"Tommy" the Movie

See me? Feel me? Touch me! Heal me!

What, you mean that it wasn't normal for beautiful women like Ann Margaret to get sprayed in chocolate?

I like it. Ken Russell was a crazed genius.

I was SO excited to see this and was SO freaked out once I did. Everyone was over the top and the music suffered as well. Like the added Champagne song but totally agree about " the plaintive tones of 21 -- destroyed" If they had only kept to the naturalism Russel displayed the birth scene throughout . Below is the Champagne song followed by what could have been a great moment if the actors had been reigned in; Mother Son

Mother and Son

Loved it.

[quote] Nobody can sing.

ExCUSE me?!

[quote]Nobody can sing.

ExCUSE me?!? (Part deux)

Gee OP, after playing over a year in theaters, and grossing $35 million on a $5 million budget in 1975 dollars, being nominated for two Academy Awards, Best Actress in a Leading Role Ann-Margret & Best Music, Scoring Original Song Score and/or Adaptation Pete Townshend, plus winning a Golden Globe- Best Motion Picture Actress Musical/Comedy - Ann-Margret, and nominated for Best Motion Picture - Musical/Comedy, Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture - Male Roger Daltrey, with a Billboard number 2 soundtrack album, imagine the lost opportunity the film could have been your infinite wisdom. Pity.

OP IS RIGHT

I always thought it was a big bag of shit too !!

OP IS WRONG

This was the film that made me realize that Ann-Margaret was a real acting talent. She not only gave a very good performance in an incoherent mess of a film, she did it for a director who clearly more into images than feeling. She held the film together single-handedly, while co-star Roger Daltrey was used as a photogenic object rather than an actor.

She gave the film heart, real feeling, and a story arc. When we finally see her happy and relaxed in the last act, it's startling.

Elton and Tina were fabulous. So were Keith Moon and the cousin Kevin guy.

I also liked the extended Marilyn worship scene with Eric Clapton.

Of course, the last time I saw it, I was 16 and totally stoned.

Tina can sing and act. Poor Elton can sing but that bitch canNOT act worth a damn.

Oliver may not be a great singer, but he was serviceable and brought an amazing quality to that role

And put in your ear plugs Put on your eye shades You know where to put the cork

Ann-Margret writhing in baked beans? What more could you ask?

Was everyone involved on drugs?

I've never seen the movie (I was too young at the time), but listened to the album when I was a kid. The music is pretty good.

I didn't understand why Uncle Ernie sang about fiddling, but there was no fiddle playing on the song.

R20 the movie re-recorded the music. It doesn’t use the album version.

R21 I think he was talking about fiddling with Tommy’s junk.

Beans.

[quote]the movie re-recorded the music. It doesn’t use the album version.

I explicitly said I heard only the album.

Pinball wizard was a huge hit in 1975;

I had the vinyl.

God was Roger Daltry hot in this. It was pretty unusual for a guy to have a ripped body like that back in the 70s. Did he work out or was he just naturally that buff? Russell shamelessly shows off Daltry’s body throughout, thankfully.

I watched it a few weeks ago for the first time: I hate Ken Russell, I hate 1970s psychedelic rock music and I fucking hate musicals but somehow I loved this one. It's just so crazy and over-the-top that it's impossible not to like it...Unless you're the OP of this thread.

That Tina Turner sequence has to be one of the kookiest and most fabulous movie scenes of all time.

He was a sheet-metal worker, r27.

What stuck me was that even though “Tommy” is known for being an outlandish film, the shots and editing were relatively tame, especially on Pinball Wizard, which has a lot of static and downright awkward shots

I wish KR went all-out with crazy camera angles and dolly shots. Visually, “Tommy” is tame in comparison to other musicals like “All That Jazz” and other KR films like “Salome’s Last Dance”.

Maybe this was because most of the budget was spent on securing the music rights and the A-list cast.

[quite]God was Roger Daltry hot in this. It was pretty unusual for a guy to have a ripped body like that back in the 70s.

No, it wasn't. You see life through gay glasses.

[quote] Did he work out or was he just naturally that buff?

He had what used to be called, a good body. No need to go to the gym 8 days a week.

I have only a dim memory of this film except my bitchy friends saying Daltrey had a fish face.

R32 He cast HOT women line Anne Margaret and Tina Turner, while the men were all ugly like fish-face Daltry, the witch Jack Nicholson, and a belligerent leprechaun (Oliver Reed).

It turns out that Ken Russell was not a homosexual.

R33, most of the men in the film were unattractive, but Daltrey was shot lovingly, with lots of closeups that made him look angelic. I don't think Russell was in love with Daltrey or anything, in fact after seeing his movie about Tchaikovsky I'm convinced the man was completely straight. I think all the flattering closeups were meant to cover his deficiencies as an actor.

Whatever, it's Ann-Margaret's movie from beginning to end. It's really an incoherent mess, but she makes it work by giving it depth and feeling.

When I was 13 all my friends went to see this and I missed out. They talked about it intensely for years and I could barely understand what they were saying.

I love this movie, even Jack Nicholson and Oliver Reed's little duet, BUT the last twenty minutes (once Tommy is healed and Roger Daltry goes all solo) sucks.

I hate when the last twenty minutes of an otherwise good movie suck.