TOMMY THE PINBALL WIZARD MOVIE MOVIE
TOMMY THE PINBALL WIZARD MOVIE TRIAL

When the guy sings вЂњyou talk about your woman, I wish you could see mineвЂќ, it is a setup for the Acid Queen, because she is a hooker, and he is her pimp. In the film, weвЂ™ve got Her Royal Highness Tina Turner, right? Giving Tommy mind-expanding drugs as well as sexual awakening, ecstasy, and terror all at the same time, going through about seven fabulous outfits during the course of one number? And this is after Mom took him to the faith healer (Eric Clapton), where the cultists worship Marilyn Monroe and wash down pills with Jack Daniels? On stage, they are sort of blended together. Cerveris is always talented, but for me, it just didnвЂ™t work.ДЄnd the whole stage interpretation of the Acid Queen was weird. On stage, they used a couple of different sizes of wee Tommies, as I recall, while Michael Cerveris flew around on wires like a white-clad Peter Pan and sang adult Tommy, surreal, inner-monologue narration type things. In the movie, the abuse triad (the Acid Queen, Cousin Kevin, and Uncle Ernie) are all done to adult Tommy (Roger Daltrey), so Russell got to have more fun with it, beating the crap out of someone whoвЂ™s meant to be at least 18 (no, you are just not supposed to do the math on how Ann-Margret is old enough to be his mother). And they had to change a whole bunch of lyrics to songs like вЂњIвЂ™m FreeвЂќ and вЂњSensationвЂќ to reflect this, and the end result was that (to me) it just made Tommy sound more self-aggrandizing than before. He gets famous for playing pinball, but thatвЂ™s it. Broadway Tommy doesnвЂ™t become the messiah. ItвЂ™s almost as if someone who had an attitude against the film went out of their way to make the opposite choice the film did at every intersection, whether it was a good idea or not. I honestly couldnвЂ™t tell you why these choices were made for the Broadway unless it was a case of wanting to get back to the original album-but that doesnвЂ™t track all the way through either. And not only is his mother (Ann-Margret) complicit in convincing him that вЂњhe didnвЂ™t hear it, he didnвЂ™t see itвЂќ, but Oliver Reed is the lover, being his glowering, terrifying self. Not to say such a thing isnвЂ™t upsetting for a young kid, but a physiological reaction like your eyes, ears, and ability to speak entirely shutting down? In the film, little Tommy sees Daddy murdered before his eyes.

TOMMY THE PINBALL WIZARD MOVIE TRIAL

In the Broadway, they even take it a step further, and there is a trial at which Captain Walker is acquitted for the crime. On the concept album and in the Broadway, TommyвЂ™s father comes home from the war and kills his wifeвЂ™s boyfriend. The biggest one is the initial trauma that robs young Tommy of his senses. Say what you want about Ken Russell and his art-house, Fellini-esque style, but the choices he made were all stronger, dramaturgically speaking. When I start praising the movie, the word I find myself throwing around the most is вЂњdramaturgicalвЂќ. DonвЂ™t get me wrong, itвЂ™s still Tommy (sort of) and itвЂ™s still fun, butвЂ¦ When the stage version hit Broadway in 1992, I was excited to see itвЂ¦and then I saw it. Dad returns home, a terrible trauma happens to Tommy, and вЂњnow he is deaf, now he is dumb, now he is blind.вЂќ TommyВ becomes famous for playing pinball, and then becomes the messiah, because of course he does. ItвЂ™s the story of a kid whose father goes off to fight in the war. Tommy, as any Who fan knows, started life as a concept album in 1969, before Ken Russell got his hands on it. Usually, if there is a stage version of a thing, that is the one that comes first, and usually that is the one that I prefer. Most of the time, if there is an original version of a thing, thatвЂ™s the one I like, though there are certainly exceptions to that rule.

But over the years, my love for it solidified and defined itself, and I think the way it did that was when I compare it to the other versions-especially the Broadway.

TOMMY THE PINBALL WIZARD MOVIE MOVIE

I donвЂ™t just love the movie version of The WhoвЂ™s Tommy because it is a tripped-out, wacky-ass psycho romp.

Tommy the pinball wizard movie