Significant elements of the mod subculture include:
- fashion (often tailor-made suits)
- music (including soul, ska, and R&B)
- motor scooters (usually Lambretta or Vespa).
The original mod scene was associated with amphetamine-fuelled all-night dancing at clubs. And they often brawled or rioted in fights against Rockers (another subculture).
2. What attitude did they have towards authority figures - explain with examples towards upper class, parents and police
- Jimmy tells his boss to “shove his job”.
- At Brighton the mods smash up a café (with rockers in it) and terrorise the town, and they also beat up police officers.
- Jimmy is watching his favourite band performing on TV and his dad tells him to “stop watching that rubbish”.
- When Jimmy is being sick in the toilets at work, two men (probably bosses) are discussing business matters and ignore him.
- Also when Jimmy is wearing wet jeans to shrink them to him and his parents think he’s mad.
- When Jimmy and the Mods are chanting “We are the Mods!” through Brighton and they scare passers-by. They then attack a café full with rockers.
- When Jimmy is on the train he sits next to two older, upper class men and they look down at him.
3. Quadrophenia deals with collective identity and personal identity. How does the film illustrate the collective identity of Mod culture? Find specific examples from the film that illustrate your point. Jimmy personal identity. How does Jimmy change during the film? What do you think that this change symbolises?
This is shown in the film with the scene where Jimmy and his friends who laugh whilst breaking into a chemist to steal drugs for the weekend of partying in Brighton. Also in the scene where Jimmy and his friends are shouting “We are the Mods!” whilst walking near Brighton beach. Its a collective identity of the individual only acting with his "tribe" not caring personally how it make him look, it is the collective identity that rules.
A change that occurs in the film is when Kevin (a rocker) comes to help Jimmy with his bike. At first Jimmy justifies his reasons for hating rockers, but then sees beyond the superficiality of it all and sees them as people too. Another change is when Jimmy and his friends are riding after some rockers who beat up his friend. Finally they get one and start to beat him up, but Jimmy sees that its Kevin tries to stop his friends, but ends up riding away. Both of these scenes symbolise Jimmy’s changing attitude towards rockers and changing attitudes towards this whole collective identity (that he is a part of) view of hating rockers.
When Jim returns home and he's been kicked out by his mother who has found his drugs and he has just quit his job. And while he was in jail Steph and Dave have gotten together all this culminates and Jimmy just rides away and his bike is hit by a postal truck and Jimmy realises that he is losing everything around him - this collective identity is everything, the world is still turning and bad things can happen to you. Jimmy changes from having this exciting life, to nothing, so he rips down the posters on his wall that represent his mod lifestyle and he decides to leave. Also when he drives Aces scooter of a cliff, a clear symbol of leaving this mod culture, a hate for it.
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