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Re: Quad the Film and Jimmy's 4 Faces!



In message <199705100501.BAA285990@mime4.prodigy.com>, MS
KELLY D GILES I <THRH79B@prodigy.com> writes
>>The most relevant references are made by his friends.  They clearly 
>think
>>his behaviour is out of the ordinary.  Jimmy always takes things too 
>far,
>>gets too involved and too serious about things even by their 
>standards.
>
>Funny, I always saw the characters of Dave, Chalky, and Spider as 
>being Jimmy's other personalities.  It seemed really obvious to me 
>from the first time I ever watched "Quadrophenia", but since no one 
>else mentioned it, maybe it's not so obvious after all!  Ah well, 
>we're all allowed our own interpretations, right?

This is an interesting theory but I can't see how you came to this
conclusion!  If the idea was to use Dave, Chalky and Spider as his three
other personalities I would've expected a lot more conflict between them.



 
>  Mine is that in 
>the film, Jimmy's three friends fulfill whatever dramatic role his 
>three extra personalities may have had in the album.  I think this 
>was really quite a clever move on the part of the film makers.  

Spider was only a supplementary character to the big three.  Besides, I
think Jimmy housed all of the personalities.  One minute the tough guy,
the next a romantic.




>But then again, I never felt that Jimmy's peculiar mental problems 
>were a very important part of "Quadrophenia" to begin with.

As I understand it, the film was supposed to address the universal theme
of alienation and teenage angst.  The album is typically more complicated
but it can be enjoyed on more superficial levels too.


I like to think Jimmy is a pretty normal kid with normal problems but who
happens to be suffering from acute amphetamine psychosis and which in
turn, induces a multiple personality disorder.  



>  I'd 
>owned the album (my very first Who album, by the way) for some time 
>before I knew the protagonist was supposed to have more than the 
>usual number of personalities.

Did you read the liner notes?  :-)




- -- 
Gary L