1975: Tommy (28th)

What else happened this year? Far out, I don't really know - was this the OPEC crisis? [No that was 1973 - There was Vietnam stuff and a lot of countries declaring independence, it seems].

What is the plot - in one sentence? Tommy is a boy struck deaf dumb and blind as a child, and his skills at pinball, as well as his miraculous recovery, lead to him becoming a leader of a cult.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? It was psychosomatic all along? Fuck knows, even by the standards of a rock opera, this was pretty enigmatic, but at the end Tommy has started a cult, finished a cult and ends up on the same hillside that he was seemingly conceived at.

What is the meaning of the title? Tommy is the kid and star of the show.

These new computer screensavers are getting really trippy.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? This is a very of-its-era movie. It's a rock opera by the Who, directed by Ken Russel, in the 1970s, so it's so over the top it's untrue.

There's a scene with a Frankenstein-themed child wedding, there's a molestation by Keith Moon, and, showing its age, Eric Clapton is there, and he's a dick. But, it was the 1970s, so, you know...

Any thoughts? This is a musical version of The Who's Tommy Rock opera. This was also nuts, and the plot, such as it was, was full of Rock Opera logic. This was a near constant stream of insane images and scenes: huge Butlins-style group exercise movies with a cast of hundreds, Eric Clapton as a guitarist-monk for a Marylin Monroe statue cult, Roger Daltrey running around without a shirt on. It is insane, highly choreographed nonsense, but I enjoyed it a lot.

The Who all make appearances - Daltry plays a deaf dumb and blind kid well, but a lot of that involves starting into space with a gormless manner. He comes around later, and his 'acting' improves. Keith Moon appears as a child molester, and Townsend and Entwistle are gatekeepers for Eric Clapton's church. They do... fine, but they're not the stars of the show.

The non-Who cast give it a better shake, Ann-Marie plays Tommy's attractive mother, who manages at one stage to make 'being covered in baked beans' alluring. Oliver Reed is a British holiday camp Greencoat who becomes Tommy's Step-dad. Despite being Oliver Reed, and despite killing the father when he returns from WWII, he's a positive character in the movie - which is a huge surprise. He inspires Tommy to start the cult, protects him from a molestation, helps him get laid, and fights to the death protecting his son. Sure. there are asterisks there, but I was just assuming that he'd be the villain. 

  Jack Nicholson appears as a horny doctor, and Elton John and Tina Turner arrive for parts and songs too. That Elton John is a professional pinball player on 10foot tall platform shoes is something amazing. It's also possible to look past the allegories in the plot - the critiques of masculinity, commercialism, religion and fervour, and the commercialism of religion - and just enjoy it for the imagery and madness. I note that this is something you would say to a baby watching TV, but I stand by it.

Would you recommend this? The most excessive movie by most excessive director, in probably the most excessive decade in cinema. This was mental.

I'd recommend it just for how over the top it was, but... I was disappointed that the music wasn't all that great. The who have some great songs, but very few of them were here.=, Pinball Wizard being the most famous of them,by a long way. It does include a great final scene though, with Daltrey running past a burning pavillion, climbing a mountain barefoot, and singing a catchy anthem. It's worth watching for that alone. This is really something.

Final thoughts? Daltrey spends half the movie 'disabled' and then miraculously stops when he sees himself in a mirror. It was psychosomatic? Probably, it's never addressed. However, after this he makes up for it, casting off his shirt and running, swimming, climbing mountains, running over a green-screen vision of volcanoes. Fair play to him then. Now? Not so much. 

 More of this can be found right here.