Tommy (5 Stars)

"Tommy" (the film) overwhelms me. I can't get used to it, however many times I watch it. It always makes me cry, but today I cried more than usual. I was sobbing for the first 25 minutes non-stop. Then I pulled myself back together for five minutes, before I started again. It's in my top 50 favourite films, of course. Sometimes when I watch it I feel like it should be at the top of my list, but not every film can be number one.

I forget exactly when I first saw the film. Probably in the 1980's on television. I didn't listen to the Who's original rock opera until the late 1990's. I'm pretty certain it was 1997. I listened once, and that was it. For me the Who have a typical sixties sound, and I prefer seventies music. "Tommy" was first recorded in 1969, and that's what it sounds like. Today I listened to the album immediately after watching the film. It was disappointing in comparison with the film's music. The film was made in 1976, and it has a harder seventies sound. It also disturbed me that on the album Roger Daltrey sings all the vocals. In the film he only sings the words of Tommy himself.

The film tells a story. The album "Tommy" also tells a story, but it's not as easy to understand. Maybe there were detailed liner notes when the LP was first released. I don't know. But from the music itself it's not obvious what's happening, especially in the first few songs. I only understood it because I'm well acquainted with the film. And then the album and the film go in different directions in the final songs, so I'm not sure what the album is saying.

That's one of the problems with the film itself. It's not possible to state the film's message in a single sentence. There are different themes, especially in the last 45 minutes, and each song is a short vignette presenting a different theme. Ken Russell says that his main idea behind the film was false religion, and he used the Who's music to tell his story. Knowing that, it's possible to decipher the final scenes in part, but some questions are still left open. Tommy goes from being deaf, dumb and blind to becoming a Messiah, and then he gives up his Messiahship. Is it true enlightenment when you stop trying to teach others?

Tommy's "church" was all-inclusive. He allowed his family and friends to run his church, but they proved themselves unworthy. Being a relative of the Messiah isn't enough to make a person holy. The death of Tommy's parents led to his enlightenment. They no longer held him back.

This is a film I'd like to discuss with others. More than ever before, please leave comments below this post. And don't forget to tick the "Notify Me" box.

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