Ryan Muldoon

Quadrophenia collective identity

You see from the beginning of the film that there is a clear difference between the two groups of mod s and rockers and it is through the way the groups are dressed, how they communicate and the way that they have this hate for one another clearly represents that they are rebels who want to show one another that they have the power and authority over the opposing group. The David Buckingham theory relates to this sense of belonging as the theory states that identity implies a relationship with a broader collective and with the main character, you see that the way he is dressed in his smart tailored suits and large trench coats, this conforms to the stereotype that outsiders have of the mod group and his identity clearly shows that he belongs to this broader collective. You see how the mods behave throughout the film being rebellious and wanting to fight all the time and how the group crash parties and have these constant rifts with the groups of rocker s. This element links to the theory of Sheldon Stryker, which is that consistent behaviour reinforces your identity and by them conforming to the stereotypes people have of them, this in turn reinforces their identity. You also see the way in which the media have portrayed certain stories on news channels and various newspaper articles but it is this that leads to the group of mods wanting to conform to these stereotypes and when the group travel to Brighton, it is almost like they want to rebel and find something to spend their time with and it stems around being with friends and enjoying themselves, obviously through violence with the rockers. However, the media took this story and created this identity of the mods and rockers which links to the theory of Francesca Poletta which states that collective identity may have been first constructed by outsiders and this only makes this certain group want to conform and carry on what they are doing in order to gain some sort of notoriety. You also see when the main character Jimmy is in the cafe with his friend who he had known a long time but over time they had both developed into these two social groups with Jimmy becoming a mod and his friend played by Ray Winston, becoming a rocker. The problem with this is that it was not acceptable for a mod to be friends with or even talk to a rocker and when Jimmys mod friends come into the cafe, you see how he then walks away quickly so that he isnt seen with him and show how bad the issues were back then. This links to the Tafjal & Turner where the individuals concept on how they should act around certain social groups and this is clear in this part of the film where he believes he has to change the way he behaves due to his peers judging him. The ending scene shows the way he begins to lose control of his identity and starts to act differently by almost trying to clear away his identity by driving his Lambretta off a cliff and this relates to the theory of Mikhail Bakhtin which is based around the concept that your identity is never fulfilled and when you see the person who he had almost idolised not turn out to be all he was cut out to be, it made him want to break away and drive him to leave this mod look and develop a completely new and fresh identity. In relation to the Stanley Cohen theory, you see that the media have already identified the problem from the previous year in the newspaper clippings that Jimmy had in his bedroom and with the headlines that the newspapers would have, this simplified the whole story and made the group as a whole look quite bad which links to the next part of the theory stigmatizing the story where now all the outsiders have a bad impress ion on the group and generally, this then leads to these groups that are frowned upon conforming to stereotypes. This then leads to the media campaigning for action and wanting to make a change to society in order to get rid of the problem which then leads to the authority responding to this campaign and for example, when the mods and rockers went to Brighton, the police were straight on it and made sure that these groups wouldnt cause problems.