy peering over the edge of the cliff as it
>> hits the rocks.
>
>This I've never seen. I don't recall it from the theatre version, nor is
>it on my videotape. It may have been cut (but in the theatre?), or it
>may be that you Britians got a longer or different version than we did.
>Any American ever see this? Or any other Britian/European see Jimmy at
>the top of the cliff? I do believe we've been robbed...

It's not a close up, it's probably there and you've just missed it.  It's a blink
and miss it scene as the scooter actually descends.



>
>> Hugh Grant?  Was he on the scene 20 years ago???
>
>Wasn't he? It seems to me he'd be just about the right age. 

I've never seen anything with him in prior to the mid-eighties.  I think he
came from nowhere.  I'm not sure how old he is but he would have had to
be at least 38 to have appeared in Quad.


>He's not
>much of a Mod, though...maybe as a Rocker? A very nice and jovial
>Rocker, of course...

He's just a ponce.  I can't see him in any working class youth movement.
A rocker?  Hey, no way - he'd never get his hands dirty!


>
>> Ray Winstone (Kev):
>> 
>> Many films including Scum (with Phil Daniels)
>
>There was some prison movie, which was redone here and called Bad Boys,
>which had them both. Was that Scum? I remember one boy cutting his
>wrists and then calling for a guard, who didn't respond.

Scum was originally an Alan Clarke BBC Play which was refilmed for
cinema with the majority of the original cast.  However this was also called
Scum.  

I'm not sure if you are confusing two films or whether or not Daniels and
Winstone reprised these roles for Bad Boys.  I have no record of Daniels
and Winstone being in Bad Boys but as I recall it starred Sean Penn.

Regardless, you seem to be on the right track regarding the slit wrists.




>BTW, Daniels was also in Zulu as a young infantryman. Breaking Glass was
>a great movie.

He was actually filming Zulu Dawn when he heard about the auditions for
Quad.  I didn't include this as it was a pre-Quad movie.


>
>> Not really.  If you remember, Dave and Spider (I think) have to resort to
>> buying from Ferdy in Brighton.  That scene was very subtle.
>
>I missed that, but you're right. How did Jimmy end up with all the
>pills? He had a bag full for Brighton, and more at home (for his mother
>to find).

I don't think he had many tucked away at home.  I think he put maybe a
dozen aside and took the rest of his share to Brighton.  

I think he ended up with the majority holding initially simply because *he*
found them in the drawer and shared them out as *he* saw fit.  

I don't think Dave or Chalky dare argue really as Jimmy does most of the
running around in the quest for pills.  Notice that he approaches Pete at
the scrapyard, that he knocks on the Ferdy's door and asks his
whereabouts, that he rings Pete and he also takes the risk by going into
the villains' pub.




> 
>> Jimmy was only ever charged for general vandalism
>
>I'd call that poetic license. If he'd been charged with drug possession,
>he probably couldn't have paid his bail (assuming the laws are as stiff
>there as they were here).

The laws had only been recently introduced to combat the 'purple heart
menace' sweeping the inner cities.  In these very early days, they fined
them to make examples of them.  The laws weren't as stiff, he'd simply
have been charged and fined for both offences.

I've always been curious regarding the fine he had to pay.  The judge
notifies all of the defendants that they will face fines of 75 Pounds, yet
Jimmy returns home supposedly having been fined 50 Pounds.

>From newspaper accounts from the time, the majority of fines doled out by
Magistrates were for 50 Pounds which leaves me to ponder whether or not
this is another continuity error?  I can't imagine the courts announcing a
standard fine of 75 Pounds yet fining the very first defendant a mere 50
Pounds - can you?  Not in any circumstance, the first before the dock
would be made an example.



Also speaking of poetic licence, the speech about 'long haired, mentally
unstable, petty little sawdust Caesar's' was never uttered in Brighton.  It
was actually spoken by Dr. George Simpson, Chairman of the Margate
magistrates on May 18th 1964.

This Whitsun Bank Holiday was the big one, as far as the sea side
skirmishes went.  Two major riots in Brighton and Margate.

The others weren't as significant.  Most reports you have seen will be from
this weekend.  The Quad riot scenes are an amalgamation of these two
riots and several others.  It makes good viewing but in fact, lots of the
scenes are dramatisations of newspaper pictures which were originally
*staged* by the press.

The clipping Jimmy pins on his wall at the start of the film is from
Hastings, August 1964.

A continuity nightmare if you ask me.  Good enough to fool Joe Public
though.





>> Agreed, but the film did not adhere to Pete's original concept.
>
>True. It was more of an overview of the Mod scene than anything else,
>I'd say.

Exactly.  It isn't historically accurate but it's great drama!


- -- 
Gary L