Tommy

Tommy witnesses his father's killing, and his mother and stepfather repeat that he will tell nobody what he saw and heard. The boy genuinely becomes deaf, mute and blind. Years later he turns out to have an extraordinary gift at pinball and is instantly declared a messiah. The subject is not illness but a person being made into a cult. Tommy promises nothing; the people around him load him with meaning, sell tickets and build a camp. The moment he is cured, the crowd disperses. The form is entirely song; there is no spoken dialogue. Ken Russell pushes the image to its limit: a room filling with baked beans, a statue of Marilyn Monroe in place of a church, colour in constant change. The source is The Who's 1969 rock opera. Roger Daltrey plays Tommy and the other members of the band appear too. Ann-Margret was nominated for an Oscar as his mother. Elton John, Tina Turner and Eric Clapton each take a section. A five-channel sound system called Quintaphonic was developed for the film and installed in a limited number of cinemas. Oliver Reed plays the stepfather. Who it is for: viewers who like rock opera and the visual excess of seventies cinema. Who it is not for: anyone looking for narrative; the film does not stop for two hours and parts of it are exhausting.