![]() ![]() His image and fame are exploited by Frank (Reed has a couple of songs, and hits no recognizable note in any of them), a veritable Mama Kardashian of his day, as Tommy’s Mom suffers, clings to her boy and spirals into addiction. Tommy’s (Who lead singer Daltrey) walled-off-from-the-world soul finds his one means of expression, pinball in that pre-video game era. Russell cast Eric Clapton - of the “Clapton is God” graffiti of the day (late ’60s, when Townsend composed the two-LP opera) - as The Preacher, guitar slinging leader of the Cult of Celebrity (Marilyn Monroe, specifically). So much of the rest of the movie is already allegorical, most prophetically The Preacher. ![]() Tommy could still be rendered “deaf, dumb and blind” by the double trauma without a literal murder. I mean we’ve seen the plane go down, seen no warning that he’s been alive but badly-burned for years and years, Tommy sees him in his sleep then stumbles across him being “killed” by Frank (Reed) and Mum? Metaphor. The precipitating incident, for instance, young Tommy’s WWII bomb pilot dad’s “death” at the hands of his mother ( Ann-Margret, all-in) and Mom’s replacement (Oliver Reed) for five-years-dead Dad ( Robert Powell), works better as a metaphor than a literal murder. The “story” is murky enough to allow for interpretations that don’t match creator Pete Townsend’s intent. Elton John as The Pinball Wizard, the second, third or fourth choice for the role (depending on who you read) that produced the movie’s hit single is so confined by the platform boots/stilts of his costume that he becomes a still-life. Tina Turner‘s “Acid Queen” pulls out all the stops, and then some - WAY over the top. The highlights for young film/Who/rock fans way back when, clinging to the familiar in an obscure, allegorical and trippy musicals, aren’t the treat they were in 1975. The “rock opera” that surrounds it? It’s as lurid, weird, dated and prophetic as the day it came out. Only Ken Russell (“The Music Lovers,” “Altered States,” “Lair of the White Worm”) could pull off that coup. The unalloyed delight in dropping into “Tommy” 45 years after it cinemas is hearing and seeing Jack Nicholson sing (respectably on key) and vamp his way through “Go to the Mirror!” ![]()
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