Tommy (film)
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| Tommy | |
|---|---|
 Film poster |
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| Directed by | Ken Russell |
| Produced by | Ken Russell Robert Stigwood |
| Written by | Ken Russell Pete Townshend |
| Starring | Roger Daltrey Oliver Reed Ann-Margret Elton John Eric Clapton Tina Turner |
| Cinematography | Dick Bush Robin Lehma Ronnie Taylor |
| Editing by | Stuart Baird |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures (USA) Hemdale Film Distributors Ltd. (UK) |
| Release date(s) | 19 March 1975 |
| Running time | 111 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5,000,000 (estimated) |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Tommy was a 1975 musical film, based on The Who's 1969 "rock opera" concept album Tommy. It was directed by Ken Russell and featured a star-studded cast, including the band members themselves. Ann-Margret received a Golden Globe Award for her performance, and was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. Pete Townshend was also nominated for an Oscar for his work in scoring and adapting the music for the film.
Contents |
[edit] Cast
- Roger Daltrey – Tommy Walker
- Oliver Reed – Frank Hobbs, Tommy's stepfather
- Ann-Margret – Nora Walker Hobbs, Tommy's mother
- Elton John – The Champ
- Eric Clapton – Preacher
- John Entwistle – Himself
- Keith Moon – Uncle Ernie & himself in some parts
- Paul Nicholas – Cousin Kevin
- Jack Nicholson – A. Quackson, mental health specialist
- Robert Powell – Group Captain Thomas Walker
- Pete Townshend – Himself
- Tina Turner – The Acid Queen
- Arthur Brown – The Priest
- Victoria Russell – Sally Simpson
- Ben Aris – Rev. A. Simpson. V.C.
[edit] Plot summary
Much of the story is psychedelic so there may be flaws in the following:
Tommy's father, RAF Group Captain Walker, is away fighting the Germans in World War II. His plane is shot from the air even before Tommy is born. His mother, Nora Walker, receives the news while at work in a munitions factory filling bombs with ball bearings. Mrs. Walker faints and brings boxes of the ball bearings down with her. Mrs. Walker then gives birth to a baby boy, Tommy. Tommy's mother believes her husband is dead for nearly six years. She meets Frank Hobbs at a holiday camp and starts an affair with him.
However, Captain Walker had survived the crash and returns home one night, Tommy follows him to the bedroom where Walker sees Mrs. Walker and Hobbs in hot passion, Hobbs kills Captain Walker by smashing a vase on his head, which is witnessed by the young Tommy. Tommy is then told in a violent manner that he "didn't hear it, didn't see it" and "won't say nothing to no-one," and as a result becomes deaf, mute, and blind. Hobbs and Tommy's mother turn to such characters as the preacher (religion), the Acid Queen (drugs), and doctor (medicine) for cures to Tommy's condition.
Tommy's only stimulus seems to come from a long mirror that he stands and stares into. Led alone into a junkyard at night by a vision of himself, Tommy comes into contact with a device that will change his life forever. A pinball machine scattered among the scrap metal allows Tommy to rise to national prominence and fame. Tommy's pinball prowess transforms him into a cult hero.
Filled with guilt one day, Tommy's mother throws him into the mirror he is staring into, which wakes Tommy into normality once more. He uses his new awareness to try and bring enlightenment to people. He starts giving talks at church and hosting special dinners, Tommy's stepdad exploits him to make more money by starting more church talks and dinners etc.
Tommy eventually sets up his own Holiday Camp for his followers, where he gives them dark glasses, ear plugs and mouth corks to make them temporarily deaf, mute and blind like Tommy and he gets them all to play pinball. However, mercantile exploitation by Tommy's family and the tough and/or unreasonable demands of his cult cause the disciples to revolt against him and abandon him. His mother and stepfather are killed during the riot. Alone and abandoned by everybody, Tommy achieves new enlightenment, this time about other people (previously, he had only been enlightened about himself).
[edit] Changes from album
The film version of Tommy showed a few changes from the original 1969 album. One such change is the date in which the story happened. The movie takes place in the post World War II era as the album takes place in post World War I. For example, in the song "Overture 1921" where on the album the line is, "got a feelin' 21 is gonna be a good year." the movie changes it to "got a feelin' 51 is gonna be a good year"' for the film. This allowed Russell to use more contemporary images for later scenes.
In the album, Captain Walker returns to find his wife with a new lover and proceeds to murder the lover. In the film it is flipped around; the lover kills Captain Walker. This is perhaps (though not necessarily) the cause for a different treatment of the title character. In the film, Tommy's fame as pinball champion is exploited by his mother and Hobbs, who use it to give themselves a much more lavish lifestyle.
Unlike other films of rock operas (such as Pink Floyd's The Wall) the album is never dubbed over the film; the different actors -including Nicholson and Reed, neither of whom were known for their vocal prowess - sing the songs instead of The Who. Because of this, all the songs are rerecorded and some shuffled around. A large number of songs have new lyrics and instrumentation. Notably:
- "The Amazing Journey" has almost completely different lyrics, and the "guide" from the album is shown as being Tommy's murdered father.
- Pinball Wizard has a few extra lyrics. References to pinball are removed from "Christmas".
- Several new songs were written, including "Prologue 1945", "Bernie's Holiday Camp", "Champagne", "Mother and Son", and "T.V. Studio"* "Underture" is not present (however, parts from it can be heard as Tommy is found playing Pinball); Only a few brief segments of "Overture" can be heard.
[edit] Symbolism
The visual part of the film involves many messages. It may be interpreted as containing a kafkaesque commentary on the rich and on the commercial, consumerist side of modern society in general (notably the famous scene with Ann-Margret bathing in the pool of beans). Also, perhaps not surprisingly, Tommy's cult is shown as resembling or imitating existing religions such as Christianity (e.g. its symbol is a "cross" formed by a T-shaped staff and a pinball on top of it) and Eastern religions (e.g. in the scene where Tommy is trying to teach cripples to meditate). The film also makes a large statement about how celebrities are loved almost to the point of being worshipped religiously, as seen in the church during the "Eyesight to the Blind" scene, where the church-goers are obviously worshiping an idol of Marilyn Monroe and not an actual religious figure.
[edit] Trivia
- Tagline: "Your senses will never be the same".
- Eric Clapton's appearance in the film was an expression of thanks to Pete Townshend, who had helped Clapton kick his heroin addiction.
- Rod Stewart was originally chosen to sing Pinball Wizard. Elton John convinced Stewart not to take the role, and then took it for himself. Stevie Wonder was also considered.
- Robert Stigwood, who produced the film with Ken Russell, was Eric Clapton's manager during Clapton's tenure with Cream.
- The original choice for the Acid Queen was David Bowie.
- Premiere engagements of Tommy were presented in 5-channel Quintaphonic Sound. The music and sound effects were played (at near-earsplitting volume) from loudspeaker arrays located in the four corners of the auditorium; vocals emanated from the speakers behind the screen.
- The British TV show Rutland Weekend Television aired a parody skit called Pommy. Pommy was simply about a blind, deaf and dumb boy trying to get out of a Ken Russell film. This parody was one of the two choices Lorne Michaels had to make when he asked Eric Idle if he had any submissions to contribute to his new show, at the time, Saturday Night Live. Michaels chose the latter, which is The Rutles.
- Ken Russell originally wanted Christopher Lee to play the Doctor. But he was in Bangkok, Thailand, filming The Man with the Golden Gun. Jack Nicholson was in London at the time, and he was brought in as a last-minute replacement for Lee. His singing and his film part were filmed and recorded in 18 hours.
- While performing on-stage, Tommy holds the microphone stand without the base as Freddie Mercury did.
- Elton John was supposed to record Pinball Wizard with The Who but got sick of waiting for them so he used his own band.
- The crowd storming the stage was unplanned and they lost drums and stage props.
- Elton John was in a great deal of pain in those boots and fell over at one point.
- The screams from the crowd are lifted from the Beatles "A Hard Day's Night" movie during the concert scene.
- In the US, The Soundtrack album was not released on The Who's US Label MCA. Instead, it was released on their UK Label, Polydor.
- The villian of the Dragon Ball manga & anime, Emperor Pilaf, wears a hat similer to the one Elton John's character wears. Also in the anime, Pilaf uses a giant pinball machine, complete with keyboards.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Tommy at the Internet Movie Database
