The cultural warfare between the Mods and the Rockers in early-Sixties England takes a backseat, most of the way, to the more traditional warfare between the younger generation and their disapproving elders, which tends to blur this movie's identity with any number of Angry Young Man and Swinging London movies made in the Sixties. The Mod-Rocker phenomenon finally comes to flower in a brilliantly staged riot in the streets of Brighton, but prior to that, it could have used a clearer definition, for the sake of the American audience, if not necessarily the British, and also for the sake of aesthetic wholeness. The movie was produced by the rock group The Who, whose self-aggrandizement in the form of a wall poster here, a propped-up record sleeve there, and an appearance on the telly another place, is not too bothersome. But their commentative songs on the soundtrack, recycled from a 1973 record album, inject a dissonant musical note, which becomes more and more grating, more and more suffocating, more and more like their rock-opera Tommy, as the movie draws closer to its cornball conclusion. Directed by Franc Roddam. (1979) — Duncan Shepherd