Film Review Tommy

FILM REVIEW – TOMMY (1975)

This remains one of my favourite films of all time, for its surrealism, irreverence, fantastic music, and sheer unlikely plot elements. It remains visually stunning, though some of he musical moments are less than perfect, notably those involving the singing of Oliver Reed and Jack Nicholson.

The film is based on the definitive concept album rock opera, Tommy, from 1969 by The Who, who appear in various cameos around their lead singer’s leading role (Roger Daltrey as Tommy).

The film’s visuals are essentially highly glossy rock videos of the kind that would soon dominate the MTV music TV scene. Most scenes in Tommy could be seen as independent pop or rock videos, though a few would be too controversial for general air-time, notably Tina Turner’s Acid Queen sequence, involving a desperate attempt to cure Tommy through sex, drugs and rock and roll. This involves visions of him surrounded by snakes, being injected with heroin, and Christ-like visions (prophetic of his ultimate fate in the story). The Acid Queen herself is left overdosing on her red light district bed as the wretched Tommy is taken away by his father (Reed).

The plot is as bizarre as its visuals, with Tommy turned psycho-somatically deaf, dumb and blind by seeing his step-father (Reed) kill his dad, Captain Walker, (Robert Powell), who Ann Margaret had assumed to have died in the 2cd World war (the original opera was set in the aftermath of WW1). 

Tommy can only see himself, mostly in mirrors, and develops an instinctive feel for pinball, so his family exploit his talents to make him an international champion at the sport. The Pinball Wizard song is another of the film’s crazy highlights, with Elton John’s song of the outgoing defeated champ’s fall matching The Who’s version as a classic recording. His giant boots in the film are wonderful to behold.

The pinball win makes Tommy’s mother a millionaire, but her despair over her son’s plight drives her to alcoholism, and her drunken fantasy wallow in a room filled with baked beans, soap powder and chocolate (actually supposedly the horse manure from the horses seen as she flicked through various TV channels.  This has to be the single messiest film sequence ever shot.

When his mother smashes his head against and through the mirror he stares at constantly, Tommy is cured, and sees his cure as sufficient miracle to declare him a new Christ figure. His meteoric rise in greed stops him from being a hapless, helpless victim of society, and turns him into a corrupt leader of men, no better than any others. When the audiences realize that he has nothing to really offer them beyond wild promises, they destroy everything round him, killing his parents off, and leaving him utterly alone, when he achieves a sense of Nirvana in the rising Sun.

It’s an unforgettable film, with a powerful quadraphonic soundtrack (one of the first films to exploit such), and there are many great bizarre characters and scenarios; a cult devoted to Marilyn Monroe, the sadistic Cousin Kevin (Paul Nicholas0 who tortures Tommy while baby sitting him, and Uncle Ernie (the Who’s Keith Moon), as the vile, but hilarious Uncle Ernie, who molests him.

The film is an awesome spectacle, that left me breathless and shell-shocked on the first viewing, and which remains a strong guilty favourite to this day. Cheesy and profound at one and the same time. Russell sadly never achieved such greatness again; though Daltrey would go on to prove to be one of the finest rock stars turned actor performers in the business.  His performance as McVicar would also be well worth a look. His role in Russell’s follow up movie, Lisztomania is perhaps best forgotten.

Arthur Chappell.