lasttimeisaw Ken Russell's faithful transposition of Peter Townshend's rock opera, which stems from THE WHO's 1969 titular 2 LP album. TOMMY, stars THE WHO's frontman Roger Daltrey as the incarnation of the adult hero, is Russell's coup de maître in regard to his visual abandon and ethos emancipation. The narrative is constituent of miscellaneous episodes recounting the checkered story of Tommy in a chronological order, each goes hand in hand with a song from the album. The tale starts in 1945, a romantic honeymoon of newly-weds Nora (Ann-Margaret) and Captain Walker (Powell), the parents of Tommy. But captain soon will be declared missing-in-action in the fizzling war (but materializing in a twist and a recurring motif). Tommy is born as a normal child, but a traumatic incident will render him blind, deaf and dumb, to the despair of Nora and his stepfather Frank (Reed, conspiratorially lubricious). After a series of antic snippets where name stars lend their cameos, from Eric Clapton's absurd Marilyn Monroe worshiped cult, to Tina Turner's fantastically operatic turn as the Acid Queen, who turns herself into a syringe-riddled machine trying to bring Tommy out of his catalepsy (the metaphor here is obviously two-fold, along with directer Russell's talisman, snakes). Before soon, Tommy is called upon by his mirror-self and finds his forte, the pinball machine, something would have become nearly obsolete four decades later, and defeats the pinball wizard (Elton John) to gain worldly fame (how ironic is that? A blind pinball genius!). A come-hither Jack Nicholson also timely crops up as a specialist, almost hijacks the film (and Nora as well) into a different route. Tommy's life orbit reaches another catharsis when he finally sloughs off all the physical barriers and starts to see, speak and feel the world around him, and becomes a self-proclaimed Messiah to indoctrinate spiritual purity in a world assailed by a shortfall of faith, but eventually (after a digression of an avid teenager follower Sally Thompson, played by Russell's own daughter Victoria), his noble calling reaches an anticlimactic drawback, after convening all his disciples to a Tommy's Holiday Camp, the mob proves to be too fickle to please, riot arises, parents murdered, premises combusted, a bereft Tommy escapes and finally fetches up at the place where his parents ignite their affection in the beginning of the movie.Tommy, his loftiness, his numen, is too good for the self-seeking, ungrateful, and insidious mankind, this is what Russell tries to hammer home to his stunned audience, executed with his trademark lavish, chromatically lurid modality, the resultant movie is a grand spectacle to knock dead fans and non-fans alike, plus Ann-Margaret delivers one of her best performances here, so deeply invested in a role conceptually much confined to the platitude of a distressed mother, she even goes doolally to express a tangibly affecting intensity within Russell's majestic close-ups and set pieces.

pedro-alceu Tommy is an masterpiece way ahead of its time. The movie tells the story of Tommy, a boy that gets a trauma when his father gets killed by his stepfather and mother, followed by them telling Tommy:"You didn't see it, you didn't hear it, no word of it for anyone in life" multiple times. That made him act like he is deaf, blind and dumb for his whole life, suffering and suffering throughout the whole movie. It's a movie that you need to have your mind open to enjoy. Also keep your mind ready to understand the hundreds of messages and symbols in the movie, or else you won't find it that genius. The movie does psychological analysis on the character of tommy, quotes the story of Jesus, with great charismatic characters that are represented by great actors, followed by the sublime The who discography. Without dialog, only music. If you're the kind of person that likes to think, and also likes rock, this may be your favorite movie, although, that's not a movie for everyone, if you're used to movies that are easier to digest that don't require too much reflection to justify what you've just seen, you may find this movie just creepy and bizarre, as most of the scenes in the movie require some thought to make sense, like the scene where Tommy is tossed to the mirror. I simply loved it, each second of it and every thing in it has an utility for the story, be it to symbolize something(Like the recurring metallic sphere in the movie) or to just make something clear for the audience. The movie almost never gives answers to you right away, if you question what you've seen, search through your own mind to find the answer. The only thing i know that gives me the same feeling of watching Tommy, also providing psychological analysis of the character and symbolism is Neon Genesis Evangelion, although Tommy doesn't give you ANYTHING mainstream, it's all different and strange in the movie. For rock and thinking lovers, this movie is a must watch, if you are new to both subjects, you should watch it too, the best rock opera of all time.

Azlan Lewis Though I grew up in the 1970's I was not raised on the music of "The Who" but "The Beatles" as I had a brother 6 years older then I.I had heard of "Tommy (boy)" as a musical on Broadway. I had no idea it had been a film made almost 20 years before. If I had seen this before a Broadway Musical was proposed I wouldn't have let them make it.29 years later I found this one early morning on The Antenna TV network. What a horrible film. Yes this was a rock opera. A bad one that should never have been made.It is very easy to figure out what is happening as no words are spoken at all until the "Lovely Legs" competition. However it with bad music you figure out two people are falling in love, you have to guess they marry or are married to begin with never really sure. This was about 15 minutes into movie. Then the character breaks into a song of course this is a rock opera after all.I say this movie is overall bad and not watchable unless you are a fan of "The Who". The music is grating and annoying.

moogyboy My introduction to the "Tommy" franchise was the soundtrack LP. I've been into classic '60s and '70s rock ever since I was a tot, thanks to my older brothers' record collections, and was already very familiar with The Who when I discovered the soundtrack to the present movie (noting that it was an anomaly being on the Polydor label, me associating the band with Decca and MCA...that's the kind of young music geek I was). The songs definitely had a storybook-like quality reminiscent of the Disneyland LPs I had, but even then I thought the over-the-top synthesizer arrangements were a little too melodramatic for my tastes. Years later I got my hands on an original copy of The Who's 1969 original version, and was shocked by how low key, stripped down, and slowed down the songs were--and also how sketchy the story was as presented on the original LP, if you could even call it a story. Some of the songs worked better on the original, some better on the soundtrack. It was interesting.But in all those years I never watched the movie until just tonight, on YouTube. For the first time, the soundtrack actually makes sense. I realized that the movie wasn't nearly as serious as some of the music suggested when played out of context--I was shocked by the outrageous black humor in the first half of the movie. Take Tommy's ordeal at the hands of his grinning Cousin Kevin. Years of listening to the record had conditioned me to expect it played straight. There is some pathos in there at seeing poor Tommy stumbling over helplessly when getting sprayed with the hose, but then it's balanced by the intentionally ridiculous gag of Kevin literally ironing the dripping Tommy dry (spitting on the iron for emphasis). Visually it's a tour de force, that's for sure. Ken Russell, the notoriously over-the-top director, loads on the razzle dazzle, quick cut and dramatically lit, and with lots of pre-CGI optical effects thrown in for good measure. Some quite beautiful photography in there. And in places, when it's not trying to be satirical or campy, quite powerful dramatically. Captain Walker's presumed death in the war, for instance, or the messianic closing shot.It's blessed by an amazing cast, headed up by the surprisingly capable Roger Daltrey in the title role. It's easy to see here why he was one of the most charismatic pop stars of the '70s, and he's no slouch as an actor either. While I admit it's kind of fun to see this macho rock god getting manhandled by various people, it's also impressive how physically agile he is (blasting through the water with an Olympic-style butterfly stroke, for example, or doing cartwheels down the beach). The other real star of the movie is Ann-Margret playing his mother (despite being only four years older than him), a sultry sexpot with a hell of a voice. One can't take one's eyes off her, there's a reason she was such a immense star back in the day. Oliver Reed's "Uncle" Frank is such a lout that his tone-deaf Cockney bellowing fits the role in a way a polished singer-actor could never do. Jack Nicholson shows up in a minor one-scene role as a doctor; many have commented on his singing ability or lack thereof, I think he gives his song an appropriately genteel treatment, even if he totally ignores the original version's melody. As everyone knows, several rock personalities make appearances in one song apiece. Tina Turner makes the biggest impression imo as the unhinged Acid Queen, while Eric Clapton sleepwalks through his big movie debut like a coat rack with a Les Paul hanging from it. Elton John, however, given the film's show-stopping number, unfortunately comes off as something of a schlemiel, pathetic, petulant pointing his finger and pouting. I really expected him to be this cocky smug baddie, a real menace for Tommy to overcome. Instead I felt pity for the Local Lad--he just kinda stands there at a distance complaining while Tommy plays pinball. What a letdown! Of course I must mention Keith Moon's gleefully insane Uncle Ernie, and Paul Nicholas's Cousin Kevin as among the more successful character bits played by rock stars. There isn't really a bum performance among all the other minor players.I could go on and discuss the deeper emotional and spiritual meaning of the movie, but since it's late here I'll just close by pointing out what I mentioned in my summary. It took making a movie out of "Tommy" to force Pete Townshend to flesh out his half-baked (but musically wonderful) concept into an actual story. The expanded music may not be to everyone's liking, but the story is complete, and as presented here it is a compelling one, and relentlessly entertaining. See it.