Tommy - The Movie*

Both are not only among the best singers/performers in this film, but there performances are "authentic" to the characters they play.

Evan

 

Opinions are like...

 

was curious what the forum had to say about this movie, dug up the thread.

i always liked it. certain sections (the "Amazing Journey" carnival scene in particular) are great visual realizations of the songs.

i'm glad that Tommy was made into a movie, instead of Townshend's Lifehouse concept. can you imagine how that would have turned out? if the Tommy movie is more or less view as a disregarded blip/curiosity in the history of the Who, then a Lifehouse movie would have ruined the band's career.

 

I love Tommy. Pure seventies stuff. It's excessive and tasteless, just like good rock n roll. And Ann Margret is sooo sexy...

 

When hell thaws after the freeze or Warners finally gets off their high horse and releases The Devils uncut, be it Warner Archive or Criterion. Whichever comes first.

As for Tommy, ...

I love The Who and I adore Ken Russell; Altered States, The Lair of the White Worm, The Boy Friend and especially Lisztomania. Put 'em together and...wow!

The quintaphonic soundtrack is slathered in synthesizers, Jack Nicholson manages to be a better singer than Oliver Reed, I've come close to puking a few times during "Champagne" (because of the chocolate, not the baked beans), the close-up on Tina Turner's twitching face during "Acid Queen" has given me nightmares and you know this is going to be a rough ride comes from Keith Moon playing a pedophile.

In other words, job well done, Mr. Russell.

May the enfant terrible of British cinema rest in peace.

 

I thought it was a great visual film! the Listening To You - See Me, Feel Me - Tommy part looks incredible and a great performance from Roger ! I often wonder how badly cut his feet were cut from the climbing ! Cousin Kevin is a great video ! The scary Acid queen should put people off drugs which is a good thing! I feel the movie tells the story of Tommy very well and keeps The Who music and takes it to another level . the version of Sally Simpson is the best one ! Ken Russell did an incredible job ! if you don't get something out of it all then I feel sorry for you indeed !

 

I have tried to watch it a couple times but never made it even half way through

 

Love The Who but this is a lousy movie. The Who and Ken Russell....two great tastes that don't go great together.

 

I thought it was pretty cool when I was 17 in 1975;
I recently re-watched it and ....ugh. what was I thinking?

 

I bought the soundtrack LP for Elton's Pinball Wizard back in 1975, and that was my introduction to the Who. I thought it was the greatest thing in the world, at least until a few weeks later when I finally bought the Who LP!

Finally saw the film around 1979, it was fun but I wasn't very impressed, and still don't think I've sat through the whole thing since. It's fun to catch a few minutes here and there on cable though.

Am I misremembering, or was the film a different mix than the soundtrack LP? Aren't the vocals louder in the film?

 

Bought the film on DVD years ago. I love the Quintaphonic Soundtrack. I love it, it's got the wildest ping-pong surround sound panning you'll ever hear in a film. I would have been great to hear in a cinema back in the 70's with a crowd.

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From Wikipedia:

Quintaphonic Sound

The original release of Tommy used a sound system devised by sound engineer John Mosely called "Quintaphonic Sound".[14] At the time that the film was in production various "Quadraphonic" (four speaker) sound systems were being marketed to the domestic HiFimarket. Some of these were so-called "matrix" systems which combined the four original channels into two which could be recorded on, or transmitted by, existing two-channel stereo systems such as LP records or FM radio. John Mosely used one of these systems (QS from Sansui) to record front left, front right, back left and back right channels on the left and right tracks of a four-track magnetic striped print of the Cinemascope type. A discrete center channel was also recorded on the center track of the print. The fourth (surround) track on the striped print was left unused. In addition John Mosely used DBX noise reduction on the magnetic tracks.

Unlike the usual multiple small surround speakers used in cinemas, the Quintaphonic system specified just two rear speakers, but of the same type as those used at the front.

One problem that arose was that by the 1970s the four-track magnetic sound system was largely moribund. Only a few theatres were equipped with the necessary magnetic playback heads etc. and of those that did in many cases it was not in working order. So in addition to installing the extra electronics and rear speakers John Mosely and his team had to repair and align the basic magnetic playback equipment. So each theatre that showed Tommy using the Quintaphonic system had to be specially prepared to take the film. In this respect there is a similarity between Tommy and Walt Disney's Fantasia, for which a special sound system (Fantasound) had been devised and required each theatre that showed it in the original release to be specially prepared. Also, like Fantasound, Quintaphonic Sound was never used again.

Tommy was later released with mono, conventional four-track magnetic and Dolby Stereo soundtracks.

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An advert from Hoyts Cinemas in Melbourne, Australia (1975).

 

Ann-Margret!

 

Tina Turner did a great job singing Acid Queen.

 

If you like Ken Russell's style, you'll probably like this movie. If you don't, you probably won't. I saw it in the theatre and can't for the life of me remember what Keith Moon did during the ten seconds or so that the screen now goes black for that warrants the censorship. I was 13 when I saw it and don't recall anything in the Uncle Ernie scene freaking me out. I still find it an entertaining watch once a decade or so.

 

Not very good ,and the soundtrack doesn't save it

 

Most of the songs are mixed drastically differently in the film than they are on the LP. Unfortunately for me, the mixes on the LP are usually inferior with only few exceptions. But now that we have fairly decent sounding DVD and blu-ray releases of the film, I can't just revisit that when I want to hear the music rather than just listening to the LP.

I am a huge fan of this movie, because I love The Who and the music. I'm one of those very rare guys who prefers the versions in this film to the original 1969 album. But though I've always enjoyed it, I didn't fully appreciate it until I heard Ken Russell's commentary which pointed out what should have been obvious to me all along, that he used the story to comment on the worshiping of false prophets.

For me, even with all the weird visuals and creepy Uncle Ernie scene, it's a powerful film.