Tommy (1975)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Ken Russell

Writers:

Pete Townshend (album)
Pete Townshend (story)

Release Date:

26 March 1975 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Musical

Tagline:

Your senses will never be the same

Plot:

A psychosomatically deaf, dumb and blind boy becomes a master pinball player and the object of a religious cult because of that.

Plot Keywords:

Pinball | Murder | Holiday Camp | Post War | Bizarre

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Oliver Reed	...	Frank Hobbs
Ann-Margret	...	Nora Walker
Roger Daltrey	...	Tommy Walker
Elton John	...	Local Lad
Eric Clapton	...	The Preacher
John Entwistle	...	Himself
Keith Moon	...	Uncle Ernie
Paul Nicholas	...	Cousin Kevin
Jack Nicholson	...	The Specialist
Robert Powell	...	Captain Walker
Pete Townshend	...	Himself
Tina Turner	...	The Acid Queen
Arthur Brown	...	The Priest
Victoria Russell	...	Sally Simpson
Ben Aris	...	Reverend Simpson

Also Known As:

The Who's Tommy
Tommy by 'The Who' (USA) (complete title)
Tommy: The Movie (USA) (promotional title)

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Quintaphonic (5 channel Dolby Stereo) | Dolby

Certification:

Italy:T | Japan:PG-12 | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Iceland:L | Canada:G (Quebec) | Finland:K-15 (uncut) (2001) | Denmark:15 (DVD rating) | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1977) | Sweden:15 | USA:PG | UK:15 | Singapore:PG | Ireland:15 | UK:AA (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK

Company:

Hemdale Film

Trivia:

Ann-Margret largely improvised the infamous bean scene. Ken Russell simply told her that her character was having a nervous breakdown, and that she could do whatever she wanted.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: During "Eyesight to the Blind", Clapton's hand movements do not at all match his guitar playing on the song.

Quotes:

Cousin Kevin: We're on our own, cousin. All alone, cousin. Let's think of a game to play Now the grownups have all gone away. You won't be much fun, Being blind, deaf and dumb, But I've no one to play with today.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 48th Annual Academy Awards (1976) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Tommy's Holiday Camp

Oh It`s A Musical

I remember the first time TOMMY was broadcast on British television on BBC 2 in the late Autumn of 1981 . For the first time ever Radio 1 did a simultaneous broadcast , the idea being you turn off the sound on your TV , turn up the sound on Radio 1 and you`ll be able to watch TOMMY in stereophonic sound , bare in mind this was before we had widescreen TVs that broadcast stereophonic sound , everything we got on TV in those days was in mono

Instead of watching the movie on TV I listened to it on Radio 1 . I knew the movie was a musical but was under the impression it`d be something like Jeff Wayne`s WAR OF THE WORLD album where there`s a clear narrative with dialogue along with musical tracks , I mean Robert Powell , Oliver Reed and Jack Nicolson aren`t singers right ? I listened to the film and it was about ten minutes before anyone started singing and within 20 minutes I had no idea what this was about , it was people singing , no dialogue , no narrative , no nothing so I decided to turn off the radio and go to sleep . Strangely when I was at school the next day everyone was saying what a weird though thoroughly entertaining movie it was

And finally seeing the movie last week I can understand in some strange way what a subversive movie this is . Ken Russell doesn`t hold back on the weird factor . Take the scene where Eric Clapton is performing in a church and everyone is worshipping a statue of Marylin Monroe and there`s people wearing masks of her waving bowls of incense around . Mind if I ask what that`s all about ? On second thoughts don`t .

That actually sums up the strengths and weaknesses of TOMMY , the imagery is strange , sometimes utterly compelling and breath taking like the sequence in Amazing Journey where a pin ball randomly smacks bombers turning them into crosses of rememberance but more often than not the film makes just as much sense as it did when I listened to it on the radio more than 20 years before . There`s a vague point that musical heroes are somewhat Hitlerite in our modern pop culture but the very similar THE WALL by Pink Floyd makes this point far clearer and if truth be told THE WALL is by far a better movie and album

Anyone else feel uneasy that much of TOMMY revolves around a young child from source material by Pete Townshend ?