The Committee (film)

Last updated

The Committee
The Committee (1968 film).jpg
British poster
Directed by Peter Sykes
Written byMax Steuer
Peter Sykes
Produced byMax Steuer
Starring Paul Jones
Cinematography Ian Wilson
Edited byPeter Elliott
Music by Pink Floyd and Arthur Brown
Release date
  • 1968 (1968)
Running time
55 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Committee is a 1968 British independent black-and-white film noir film directed by Peter Sykes. [1] It features original music by Pink Floyd as well as Arthur Brown's song "Nightmare". [2]

Contents

Plot

The movie follows a man who is unnamed. The movie starts out with the central character in a car with a man who just picked him up. The victim talks to him, but he is uninterested. The victim decides to pull over because he does not like the sound of the engine. While he is looking under the bonnet of the car the central character slams the bonnet down on his head several times, decapitating him in the process. The central character eventually sews the head back on, and the victim wakes up. The central character tells him he does not want to drive anymore that day and to leave without him.A few years later the central character is called on to be part of a committee, a group that supposedly keeps the system running but really do not do much of anything. The committee consists of 300 people who meet in a country estate, where there is swimming, tennis and boating during non-working hours, and a dance with a live band one evening. The man feels paranoid that the committee was called on account of him, and runs into the victim while there, who does not seem to remember him.

The central character talks about this with a man listed as 'The committee director' in the credits. This conversation lasts for the duration of the movie, and features most of the music Pink Floyd wrote for the film. At the end of the committee's weekend retreat, the man checks out, meeting a young woman whose bags he helps carry out. She offers him a lift and they drive off. She asks him if he plays bridge, but he does not answer her.

Cast

Soundtrack

The Committee
Soundtrack album by
Pink Floyd
Released2016
Recorded1968
Genre Psychedelic rock
Length15:45 (total time of all excerpts)
Pink Floyd soundtracks chronology
San Francisco
(1968)
The Committee
(2016)
Tonite Lets All Make Love in London
(1968)
  1. The Committee (Part 1 backwards version) – 0:36
  2. The Committee (Part 1) – 0:36
  3. The Committee (Part 2) – 1:09
  4. The Committee (Part 3) – 2:56
  5. The Committee (Part 4) – 1:24
  6. The Committee (Part 5) – 2:06
  7. The Committee (Part 6) – 0:50
  8. The Committee (Part 7) – 2:38
  9. The Committee (Part 8) – 3:30

Titles taken from A Tree Full of Secrets bootleg. "The Committee (Part 1 backwards version)" is the original recording, which was reversed for the film. "The Committee (Part 7)" is an early recording of "Careful with That Axe, Eugene". The soundtrack is also on other bootlegs that are just called The Committee. It also has the Arthur Brown track. "Prelude-Nightmare". It has been often misquoted that his song "Fire" is in the film. The confusion is possibly due to the fact that he wears the same "flaming head-gear" that he used in the Fire footage, often seen on TV.

Release

The Committee has only been released once on DVD coupled with a CD Single with Paul Jones' title track "The Committee" in 2005, and later in remastered format on Blu-ray, as part of the 2016 Pink Floyd box set The Early Years 1965–1972 . [3]

Related Research Articles

<i>Monty Python and the Holy Grail</i> 1975 British comedy film

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1975 British comedy film satirizing the Arthurian legend, written and performed by the Monty Python comedy group and directed by Gilliam and Jones in their feature directorial debuts. It was conceived during the hiatus between the third and fourth series of their BBC Television series Monty Python's Flying Circus.

<i>Crossfire</i> (film) 1947 noir drama film directed by Edward Dmytryk

Crossfire is a 1947 American film noir drama film starring Robert Young, Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan which deals with the theme of anti-Semitism, as did that year's Academy Award for Best Picture winner, Gentleman's Agreement. The film was directed by Edward Dmytryk and the screenplay was written by John Paxton, based on the 1945 novel The Brick Foxhole by screenwriter and director Richard Brooks. The film's supporting cast features Gloria Grahame and Sam Levene. The picture received five Oscar nominations, including Ryan for Best Supporting Actor and Gloria Grahame for Best Supporting Actress. It was the first B movie to receive a Best Picture nomination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freddy Krueger</span> Main antagonist of the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise

Freddy Krueger is a fictional character and the primary antagonist in the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series. He was created by Wes Craven and made his debut in Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) as the malevolent spirit of a child killer who had been burned to death by his victims' parents after evading prison. Krueger goes on to murder his victims in their dreams, causing their deaths in the real world as well. In the dream world, he is a powerful force and seemingly invulnerable. However, whenever Freddy is pulled back into the real world, he has normal human vulnerabilities and can be destroyed. He is commonly identified by his burned, disfigured face, dirty red-and-green-striped sweater and brown fedora, and trademark metal-clawed, brown leather, right hand glove. This glove was the product of Krueger's own imagination, having welded the blades himself before using it to murder many of his victims, both in the real and dream worlds. Over the course of the film series, Freddy has battled several reoccurring survivors including Nancy Thompson and Alice Johnson. The character was consistently portrayed by Robert Englund in the original film series as well as in the television spin-off Freddy's Nightmares.

"Echoes" is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd, and the sixth and last track on their 1971 album Meddle. It is 23+12 minutes long and takes up the entire second side of the original LP. The track evolved from a variety of different musical themes and ideas, including instrumental passages and studio effects, resulting in the side-long piece. The music was written by the group, while Roger Waters' lyrics addressed themes of human communication and empathy, which he returned to in later work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UFO Club</span> Former club in London, England

The UFO Club was a short-lived British counter-culture nightclub in London in the 1960s. The club was established by Joe Boyd and John "Hoppy" Hopkins. It featured light shows, poetry readings, well-known rock acts such as Jimi Hendrix, avant-garde art by Yoko Ono, as well as local house bands, such as Pink Floyd and Soft Machine. The club operated for the nine months from December 1966 to August 1967, and an additional seven months at 31 Tottenham Court Road in Fitzrovia, followed by a further two months at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm.

<i>The Madcap Laughs</i> 1970 studio album by Syd Barrett

The Madcap Laughs is the debut solo album by the English singer-songwriter Syd Barrett. It was recorded after Barrett had left Pink Floyd in April 1968. The album had a lengthy recording history, with work beginning in May 1968, but the bulk of the sessions taking place between April and July 1969, for which five different producers were credited − including Barrett, Peter Jenner, Malcolm Jones, and fellow Pink Floyd members David Gilmour and Roger Waters. Among the guest musicians are Willie Wilson from Gilmour's old band Jokers Wild and several members of Soft Machine.

<i>Pink Floyd – The Wall</i> 1982 film directed by Alan Parker

Pink Floyd The Wall is a 1982 British live action/animated surrealist musical drama film directed by Alan Parker, based on Pink Floyd's 1979 album The Wall. The screenplay was written by Pink Floyd vocalist and bassist Roger Waters. The Boomtown Rats vocalist Bob Geldof made his film debut as rock star Pink, who, driven to neurosis by the pressures of stardom and traumatic events in his life, constructs an emotional and mental wall to protect himself. However, this coping mechanism eventually backfires, and Pink demands to be set free.

"The Trial" is a track from Pink Floyd's 1979 rock opera/concept album The Wall. Written by Roger Waters and Bob Ezrin, it marks the climax of the album and film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pigs (Three Different Ones)</span> 1977 promotional single by Pink Floyd

"Pigs (Three Different Ones)" is a song from Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals. In the album's three parts, "Dogs", "Pigs" and "Sheep", pigs represent the people whom Roger Waters considers to be at the top of the social ladder, the ones with wealth and power; they also manipulate the rest of society and encourage them to be viciously competitive and cut-throat, so the pigs can remain powerful.

<i>The Roaring Twenties</i> 1939 film

The Roaring Twenties is a 1939 American crime thriller film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring James Cagney, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart, and Gladys George. The film, spanning the period from 1919 to 1933, was written by Jerry Wald, Richard Macaulay and Robert Rossen. The film follows three men and their experiences during major events in the 1920s, such as Prohibition era violence and the 1929 stock market crash.

<i>The Town That Dreaded Sundown</i> (1976 film) 1976 film by Charles B. Pierce

The Town That Dreaded Sundown is a 1976 American thriller horror film directed and produced by Charles B. Pierce, and written by Earl E. Smith. The film is loosely based on the 1946 Texarkana Moonlight Murders, crimes attributed to an unidentified serial killer known as the Phantom Killer. It is narrated by Vern Stierman, who had narrated Pierce's 1972 film The Legend of Boggy Creek. Ben Johnson stars as Captain J.D. Morales, a fictionalized version of Texas Ranger Captain M. T. "Lone Wolf" Gonzaullas. The Phantom is played by Bud Davis, who later worked as stunt coordinator on films such as Forrest Gump, Cast Away, and Inglourious Basterds. The film was mostly shot around Texarkana, and a number of locals were cast as extras. The world premiere was held in Texarkana on December 17, 1976, before its regular run in theaters on December 24.

<i>La Carrera Panamericana</i> 1992 film

La Carrera Panamericana is a 1992 video of the Carrera Panamericana automobile race in Mexico. The film was directed by Ian McArthur, and included a soundtrack entirely of music by the band Pink Floyd, as the band's guitarist David Gilmour, drummer Nick Mason and manager Steve O'Rourke competed in the race in 1991. The film had been broadcast on BBC2 on 24 December 1991.

<i>Shocker</i> (film) 1989 film by Wes Craven

Shocker is a 1989 American supernatural slasher film written and directed by Wes Craven, and starring Michael Murphy, Peter Berg, Cami Cooper, and Mitch Pileggi. The film was released by Universal Pictures on October 27, 1989, and grossed $16.6 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Syd Barrett</span> English musician, co-founder of Pink Floyd (1946–2006)

Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett was an English singer, guitarist and songwriter who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Barrett was the band's frontman and primary songwriter, known for his whimsical style of psychedelia, English-accented singing, and stream-of-consciousness writing style. As a guitarist, he was influential for his free-form playing and for employing effects such as dissonance, distortion, echo and feedback.

The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream was a concert held in the Great Hall of the Alexandra Palace, London, on 29 April 1967. The fund-raising concert for the counterculture paper International Times was organised by Barry Miles, John "Hoppy" Hopkins, David Howson, Mike McInnerney and Jack Henry Moore. It was part-documented by Peter Whitehead in a film called Tonite Let's All Make Love in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ajax (Francis Freeman)</span> Comics character

Francis Fanny is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Joe Kelly and artist Walter A. McDaniel, the character first appeared in Deadpool #14.

Backmasking is a recording technique in which a message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward. It is a deliberate process, whereas a message found through phonetic reversal may be unintentional.

<i>A Nightmare on Elm Street</i> (2010 film) American supernatural slasher film by Samuel Bayer

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 2010 American supernatural slasher film directed by Samuel Bayer, written by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer, and starring Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker, and Kellan Lutz. Produced by Michael Bay and Platinum Dunes, it is a remake of Wes Craven's 1984 film of the same name, as well as the ninth overall installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The film is set in a fictitious town in Ohio and centers on a group of teenagers living on one street who are stalked and murdered in their dreams by a disfigured man named Freddy Krueger. The teenagers discover that they all share a common link from their childhood that makes them targets for Krueger.

Pink Floyd bootleg recordings are the collections of audio and video recordings of musical performances by the British rock band Pink Floyd, which were never officially released by the band. The recordings consist of both live performances and outtakes from studio sessions unavailable in official releases. In some cases, certain bootleg recordings may be highly prized among collectors, as at least 40 songs composed by Pink Floyd have never been officially released.

References

  1. "The Committee (1968)". BFI. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017.
  2. "The Pink Floyd* - The Committee". Discogs. 2010.
  3. Grow, Kory (28 July 2016). "Pink Floyd Detail Massive 27-Disc 'Early Years' Box Set". Rolling Stone .