Quadrophenia

Quadrophenia is about a boy named Jimmy who is a mod, he likes a girl named Steph and has a rocker friend called Kevin, the film shows Jimmy and his mod friends taking drugs and going to parties, as well as fighting. Eventually the mods and rockers go to Brighton for a stand off between the two sub-cultures, were Jimmy finally gets with Steph, but then gets arrested when walking past the fighting groups. He goes to court with Ace Face, Jimmys ultimate mod idol, when he erturns home after paying a fine, he finds that his friend has got with Steph after he got arrested, he gets kicked out of his home after his mam finds his drugs, he crashes his scooter and quits his job. He returns to Brighton where everything was fine and made sense to him, and where he thought he fitted in, only to find out that his idol 'Ace Face' is a hotel bell boy, so he then realises that everything he thought he wanted and he was, wasn't real and everything was different to what he thought it was and he wasn't living in reality.

Jimmy wanted to be part of a gang, as group identity was very important to him 'you have to be a somebody because if you're not you're a nobody'. He wanted to be different but he was the same as any other mod - he wanted to be alternative. He took it too seriously and wanted out of his dead end job and his life. Jimmys identity was almost compromised when his friend Kevin was beaten up. He is also stereotyped (scenes at home with his dad and at work)
'Got to be part of a gang, haven't you got a mind of your own'
There is a divide between youth and adults, and between middle class and working class (Jimmy being sick in the toilets at work) Reinforces the representation of youth and the binary oppositions in the film.

Steph had a lot of sexual freedom, and she was quite feminine compared to some of the more androgynous mods, and she had no loyalty. She also cares more about her job than Jimmy and she doesnt take her life too seriously.

Kevin was a rocker who was also friends with Jimmy, he wasn't too bothered about his identity and he left the army because he didnt like being told what to do. He gets beaten up by mods.

Eamples of mise-en-scene that reinforce the idea of youth culture are; Scooters, Parkas, Amphetamines, Pubs, Leather Jackets, Motorbikes, and house parties are common things within the film.

There is a sub cultural ideology within the film, and there is the odeology of living for the here and now. there is a dominant ideology of being in a gang, and the them and us ideology (mods v society) - binary oppositions (my generation - young v old)

Stan Cohens theory can be linked to Quadrophenia because he based his theory on mods and rockers and the media reporting conflicts between them, but this can be applied to any subculture labelled as deviant or dangerous by the media. Cohens study was primarily about the mods and rockers of the 60s and the treatment they recieves in the public eye. The main criticism was that they were seen as a threat to law and order largley through the way the mass media represented them in form of what Cohen calls the 'control culture'