“What’s really interesting about Tommy is that it is about how the generation who led the pop revolution of the 60s had vivid but undisclosed memories of their wartime childhoods... When Brit cinema mostly opted for dullness, Ken Russell was showing us a film that was daring and risky and mad.”
Screened in tribute to Tina Turner (1939 - 2023)
After witnessing the murder of his father (Robert Powell) at the hands of his stepfather (Oliver Reed) during an argument over his mother (Ann-Margaret) young Tommy goes into shock, suddenly becoming psychosomatically deaf, dumb and blind. Later, the teenage Tommy (Roger Daltrey - stay with us) discovers he is a natural prodigy at pinball and is promptly hailed as the messiah of a religious cult, who view his pinball skills as a miraculous sign of divine intervention (natch). The Who's bonkers OTT rock opera is brought to the big screen by the suitably bonkers OTT director Ken Russell and boasts a cast of rock n roll n Hollywood greats/ne’er do wells including Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, Keith Moon, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Arthur Brown, Jack Nicholson and, as all-singin’ all dancin’ all drug dispensin’, Acid Queen, the late, great Tina Turner…
