Amazon.com video review:
If you've ever wanted to hear Jack Nicholson sing (or try to) or marvel
at the sight of Ann-Margret drunkenly cavorting in a cascade of baked
beans, Tommy is the movie you've been waiting for. As it turns
out, the Who's brilliant rock opera is sublimely matched to director Ken
Russell's penchant for cinematic excess, and this 1975 production finds
Russell at the peak of his filmmaking audacity. It's a fever-dream of
musical bombast, custom-fit to the thematic ambition of Pete Townshend's
epic rock drama, revolving around the titular "deaf, dumb, and blind kid"
(played by Who vocalist Roger Daltrey) who survives the childhood
trauma that stole his senses to become a Pinball Wizard messiah in
Townshend's grandiose attack on the hypocrisy of organized religion.
The story is remarkably coherent considering the hypnotic dream-state
induced by Russell's visuals. Tommy's odyssey is rendered through
wall-to-wall music, each song representing a pivotal chapter in Tommy's
chronology, from the bloodstream shock of "The Acid Queen" (performed to
the hilt by Tina Turner) to Nicholson's turn as a well-intentioned
physician, Elton John's towering rendition of "Pinball Wizard," and
Daltrey's epiphanous rendition of "I'm Free." Other performers include
Eric Clapton and (most outrageously) the Who's drummer Keith Moon, and
through it all Russell is almost religiously faithful to Townshend's
artistic vision. Although it divided critics when first released,
Tommy now looks likes a minor classic of gonzo cinema, worthy of
the musical genius that fueled its creation. --Jeff Shannon
