Editorial Reviews(bold mine)
Amazon.com
If you've ever wanted to hear Jack Nicholson sing (or try to) or marvel at the sight of Ann-Margret drunkenly cavorting in a cascade of baked beans, Tommy is the movie you've been waiting for. As it turns out, the Who's brilliant rock opera is sublimely matched to director Ken Russell's penchant for cinematic excess, and this 1975 production finds Russell at the peak of his filmmaking audacity. It's a fever-dream of musical bombast, custom-fit to the thematic ambition of Pete Townshend's epic rock drama, revolving around the titular "deaf, dumb, and blind kid" (played by Who vocalist Roger Daltrey) who survives the childhood trauma that stole his senses to become a Pinball Wizard messiah in Townshend's grandiose attack on the hypocrisy of organized religion.
The story is remarkably coherent considering the hypnotic dream-state induced by Russell's visuals. Tommy's odyssey is rendered through wall-to-wall music, each song representing a pivotal chapter in Tommy's chronology, from the bloodstream shock of "The Acid Queen" (performed to the hilt by Tina Turner) to Nicholson's turn as a well-intentioned physician, Elton John's towering rendition of "Pinball Wizard," and Daltrey's epiphanous rendition of "I'm Free." Other performers include Eric Clapton and (most outrageously) the Who's drummer Keith Moon, and through it all Russell is almost religiously faithful to Townshend's artistic vision. Although it divided critics when first released, Tommy now looks likes a minor classic of gonzo cinema, worthy of the musical genius that fueled its creation. --Jeff Shannon
Yes. There were several instances of mocking Christianity, in particular, as well as religion, in general. Recall that memorable scene where all the "followers" of Tommy rebel and chant, "we're not gonna take it," and "don't want no religion."
Here's part of the lyrics:
We're not gonna take it,
Never did and never will,
Don't want no religion,
As far as we can tell!
We ain't gonna take you,
Never did and never will!
We ain't gonna take you,
We forsake you,
Gonna rape you,
Let's forget you better still!
I've got a question for my British readers. Is it true that the 70's was a time in the U.K. where religious rebellion was rampant?
Back to the film. The chanting of the disgruntled "followers" was probably a good thing during that scene because they were following a false "messiah" anyway!
Some of the other scenes against Christianity included the dislike for a girl's preacher father. The girl wanted to go and be with the false messiah, Tommy, but her Christian father didn't want her to be negatively influenced. She ended up being injured at the Tommy "messiah" gathering and suffered a huge gash on the side of her face. She ended up with a long scar on her face. I saw some symbolism in that.
I noted that when Tommy was a child, one song that was sung had lyrics that said, "he doesn't know who Jesus was or what praying is... how can he be saved? From the eternal grave?" I thought it was interesting that the Person of Jesus Christ wasn't said to be as Someone who is alive today as the Living Savior that He is. Tommy's parents placed a nativity scene on his lap. He started to feel the figurines, but then threw the whole thing to the floor. Yikes...Townshend (the writer of the film) must have a lot of animosity towards the Christian faith!
The other review that I thought was good:
Plenty weird yet compelling - and the music's great, May 25, 2005
Reviewer: Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
Having heard about Tommy for years, I felt it was time to actually watch the movie. I had never acquired much of a sense for what the movie is about, probably because I don't think it is really possible to actually explain the film to anyone else. This is some pretty weird stuff. As the thing progressed, I had a hard time figuring out if I liked what I was seeing, whether it made any sense, etc. In the end, I must say I did enjoy the film, thanks largely to Daltrey, the music, and Ann-Margaret. What does it all mean? That's a toughie, as I'm sure the story means different things to different people. I had the sense that Tommy is supposed to be some kind of spiritual experience, and in some ways it is - maybe.
Here's my ridiculously oversimplified summary of the basic story. As a kid, Tommy is messed up pretty good, having witnessed something pretty dramatic; as a result, he becomes deaf, blind, and mute - for psychological rather than physical reasons. His mother (Ann-Margaret) and step-father try all kinds of weird cures as Tommy enters what should be his adulthood, including a visit to the holy rollers at a church that worships Marilyn Monroe and a special session with "The Acid Queen" (Tina Turner). Nothing seems to get through to him - until, of course, he happens to come across a pinball machine. Truly, that deaf, dumb, and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball, knocking the current pinball wizard (Elton John) off his pedestal. Suddenly, Tommy's family is rolling in the money, yet Tommy remains uncommunicative. When he does eventually find "awareness," he is transformed into a messiah figure, and crowds flock to him to hear his wisdom.
The film gets off to a pretty slow start, as we follow Tommy's childhood. Then Tina Turner enters the picture as The Acid Queen, and she forevermore gets the joint jumping with her electric performance. Other memorable performers include Eric Clapton, Elton John, and Jack Nicholson (who does in fact sing here). Ann-Margaret tops all of them with her performance, though, earning an Academy Award nomination for her work. It's a demanding role; alongside the acting and singing, she also has to roll around in a chocolatey, gooey mess. She may have been a little older in 1975, but Ann-Margaret definitely still had it.
The boys from the band pop in from time to time, but the story is increasingly focused on Tommy, his awakening, and his cult following. Some really obvious representations of Christianity are incorporated into the film, while, at the same time, greed and materialism are also spotlighted as false gods. Ultimately, though - thanks to a problematic ending -it is hard for me to discern the message that the filmmakers were actually trying to communicate here. I've heard that The Who's original album makes some of the more esoteric aspects of the Tommy story a little clearer.
Obviously, some individuals will not like this film at all; it's sort of an acid trip on film, vague and unsettling with its symbolism and discernible criticisms of organized religion. Others may find enlightenment of one sort or another. Most people, including me, will probably just look at this as a weird but oddly entertaining musical that leaves you scratching your head a little bit after you watch it. Of course, even if the story loses you completely, you still have plenty of great music from The Who to sit back and enjoy.
I agree about the ending. I think that people will surmise what it means according to their own belief system. It appeared that Tommy was worshipping the sun at the top of the mountain. Yet, the song lyrics playing during his trek up to the mountain relayed a different message than that. I have been singing the song's chorus in my mind all morning. I think that the lyrics can apply directly to Jesus!
Song: Listening to You / See Me Lyrics
Tommy: See me, feel me, touch me, heal me.
See me, feel me, touch me, heal me.
See me, feel me, touch me, heal me.
See me, feel me, touch me, heal me, heal me, heal me.
Chorus: Listening to you I get the music.
Gazing at you I get the heat.
Following you I climb the mountain.
I get excitement at your feet!
Right behind you I see the millions.
On you I see the glory.
From you I get opinions.
From you I get the story.
Listening to you I get the music.
Gazing at you I get the heat.
Following you I climb the mountain.
I get excitement at your feet!
[TOMMY AND CHORUS]
Right behind you I see the millions.
On you I see the glory.
From you I get opinions.
From you I get the story.
Listening to you I get the music.
Gazing at you I get the heat (heat).
Following you I climb the mountain.
I get excitement at your feet!
Right behind you I see the millions.
On you I see the glory.
From you I get opinions.
From you I get the story.
Ohhhhh, listening to you I get the music.
Gazing at you I get the heat.
Following you I climb the mountain.
I get excitement at your feet!
Right behind you I see the millions.
On you I see the glory.
From you I get opinions.
From you I get the story.
Listening to you!
One cannot gain all that from the sun up in the sky. But we can each gain such love and insight from the Son of God, Jesus Christ of the Bible!
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9 comments:
I finally got the chance to read more of the reviews at that website. Talk about mixed reviews!
It really is a bizaree movie, so I also have to agree with this reviewer. I found myself getting very angry during the film. You have to get through a lot of evil to get to the glory song at the end.
Satanic, July 17, 2002
Reviewer: A viewer
The worst time of my life, so far, has been spent watching "Tommy." It is the scariest movie in the world. It's extremely freaky and twisted. Not only is it creepy, but I also hate the scene of The Hawker (Eyesight to the Blind) in which Tommy (as a young adult) and his parents attend a ghoulish ceremony that is an obvious parody and mockery of a Catholic Mass. The congregation worships a statue of Marilyn Monroe. That is extremely NOT FUNNY. There are a few other scenes that make fun of Jesus and the Crucifix. I turned it off immediately after I saw that.
The rest of what I saw was also quite demented and freakish. The "Cousin Kevin" scene is a little too detailed, and the Acid Queen is a true nightmare. How anyone can give this more than one star I honestly don't know. The only reason I gave it one star is because that's the least your allowed to. I easily would have given it zero if that were an option. And I know a lot of people are going to vote it "unhelpful" because they think it's a great movie and they're trying to get back at me for it, but they're wrong. This film is sacrilegious, sinful, blasphemous, and ungodly.
"Tommy" is truly evil.
I think that it shows just how messed up my generation really was, and is, as a result of groups like the Who that chose to make movies like this.
This review is eye-opening about Townshend:
Townshends metaphor, October 3, 2005
Reviewer: C. Smith - See all my reviews
I saw this movie when it came out and I never forgot the premise; as children we are told to "see but not see" (this is something my mother literally told me to do) We grow up shutting down important cognitive functions. We close our eyes to abuse, religous hypocrisy, lies from our parents, leaders at every level. We walk around barely functioning. I finally decided to watch this movie again because I couldn't quit thinking about the things it portrays which I have subsequently learned first hand. Now that I have seen it again, I recall that a year or two ago Pete Townshend was caught cruising child-porn sites and he said (and I actually found it believable) that he was researching his own past and trying to find answers. With that new piece of information in hand the movie takes on a new meaning. "You didn't see it you didn't hear it, you'll never talk about it you didn't feel it" And with that everything shuts down. He parodies the way we seek absolution and healing- with religous excess, with drugs,with drs., and mother and father, who are basically to blame because they failed to protect the child in the course of carrying out their own lustful and selfish agenda, pretend that they care. They take him to the healing meeting (where sex is employed in an effort to arouse deadened emotions and senses)they let all kinds of quacks attempt to heal him. I can see that Townshend grew up confused about God and religon because he asked the question "how can he be saved?" This is the question all abused children ask. If there is such a thing as God and heaven and hell, where do they stand, because their choices were taken away from them. A dead child can't feel
God or know Jesus, how is that fair? And yet, as his parents continue to live their own life and fulfil their own agenda, they repeatedly leave him with a sadistic cousin and a lacivious uncle (fiddling about) Pete Townshend obviously felt the same amazement that he portrays about Tommy; this person who felt half dead suddenly found out he had a strange and undeserved ability to make people worship him, and a means of becoming extremely rich. I can comprehend his cynical amazement; to Townshend, the ability to play music and have people pay him huge sums of money and assemble in large halls to watch and listen is as bizarre and undeserved as the following Tommy had for his strange ability to play pinball. It was an alternative to being alive deep down in his soul. It paid well, it pleased him, but still it did not heal him.
You, Christine, doing an analysis of ‘70s pop culture?! Here I always thought you scorned ‘the world’!
I think you’re reading far too much into it. What you call the “glory song” would apply just as well to any totalitarian ruler as it would to the Lord of Light.
Would it surprise you to find out that I actually liked the Who when I was a teen? I loved the Doors too. Had every 8-track tape of their albums! (the younger crowd here must be thinking...what's an 8-track tape? I'm really dating myself now...)
I wasn't a born again Christian back then. I was part of the world, so to speak.
I remember thinking that "Tommy" was bizarre, but cool back then. Of course, I didn't see the mocking of Christianity as anything to get perturbed about, either.
Thirty years later, my take on the film is quite different. I wanted to point out that the mockery of Christian faith was heating up back then and now we see how far its gone in our culture. Sadly, it has been the "baby boomer" generation (that I am a part of) that is responsible for much of the paganization and secularization of our society and culture. The downward spiral into immorality and lack of ethics is a direct result of the "God is dead" mentality that sprung up in the 60's and beyond.
GM: "I think you’re reading far too much into it. What you call the “glory song” would apply just as well to any totalitarian ruler as it would to the Lord of Light."
You may think that way but I don't agree.
So, what's your opinion of the film?
Christine: ”Would it surprise you to find out that I actually liked the Who when I was a teen? I loved the Doors too. Had every 8-track tape of their albums! (the younger crowd here must be thinking...what's an 8-track tape? I'm really dating myself now...)
I wasn't a born again Christian back then. I was part of the world, so to speak.”
No, it doesn’t surprise me. People say and do all sorts of things that are embarrassing to them in later years. (As an aside, I never believed 8-tracks would last; however, I still have cassettes I made back then.)
”I remember thinking that "Tommy" was bizarre, but cool back then. Of course, I didn't see the mocking of Christianity as anything to get perturbed about, either.”
I didn’t either. I still don’t. Some of my friends were dabbling into Eastern mysticism back then; I mocked that too. Religion is a very reMOCKable subject.
”Thirty years later, my take on the film is quite different. I wanted to point out that the mockery of Christian faith was heating up back then and now we see how far its gone in our culture. Sadly, it has been the "baby boomer" generation (that I am a part of) that is responsible for much of the paganization and secularization of our society and culture. The downward spiral into immorality and lack of ethics is a direct result of the "God is dead" mentality that sprung up in the 60's and beyond.”
You seem to keep finding “Christian” faith being mocked. Didn’t you quote the song as saying, “Don’t want no religion”? There were Muslims and Buddhists and other religions back then too, y’know. But they don’t seem to matter to you—only when Christianity is mentioned do you come to the defense of “religion”.
Timothy Leary and Richard Nixon—both of whom influenced us boomers—were not themselves of that generation, yet both of them also contributed to that “downward spiral into immorality and lack of ethics” you decry.
Of course, the “Jesus Freaks” also got started back then…nothing to say about that?
”GM: ‘I think you’re reading far too much into it. What you call the “glory song” would apply just as well to any totalitarian ruler as it would to the Lord of Light.’
You may think that way but I don't agree.”
Of course we don’t agree, hostess; that’s the very core of our discussions! Your sites would be very dull indeed if all they were was ecclesiastic c—whoops, I promised I wouldn’t say that.
”So, what's your opinion of the film?”
I didn’t see it until 1982 (on video), and I was not impressed. It was histrionic and overblown; its only saving grace was the music, and even some of that was inferior to the original album.
GM: "You seem to keep finding “Christian” faith being mocked. Didn’t you quote the song as saying, “Don’t want no religion”?"
If you re-read my original post, you will see that I mentioned that religion was being mocked, in general (e.g. the idol worship scene of Marilyn Monroe in the movie), but Christianity was singled out, in particular, in many segments of the film.
We didn't see a pin ball placed on top of a Buddha statue as the symbol of Tommy's new religion, now did we? No. It was placed on top of a cross symbol.
Also, as one reviewer pointed out, communion, which is considered a very sacred act to Christians and Catholics, was trivialized and mocked in the "Marilyn" worship service.
C: "You may think that way but I don't agree.”
GM: "Of course we don’t agree, hostess; that’s the very core of our discussions! Your sites would be very dull indeed if all they were was ecclesiastic c—whoops, I promised I wouldn’t say that."
What I meant was that I don't agree with what you said about, "I think you’re reading far too much into it." There is no need to read much into it. The mockery was in plain sight throughout the movie.
GM: "Your sites would be very dull indeed if all they were was ecclesiastic c—whoops, I promised I wouldn’t say that."
By that statement do you mean that I'm not always preaching? I cover other subjects too?
I can guess what your "c" word would have been. Thank you for not saying it.
The "Tommy" movie was a forerunner to the MTV music video era. One could view it as an extremely long music video. But it does have a cult following, I suppose.
I found myself drawn to watching it after all these years just so that I could analyze its content and that's when I noticed its blatant mockery against the Christian faith.
Christine: ”We didn't see a pin ball placed on top of a Buddha statue as the symbol of Tommy's new religion, now did we? No. It was placed on top of a cross symbol.
Also, as one reviewer pointed out, communion, which is considered a very sacred act to Christians and Catholics, was trivialized and mocked in the "Marilyn" worship service.”
Most Westerners (then as now) don’t know jack about Buddhism. I’ve seen something the size of a pinball in a number of Buddha statues—all in the forehead, representing the “third eye”. The Great Buddha in Kamakura, Japan has one of silver, as big as my fist!
Communion? You mean the ritualized eating of one’s own God? Sacred cannibalism? I can’t imagine why anyone would want to mock such an act!
I think I mentioned this once before, but…when did Catholics stop being Christians? It appears to have happened fairly recently, but I didn’t get the memo. Does the Pope know about this?
Without even realizing it, you actually mentioned the difference between Catholic traditional belief concerning communion and basic Christian belief on the subject.
Catholics hold to "transubstantiation," meaning that the bread and the wine are literally transformed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ during Mass. In Christian denominations (at least the evangelical ones I am familiar with), the bread and the wine serve as symbols of the body and blood of Jesus that was given up for us at the cross for the remission of our sins.
That is one of the reasons that I mentioned them individually.
Whatever denomination one belongs to, one does not become a Christian until he/she is born again. Jesus said in John 3:3, "You must be born again."
At any given time, there are churches in every denomination with people who may not have yet taken such a step. But hopefully, the Holy Spirit will actively knock on the door of their hearts and urge them to confession, repentance and being born again in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior of their lives.
Catholicism is a Christian denominational faith. I personally know several Catholics who have been born again in the Spirit, but choose to stay in that denomination for various reasons. I do not knock them for doing so, but I also have come to realize that many of the traditions that Catholics are taught to follow are non-biblical in nature (e.g. purgatory, prayers for the dead etc.). But this does not mean that I outrightly reject the fact that many Catholics can be, and are, born again in Christ.
Christine: “Catholics hold to "transubstantiation," meaning that the bread and the wine are literally transformed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ during Mass. In Christian denominations (at least the evangelical ones I am familiar with), the bread and the wine serve as symbols of the body and blood of Jesus that was given up for us at the cross for the remission of our sins.
That is one of the reasons that I mentioned them individually.”
One thing common to all who call themselves Christian is a certain set of beliefs, mainly:
Jesus was the son of God.
He lived.
He died.
He rose again.
He went away.
He’s coming back.
In this, I see no difference between Catholics, Evangelicals, Mormons, or Methodists. Divine anthropophagic rituals have nothing to do with it—that’s strictly ceremonial.
So I’ll ask you again: when did Catholics stop being Christians?
”Whatever denomination one belongs to, one does not become a Christian until he/she is born again. Jesus said in John 3:3, ‘You must be born again.’"
You mean Catholics aren’t? Well, that’s a surprise! Has anyone told them that they aren’t gonna inherit the kingdom?
”…this does not mean that I outrightly reject the fact that many Catholics can be, and are, born again in Christ.”
Oh, I see…you’re talking about those mysterious entities you call CINOs! I’ve never seen any myself, but there’s reason to believe they’ve taken over all, or nearly all, of the “Christian” denominations in this country in the past quarter-century.
As for Tommy: no wonder you behave as you do! Look at the stuff you messed yourself up on back then! In 1975, another big movie was Jaws. Had you been a Christian then, you’d have seen the wonderful hand of God working through a Great White as it terrorized a New England resort…you should’ve watched that instead. {grin)
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