The Who weren't known for making subtle music, and Ken Russell makes anything but subtle movies. Put the two together to tell the story of a very underprivileged child, who one day emerges as a self-proclaimed messiah trying to preach an impossible message, only to be ruthlessly exploited and viciously attacked, before finally crawling from his tomb and ascending to the celestial realm, his job done, and you've got an extravaganza of sound and cinema just waiting to explode on your screen.
So why does it not work very well?
As far as I can see, they simply try to cram too much into it. As if the religious theme isn't enough, it touches on many of the problems starting to tear secular society apart in the early 1970s drugs, drunkenness, child abuse, pornography gambling, gang violence, dishonesty, etc, all played out against a kaleidoscopic backdrop of churches, scrap heaps, tatty holiday camps and beautiful Lake District mountains.
Despite an admiration for the central message of hope and spiritual purity, there is deep criticism of the abuses inflicted by organised religious groups this movie abounds with false prophets and money-making evangelism.
It's also, in vintage Russell style, garish, unnecessarily lurid, and filled with pretentious, surreal imagery, and though Pete Townshend's soundtrack contains one or two classics PINBALL WIZARD and I'M FREE, to name but two much of it is forced and rather shrill (and is way too long many purely musical moments could have been cut in half or removed altogether).
Performance-wise, Ann-Margret is by far the best thing in it. She sings and dances the house down as Tommy's sultry mother, remaining lithe and curvaceous through various incarnations, from homely '50s housewife, to '60s tart, to '70s glam queen, finally dying stripped of all adornments on her own cross a broken pinball machine. As the other 'thief', Oliver Reed a Russell regular can't sing for toffee, yet succeeds in evoking some sympathy for a character who in lesser hands would simply be a brutish villain. That leaves Roger Daltrey as the other main lead, the titular Tommy, and there's not a lot he can do, being deaf, dumb and blind for at least half the film, and for the rest doing what he normally did as lead-singer of a rock band, which is entertain massive crowds with grandiose and overblown songs. However, his first appearance jars the film badly; even for a Ken Russell movie, it's asking too much of the audience to accept Tommy's sudden transformation from World War Two runt, complete with a tank top and short back and sides, to a tanned, muscular hippie with bleached blonde hair and pearly-white teeth.
In terms of secondary characters, it's a mixed bag. Elton John gives an ordinary and overrated performance as the Pinball Wizard (his version of the song is, in truth, nowhere near as good as The Who's own), Eric Clapton lacks any charisma as a charlatan preacher and Jack Nicholson is completely wasted (but awful even in the short time he's on screen) as a money-grabbing doctor. Better by far are Tina Turner, whose Acid Queen is sexy but also disturbingly weird, Keith Moon, who's in predictably odious form as Uncle Ernie, and best of all for me, Paul Nicholas as Tommy's gleefully maniacal Cousin Kevin.
As rock operas go, this one is strictly second division, so in terms of movie musicals in general, it's way down the list. However, it packs energy and certainly, if it's the first time you've seen it, makes for compelling viewing much the way a freak-show would, if I'm honest, though there is a lot of talent on show as well, and it's worth watching at least once just for that (and for Ann-Margret, wearing tight clothes that are already semi-transparent, and then rolling around in a mess of beans and chocolate, but that's a different matter).
So why does it not work very well?
As far as I can see, they simply try to cram too much into it. As if the religious theme isn't enough, it touches on many of the problems starting to tear secular society apart in the early 1970s drugs, drunkenness, child abuse, pornography gambling, gang violence, dishonesty, etc, all played out against a kaleidoscopic backdrop of churches, scrap heaps, tatty holiday camps and beautiful Lake District mountains.
Despite an admiration for the central message of hope and spiritual purity, there is deep criticism of the abuses inflicted by organised religious groups this movie abounds with false prophets and money-making evangelism.
It's also, in vintage Russell style, garish, unnecessarily lurid, and filled with pretentious, surreal imagery, and though Pete Townshend's soundtrack contains one or two classics PINBALL WIZARD and I'M FREE, to name but two much of it is forced and rather shrill (and is way too long many purely musical moments could have been cut in half or removed altogether).
Performance-wise, Ann-Margret is by far the best thing in it. She sings and dances the house down as Tommy's sultry mother, remaining lithe and curvaceous through various incarnations, from homely '50s housewife, to '60s tart, to '70s glam queen, finally dying stripped of all adornments on her own cross a broken pinball machine. As the other 'thief', Oliver Reed a Russell regular can't sing for toffee, yet succeeds in evoking some sympathy for a character who in lesser hands would simply be a brutish villain. That leaves Roger Daltrey as the other main lead, the titular Tommy, and there's not a lot he can do, being deaf, dumb and blind for at least half the film, and for the rest doing what he normally did as lead-singer of a rock band, which is entertain massive crowds with grandiose and overblown songs. However, his first appearance jars the film badly; even for a Ken Russell movie, it's asking too much of the audience to accept Tommy's sudden transformation from World War Two runt, complete with a tank top and short back and sides, to a tanned, muscular hippie with bleached blonde hair and pearly-white teeth.
In terms of secondary characters, it's a mixed bag. Elton John gives an ordinary and overrated performance as the Pinball Wizard (his version of the song is, in truth, nowhere near as good as The Who's own), Eric Clapton lacks any charisma as a charlatan preacher and Jack Nicholson is completely wasted (but awful even in the short time he's on screen) as a money-grabbing doctor. Better by far are Tina Turner, whose Acid Queen is sexy but also disturbingly weird, Keith Moon, who's in predictably odious form as Uncle Ernie, and best of all for me, Paul Nicholas as Tommy's gleefully maniacal Cousin Kevin.
As rock operas go, this one is strictly second division, so in terms of movie musicals in general, it's way down the list. However, it packs energy and certainly, if it's the first time you've seen it, makes for compelling viewing much the way a freak-show would, if I'm honest, though there is a lot of talent on show as well, and it's worth watching at least once just for that (and for Ann-Margret, wearing tight clothes that are already semi-transparent, and then rolling around in a mess of beans and chocolate, but that's a different matter).