White City (1985) Online

This movie lives in a bit of gray area - never exactly released in the US, but a copy turned up at my favorite video place. It's a bit more closely tied to the album "White City" than expected; the weird little spoken word snippets are actually of a street preacher in the movie.

Synopsis, as best as I can remember: The "White City" is sort of a British housing project - small apartments, a fair amount of poverty. The main character is a rather young fellow having problems with his marriage. Townshend appears as his friend, and essentially as himself (he's referred to as the "rock star" by at least one character in a pub). The action revolves around Townshend setting up a dance/concert in the project's swimming pool / civic center (warning! terrible 80's clothing and fake band members!!) while the main character breaks up with his wife.

The plot isn't that great, but it's still neat to watch. Also cool was some odd footage at the end of the video - a short interview with Townshend and also a live/studio performance of "Night School", a Townshend disco tune?!?

My disclaimer: I think White City is one of the best albums ever, and it's Pete Townshend at the top of his game.

This is rare to say about the album and Pete. What is not rare to say about the 60 minute, eponymous movie, however, is that it's poor. But any Pete fan should see it and most will find in it two things that are extremely interesting and rare: 1) the chance to view a poor piece of work done by your hero (and then by definition, he's made a bit more human), and 2) the ability to envision what said hero's inventive mind meant to create, which would've been quite special, but did not.

By these admittedly skewed criteria, therefore, White City the movie (1985) is a rare success.

The general focus of the movie is about Pete's childhood friend, Jim, who grew up in a dysfunctional home, is mal-adjusted, prone to violence, separated from his wife, yet is a sympathetic character. He means well despite it all. The storyline is ostensibly about Jim and his difficulties in the White City, but this thread is not developed or logically explored in any way.

The other stillborn storyline of White City is a "going back to the old neighborhood" tale, set in Britain in the mid 1980's, starring a real, modern-day Mozart at 40 years old and post-superstardom, and a childhood friend who never left the 'hood. The echoes of jealousy, sympathy, guilt, pride and nostalgia that return visits and reflection can provoke in both successful neighborhood son as well as those who never left are the bases of two standout movies that set a bar for this type of movie: the group of friends in 1950's Baltimore in Diner (1982), and in Richard Dreyfuss' flashback story of his youthful Oregonian adventure in Stand By Me (1986).

You're not alone if you feel frustrated White City fails to offer anywhere close to this type of insightful experience. It's this abandoned storyline with which White City teases the viewer but never delivers – that of the real-life Pete Townshend returning to the working class London neighborhood of his youth and showing the warmth, the tension, the irreconcilability and friction between today's Pete and his roots; and yet there persists the universal human need for reconnection. Even if you are Mozart of the 20th century. The story should be about Pete and Jim, or Pete now vs. Pete then, not just Jim and his travails. To add salt to our wound, the intense, intriguing lyrics on the album are met with an equal level of performance blandness in the movie.

The actual White City, as Pete thoughtfully explains in an interview following the movie, is a public housing complex in West London near where he grew up. It's a place that strongly suggests (in both movie and song) despair and suffocation associated with the lack of hope and upward mobility for its inhabitants, juxtaposed against the glory of the former British Empire (the streets are named after its former territories); but it also showcases the energy and innocence of the children that breathe life into the area – proverbial flowers growing in the pavement cracks. One wonders if the delicate flowers will eventually flourish or simply get run over by a passing truck.

Flashbacks to Jim's childhood help us see a Britain perhaps limping ahead post-war, trying to recapture normalcy after the trauma of WWII via dance lessons, swimming, kids' play and relaxed social rules. Set against the waning days of the Cold War and before the massive resurgence of London, the geo-political and societal backdrop could have provided another fascinating aspect here. Concerns were common in Britain that they'd won the war but lost the peace to re-emergent Germany. Again, if only.

If you're a Who fan you may recognize similarities and patterns woven into others works by Pete. Pete volunteers in the interview that Jim could be a grown-up Jimmy from Quadrophenia, and you can see why: he wears eye makeup, is a self-aware loner, painfully uncomfortable at parties, prone to violence. John "Rabbit" Bundrick and Simon Phillips play with Pete's band at the deep end of the pool (Deep End Live). A young boy is exposed to adult sexual/violent situations (Tommy). Water is used as a vehicle of redemption and/or introspection (Quadrophenia). There's likely plenty more.

White City meets many criteria of a bad movie. It's poorly filmed, with incoherent story, it changes styles inexplicably (neon graphics during "Face the Face"), and it schizophrenically bounces between showcase for songs on the album, faux documentary and travelogue. But one can see the original kernel in Pete's mind for a great story –you want to put an arm around Pete and suggest that he take a "do- over," kind of like Jim and his ex-wife seem to contemplate in the final scene while sharing a smile in a pool. Life is full of do- over's, Pete – please put another ball on the tee and take another swing. There's a beautiful drive right to the green in there. Until then, White City is a case study of a sliced ball by Tiger Woods – but that has value, too.

If you're a fan of Pete's, the movie is worthwhile simply to hear the songs and a see a post-Who Pete perform so enthusiastically and happily versus what I had understood to be a trying time for Pete in the latter days of The Who. In this sense, it's 60 minutes well spent.

• Richard

PS – feedback is welcome