Quadrophenia (1979, UK)

In director Franc Roddam's coming-of-age musical psycho-drama and directorial debut film, the British film told about an emotionally troubled, restless and unstable mid-60s teen. It was based upon and loosely adapted from the classic 1973 rock-opera 'concept album' (of the same name) by the British group The Who, with a script co-written (uncredited) by lead singer Peter Townshend.

Quadrophenia provided an iconic and nostalgic look at a certain period in British pop culture (defined by defiant youth), and remains a cult classic. The authentic-feeling and realistic story was about youthful (hooligan) rebellion and aberrant aggression, mean anger, and angst. It was the second attempt of Townshend to transfer the group's music (as they did with Ken Russell's Tommy (1975)) to the big-screen, using the name 'Quadrophenia' - meaning a doubling of the mental illness of schizophrenia. However, the narrative storyline of the 1975 film's 1969 rock opera was much clearer and coherent.

Set in London during the period of Mods and Rockers in 1964, it told the story of a young, misunderstood, amphetamine ("blues")-popping, needy, working class Mod named Jimmy Cooper (Phil Daniels). The rebellious and alienated teenager hated his parents, and his dead-end mail-room job in an advertising firm. He was able to escape and also rebel against his dull and squalid existence by rampant drug-use, joining the clothes-obsessed Mods and spending time with his cliquish Mod friends, riding a Lambretta scooter, and competing against the rival Rockers (leather-clad bikers).

During a long holiday weekend event known as the Brighton Scooter Run, the Mods competed against the Rockers in a so-called "Battle of the Cults" that ended by the seaside at Brighton Beach. Jimmy idolized another Mod - the suave, seemingly-rich, swaggering and flamboyant Ace Face (singer-musician Sting) with a Vespa scooter, but was devastated by film's end (in a semi-plot twist) that his idolization for Ace was unfounded. It was exposed to him that the hypocritical Ace worked as a menial bell-boy (dressed in a red monkey-suit) at the posh Grand Brighton Hotel. During an inevitable breakdown, Jimmy momentarily considered committing suicide over the edge of a cliffside at East Sussex's Beachy Head, where he rode Ace's stolen Vespa close to the edge before crashing it off the white cliff. The film's concluding images were of the slow-motion descent and crack-up on the rocks below, followed by Jimmy walking away into the sunset (a bookend to the film's opening).