Tommy (1975 film)

Tommy was written in 1968 and recorded by the Who in 1969.[9] Three years later a version of the opera was recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra. The two albums sold ten million copies between them.[10]

Film rights were bought by Robert Stigwood who secured finance from Columbia. Beryl Vertue of the Stigwood Organisation was executive producer. Stigwood also arranged for Ken Russell to direct.[11]

Russell admitted he did not like the music - he disliked rock music in general - but he loved the theme of the film, being about a messiah.[12]

According to Russell, several scripts had been written by the time he came on the project. He later wrote "some were well written, some were not, but they all had one thing in common - a big negative. They were not about a deaf dumb and blind boy's spiritual journey from darkness to light."[13]

Russell did up his own treatment of the story as he saw it. He said "This in no way deviated from his [Townshend's] original but plugged in the gaps where I found the story obscure or just non existent."[13] Russell said Townshend liked most of his suggestions and wrote new material.

Russell and Townshend worked on the film together for a year.[3][14] Russell had been working on a script called The Angels which was to star Mia Farrow about a pop star called Poppy Day who becomes a messianic figure, and reworked some of that script's sequences for Tommy. He also used scenes from another unfilmed script of his, Music Music Music about a composer who writes music for TV commercials (this turned into what became known as the "baked beans" scene with Ann Margret).[15] Russell made several changes to the story:

• In the original story, Tommy's father returns and murders the lover. In the film, the father is the murder victim.
• Both Tommy's mother and lover are complicit in the murder.[10]
• The story's setting is shifted forward, so that the finale takes place in the early 1970s (present-day when the film was released). The song "1921" is changed to "1951" to accommodate this.

It was announced that Roger Daltrey would play Tommy and Keith Moon would play Uncle Ernie. Various rumours spread over who would play other cast members with names such as David Bowie, Elton John, Barbra Streisand and Mick Jagger being mentioned.[16]

Daltrey was cast at Russell's specific request, over the wishes of Daltrey's own management.[17]

In December it was announced Ann-Margret would play Tommy's mother.[18] Ann-Margret was cast because, according to Russell, "I needed a superb singer."[3]

Jagger was reportedly offered the role of The Acid Queen but insisted on singing three of his own songs so the role was given to Tina Turner.[19]

Jack Nicholson agreed to play a small role because "Russell's films intrigue me, some I like very much, some I don't like at all, and I want to find out what makes them tick."[20]

Russell says Pete Townshend wanted Tiny Tim to play Pinball Wizard but Stigwood overruled him.[21] Elton John initially turned down the role of the Pinball Wizard and among those considered to replace him was David Essex, who recorded a test audio version of the "Pinball Wizard" song. However, producer Robert Stigwood held out until John agreed to take the part, reportedly on condition that he could keep the gigantic Dr. Martens boots he wore in the scene.[22]

Filming started April 1974 and took place over twelve weeks.

In his commentary for the 2004 DVD release of the film, Ken Russell stated that the opening and closing outdoor scenes were shot in the Borrowdale valley of the English Lake District, near his own home, the same area that he had used to double for rural Austria and Bohemia in his earlier film Mahler, in which Robert Powell had starred.

Much of the film was shot on locations around Portsmouth, including the scene near the end of the film featuring the giant 'pinballs', which were, in fact, obsolete buoys found in a British Navy yard, which were simply sprayed silver and filmed in situ. The Bernie's Holiday Camp ballroom sequence was shot inside the Gaiety Theatre on South Parade Pier. Exterior shots were filmed at Hilsea Lido[23] (Russell had worked there before making The Boy Friend).[24]

The Sally Simpson interior sequence was filmed in the Wesley Hall in Fratton Road, Portsmouth. The exterior intro sequence to the scene, however, shows Sally Simpson buying a badge and entering South Parade Pier.

On 11 June 1974, the pier caught fire and was badly damaged while the production was filming there. According to Russell, the fire started during the filming of the scene of Ann-Margret and Oliver Reed dancing together during the "Bernie's Holiday Camp" sequence; smoke from the fire can be seen drifting in front of the camera in several shots. Russell also used a brief exterior shot of the building fully ablaze during the scenes of the destruction of Tommy's Holiday Camp by his disillusioned followers.[22][25]

The Pinball Wizard sequence was shot at the Kings Theatre in Southsea and the two pinball machines used were a 1965 Kings & Queens by Gottlieb—used by Roger Daltrey—and a Gottlieb Buckaroo also from 1965, used by Elton John. The machines' scoring displays were modified from their originals for the scene, to accommodate for large scores.[26] Others on Portsdown Hill, which overlooks Portsmouth and local churches were used. All Saints in Commercial Road was used for the Sally Simpson wedding scene, whilst the meeting in the same sequence was filmed at the Wesley Hall in Fratton Road. The Eyesight to the Blind sequence was filmed at St Andrews Church in Henderson Road in Southsea. The other church featured was Warblington Church near Havant in Hampshire.

The famous scene in which Ann-Margret's character hallucinates that she is cavorting in detergent foam, baked beans, and chocolate reportedly took three days to shoot. According to Russell, the detergent and baked bean sequences were "revenge" parodies of real-life TV advertisements he had directed early in his career, although the baked bean sequence also references one of the cover photos and a parody radio ad from The Who's 1967 album The Who Sell Out. Russell also recalled that Ann-Margret's husband, Roger Smith, strongly objected to the scene in which she slithers around in melted chocolate.

During the filming, Ann-Margret accidentally struck her hand on the broken glass of the TV screen, causing a severe laceration, and Russell had to take her to hospital to have the wound stitched, although she was back on set the next day.[22] The film also includes a scene in which Mrs. Walker watches a parodic TV advertisement for the fictional product "Rex Baked Beans"; the costumes in this segment were originally made for the lavish masked ball sequence in Richard Lester's version of The Three Musketeers, and the dress worn by the Queen in the Rex ad is that worn by Geraldine Chaplin in the earlier film.[27]

Russell recalled that Townshend initially balked at Russell's wish to have The Who performing behind Elton in the sequence (they did not perform the audio here), and also objected to wearing the pound-note suits, which were in fact stitched together from novelty pound-note tea-towels.[22]

On The Who's involvement with the film, members Daltrey played the title character; Moon played, in essence, a dual role as both Uncle Ernie and as himself along with Entwistle and Townshend miming on their respective instruments in the "Eyesight to the Blind" and "Pinball Wizard" segments.

About his role as the Specialist, Jack Nicholson stated: "In my whole career there was only one time when a director said to me, 'OK, come right down the pike and just look beautiful, Jack.' That was Ken Russell on Tommy."[28]

Filming finished in September 1974. Russell then edited the film and supervised the recording of the soundtrack.[29]

When it was done Russell said "I think it's probably the one thing I've ever done that satisfies me aesthetically. The fact that it's a rock opera as well is a tremendous bonus because people will come see it."[12]

The film was a box office hit. By August 1975, it had earned US$27 million (equivalent to $128 million in 2019) in the US alone.[30]

The film made over US$1 million (equivalent to $5 million in 2019) in France.[31]

Russell later called it "the most commercial film I've ever made".[21]

The film currently holds a 70% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 33 reviews, with an average grade of 6.75 out of 10. The critical consensus reads:

"Tommy is as erratic and propulsive as a game of pinball, incorporating The Who's songs into an irreverent odyssey with the visual imagination that only director Ken Russell can conjure."[32]

Vincent Canby of The New York Times declared:

"It may be the most overproduced movie ever made, but there is wit and reason for this. It is the last word in pop art ... Everything, including the sound level, is too much. But even this works in an odd way. The victim of the movie is as much the person sitting in the audience as it is Tommy."[33]

Variety called the film "spectacular in every way":

"The production is magnificent, the multitrack sound (tradenamed Quintophonic) terrific, the casting and acting great, and the name cameos most showmanly."[34]

Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, and praised Ann-Margret as being "simply great as Tommy's mother". He called the pinball tournament sequence: "...the movie's best single scene: a pulsating, orgiastic turn-on edited with the precision of a machine gun burst."[35] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune awarded two-and-a-half stars out of four, calling the film: "...a disappointing, slap-dash pictorialization of the fine music of The Who [with] no cinematic flow."[36]

Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called the film: "...an overwhelming, thunderous, almost continuously astonishing achievement, coherent and consistent from first frames to last."[37] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote that the music of the original album: "...had a certain obscure dignity and integrity, and these qualities don't withstand the Russell treatment. On record' Tommy' seemed a bit mysterious. On screen it's just banal."[38] Jonathan Rosenbaum of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "...even at its most lacklustre and tasteless junctures, Tommy is never boring, and always full of energy; and given the very loose framework and imprecise plot that Russell has to work with, this is no small achievement."[39]

Perry Seibert of AllMovie gave the film four stars out of five and described it as: "...continuously watchable, but the film version of Tommy sacrifices the fragile emotional core of Pete Townshend's work for grandiose spectacle."[40]

Rapper and Wu-Tang Clan member Ol' Dirty Bastard said of the film:

"Tommy was a great film. A blind, deaf kid who could play pinball. What a very great idea."[41]

• The film opens with a new instrumental, "Prologue – 1945" (partly based on the 1969 "Overture"), which accompanies the opening sequences of Captain Walker's romance and disappearance.
• "It's A Boy" is separated from "Overture" and becomes the medley "Captain Walker/It's A Boy"; in the film this medley narrates the aftermath of Walker's disappearance, the end of the war and the birth of Tommy.
• A new song, "Bernie's Holiday Camp", which follows "Captain Walker/It's A Boy", portrays Tommy's childhood and his mother's romance with Hobbs (Oliver Reed). The song also features the melody from, and even foreshadows, "Tommy's Holiday Camp".
• The story's setting is updated so that the action goes through modern times (modern as of the 1970s). From this, the track "1921" from the album is changed to "1951" and is made a medley, being titled "What About the Boy?" on the soundtrack, in which Capt. Walker dies instead of the lover (Frank, in this context).
• "The Amazing Journey" (shortened to three minutes) has almost completely different lyrics, and the "guide" from the album is depicted as Tommy's dead father, rather than the "tall stranger" in a "sparked, glittering gown" from the album. A new introduction is also added in lieu of the "Deaf, dumb, and blind boy; he's in a quiet vibration land..." from the album. The movie version also ends with different fantastic lyrics, going "His eyes are the eyes that transmit all he knows, The truth burns so bright it can melt winter snows. A towering shadow, so black and so high, A white sun burning the earth and the sky.".
• The running order of "Christmas" and "Eyesight to the Blind" is reversed; references to pinball are removed from "Christmas" and the character of The Hawker becomes The Preacher (Clapton), leader of the Marilyn Monroe cult. Arthur Brown is cast as the character The Priest in the film, and sings a verse in the song but is not featured on the soundtrack. According to Russell's DVD audio commentary, the concept of people literally worshipping celebrities (in this case Marilyn Monroe) and several other elements in the film were adapted from his pre-existing treatment for a film about false religions, which he had developed prior to Tommy but for which he had never been able to secure financial backing.
• The running order of "The Acid Queen" and "Cousin Kevin" is reversed.
• "Underture" is removed but parts from it have been re-arranged as "Sparks".
• "The Acid Queen", "Cousin Kevin", "Fiddle About", and "Sparks", linked by three renditions of "Do You Think It's Alright?", form an extended sequence depicting Tommy's inner journey and his trials.
• A three-minute version of the "Sparks" theme (with, then new, synthesizer orchestration) precedes "Extra, Extra, Extra" and "Pinball Wizard". In the film, it is used behind the sequence of the dazed Tommy wandering into a junkyard and discovering a pinball machine. The music on the film soundtrack (for this and many other songs) is heavily edited, however, and is a noticeably different mix from the version on the soundtrack album.
• A new linking theme, "Extra, Extra, Extra", narrates Tommy's rise to fame and introduces the battle with the pinball champ. It is set to the tune of "Miracle Cure" and precedes "Pinball Wizard".
• "Pinball Wizard" has extra lyrics and movements. It features guitar and keyboard solos (the guitars are only readily discernible on the soundtrack album), and an outro with a riff reminiscent of the Who's first single, "I Can't Explain".
• A new song, "Champagne", which follows "Pinball Wizard", covers the sequence of Tommy's stardom and wealth and his parents' greed. Like many other songs, it features Tommy singing "See Me, Feel Me" interludes: this is the first song with Daltrey singing for Tommy. In the film (but not on the soundtrack), the song is introduced by a mock TV commercial—reminiscent of the Who's early years when they made jingles.
• "Go to the Mirror" is shortened, not featuring the elements of "Listening To You", nor the phrase "Go to the mirror, boy."
• "I'm Free" is moved earlier, and now follows "Smash The Mirror!" (as was done on the 1972 symphonic album); it covers the lavish psychedelic sequence depicting Tommy's reawakening.
• "I'm Free" is followed by a new song, "Mother and Son", which depicts Tommy's rejection of materialism and his vision for a new faith based around pinball.
• "Sensation", featuring extra lyrics, is moved forward and covers the spread of Tommy's new religion. In the film it occurs between "Sally Simpson" and "Welcome". (On the soundtrack album, it occurs between "Mother and Son" and "Miracle Cure"—with the extra [narration] lyrics and guitar solo included on the cassette and CD versions, but not the LP version.)
• "Sally Simpson" is re-arranged with a Bo Diddley beat and in the film is preceded by "Miracle Cure"—which features an extra verse.
• In "Sally Simpson", the album version mentions her father's Rolls-Royce as blue, but the film changes the lyrics to black (the Rolls-Royce in the film is also black).
• In "Sally Simpson", the album version describes Tommy giving a lesson. In the film, Tommy gives a lesson, and the lyrics are changed to the words of the lesson.
• In the album version of "Sally Simpson", the title character jumps on the stage and brushes Tommy's cheek, but in the movie she is kicked off the stage before she can get close to Tommy.
• A new linking piece, "T.V. Studio", is used between "Welcome" and "Tommy's Holiday Camp".
• The 1969 album's closing track "We're Not Gonna Take It" is split into two pieces, "We're Not Gonna Take It" and medley "See Me Feel Me/Listening To You";[8] this covers the climactic film sequences of Tommy's fall from grace and his final redemption and opens with an extra chorus sung by the crowd ("These pricey deals don't teach us...").
• The CD reissue of the soundtrack album opens with a newer, previously unreleased version of "Overture From Tommy", which was not included either in the film or on the original soundtrack LP. Although the track is listed in the CD's song credits as being performed by The Who, it is actually a Pete Townshend solo number with him playing all the instruments (as with "Prologue – 1945" and other tracks) – neither John Entwistle or Keith Moon appears on it, as they do on all other selections on the soundtrack credited to "The Who," regardless of whether Roger Daltrey performs as vocalist.