Tommy (film)

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Movie
German title Tommy
Original title Tommy
Tommy (film) Logo.png
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 1975
length 111 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Ken Russell
script Ken Russell
production Ken Russell
Christopher Stamp
Robert Stigwood
Beryl Vertue
music The Who
camera Dick Bush
Robin Lehman
Ronnie Taylor
cut Stuart Baird
occupation

Tommy is a British musical film by Ken Russell from the year 1975 . It is based on the rock opera Tommy by the music group The Who from 1969.

action

Captain Walker stands on a mountain in front of the sun. After looking for a while, he goes down to his wife Nora and takes her in his arms. But their happiness only lasted briefly during this period of World War II . Because the RAF pilot Walker is ordered to go on a mission, his plane crashes and soon Nora receives the news that her husband is missing. On the first day of peace, their son Tommy Walker (the "walker") is born. A few years later, Nora meets Frank Hobbs at a holiday camp and they become friends, while little Tommy dreams of having his own holiday camp when he grows up. In 1951 Frank proposes to Nora to marry when the long-lost Captain Walker suddenly returns home and surprises the two in the bedroom; during the argument he is killed by Frank. Little Tommy witnesses the act. Nora and Frank repeatedly swear to the child that they have not heard it, have not seen it, not to say anything to anyone in their life. As a result, Tommy becomes deaf, dumb and blind. From now on he lives indifferently to himself, but has special inner possibilities due to his handicap. But the question remains: "How can he be saved / From the eternal grave?"

As a young man, Tommy was Sometimes subjected to questionable attempts at healing. His mother takes him to a temple where a preacher praises his wife, symbolized by a larger than life statue of Marilyn Monroe , who brings "eyesight to the blind" - when Tommy Monroe touches the statue, the idol overturns and breaks. Next, his stepfather Frank takes him to the acid queen who works with LSD , who gives Tommy the drug and thus triggers ecstatic states of consciousness with a phantasmagoria in pictures; after the intoxication, however, all that remains is that Tommy is not cured. His mother and husband then turn him over to his relatives, cousin Kevin and Uncle Ernie, who each mistreat him in their own way. However, one day when Tommy stands in front of the mirror in the apartment, his self appears to him , which Tommy is able to see despite the blindness of his physical eyes, and leads him out of the apartment to a junkyard, where the apparition suddenly disappears; but Tommy finds a pinball machine in the junkyard and begins to play obsessively, as if he has found what he has been looking for all his life. He soon became famous for his pinball game. Without being able to see and hear, he plays masterfully using his intuition , in a big duel he beats the reigning Champ Pinball Wizard, who at the end confesses with resignation: “I thought I was the Bally table king, / But I just handed my pinball crown to him. “Tommy is world champion in pinball. Numerous supporters crowd around him. Benefiting from Tommy's successes, Nora and Frank now lead an extravagant life , characterized by excessive alcohol consumption, with wealth that is sometimes magnificently displayed. Nora reveals a deep inner turmoil, on the one hand she raves about "A life of wealth and fame", blinded by the illusory world of her luxury goods, but on the other hand suffers from her son's handicap so that she drowns her grief in alcohol. - A doctor, whom the now affluent couple consults while resuming their healing efforts with Tommy, cannot change his state of health, but finds that the handicap is psychosomatic and that Tommy's senses should actually work.

During an argument with his mother, who is desperate about her son's trauma, she accidentally throws him against the mirror. Tommy rushes through the shattering mirror, reunites with himself and achieves his liberation. At first he is blinded, holds his hands protectively in front of the sun, but then he realizes: “I'm free!”. He can see, hear and speak again.

For his mother, Tommy is now a god , and his followers see him as the new messiah after his miraculous healing . As a token of their admiration for him, many of them wear a half-high, cross-like symbol , a wooden T (like Tommy) with a pinball in the middle of the crossbar. And Tommy sees it as his task to lead his followers to the goal of liberation he has achieved. However, Tommy's house quickly becomes too small for the hordes who arrive in droves, so that Tommy's childhood dream is finally realized when his own camp is set up: Tommy's Holiday Camp, where the path taught by Tommy is set out on the basis of a pinball game with ear plugs and flippers shall be. - Meanwhile, tensions soon arise: People from Tommy's environment (Nora, Frank, Uncle Ernie) commercialize his message, for example by selling Tommy T-shirts and other fan merchandise ; Tommy, on the other hand, acts altruistically and remains true to the basic ideas that are based on his own healing experience. His teaching does not reach his followers sufficiently either, they do not find the hoped-for liberation and enlightenment . The contrast between Tommy's nature and message ("I Am the Light!") And the nature of the mass of followers can no longer be bridged. Their own supporters become aggressive against the freed Tommy, as if driven by a collective will to destroy, they destroy the camp, kill Tommy's mother and stepfather. Tommy survived the destruction of the camp. He lays his dead mother next to his stepfather's corpse and puts their hands together - for him they belong together as his parents. Tommy, abandoned by his followers, goes his own way: he climbs a mountain and steps in front of the sun. The film ends with this image of the enlightened Tommy.

The film does not contain any spoken dialogue, rather the songs follow one another without interruption until the end credits. In the German subtitled version, the plot is told in a short summary at the beginning.

Soundtrack

A separate soundtrack was recorded for the film, and some songs were re-recorded with other artists. Pete Townshend also wrote some pieces especially for the film ( Champagne, Mother and Son, TV Studio ). The title Eyesight to the Blind , interpreted by Eric Clapton, comes from Sonny Boy Williamson II. The songs are loosely based on the album Tommy (The Who, 1969) in melody, text and order . There were changes in the arrangements and because of the participation of other interpreters (among others, the actors Oliver Reed, Ann-Margret and Jack Nicholson sang). The song Tommy's Holiday Camp was also placed elsewhere as Bernie's Holiday Camp . An adjustment was also made: 1921 became 1951 , Tommy's father was missing in the Second World War, not the First.

  1. Overture
  2. Prologue
  3. Captain Walker
  4. It's a boy
  5. Bernie's Holiday Camp
  6. 1951
  7. What About the Boy
  8. Amazing Journey
  9. Christmas
  10. Eyesight to the blind
  11. Acid Queen
  12. Do You Think It's Alright?
  13. Cousin Kevin
  14. Do You Think It's Alright?
  15. Fiddle About
  16. You think it's alright?
  17. Sparks
  18. Extra, extra, extra
  19. Pinball Wizard
  20. Champagne
  21. There's a doctor
  22. Go to the mirror
  23. Tommy Can You Hear Me?
  24. Smash the Mirror
  25. I'm free
  26. Mother and Son
  27. Miracle Cure
  28. Sally Simpson
  29. sensation
  30. Welcome
  31. TV studio
  32. Tommy's Holiday Camp
  33. We're Not Gonna Take It
  34. See Me, Feel Me, Listening to You

Reviews

Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times that the director described his film as "the greatest work of art of the twentieth century". Ebert went on to write that the movie's message - "if there was one" - was contained in the last thirty minutes when Tommy fell victim to commercialization and his fans turned away from him. The critic praised Ann-Margret's portrayal, which was "simply great".

Hans-Christoph Blumenberg wrote in Die Zeit , “The optical and acoustic cabinet pieces kill each other, Russell's staging is lacking in discipline and economy. What remains is a bloated revue of fashion obsessions full of boundless vanity. "

The lexicon of international films wrote that the film was a "visually and acoustically orgiastic, at times violent film adaptation of the rock opera of the same name by The Who ". The narrated “allegorical story, in which the angry rebellion of the rock generation is articulated as well as their mystical longing for salvation” was staged as a “garish pop picture arc” that would be “satirically swiped at its own branch” and “by an effect-conscious one Citizen fright attitude "is worn.

Awards

Ann-Margret for Best Actress and Pete Townshend for Best Score were nominated for an Oscar in 1976 . In 1976 Ann-Margret won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Comedy or Musical . Roger Daltrey and the film for Best Musical or Comedy were nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1976.

background

Pete Townshend was a follower of the Indian mystic Meher Baba and Baba's teachings influenced the album Tommy ("inspired by the teachings of Indian mystic Meher Baba").

The film was shot in England , including Brighton , Portsmouth and the Lake District  . Its production cost was estimated at the equivalent of 5 million US dollars .

The sound engineer John Mosely developed the multi-channel sound system Quintaphonic Sound for the film .

literature

  • Heller, Heinz-B .: "Deaf, dumb and blind" and liberation in the spirit of Pop Art: Tommy (1975) . In: Kieler Contributions to Filmmusikforschung 7, 2011, pp. 55–64, online (PDF; 148 kB).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Amazing Journey : "Sickness will surely take the mind / Where minds can't usually go."
  2. Christmas .
  3. Pinball Wizard .
  4. Champagne .
  5. Mother and Son .
  6. Miracle Cure .
  7. I'm Free : “I'm free, / And I'm waiting for you to follow me.” And We're Not Gonna Take It : “If you want to follow me, / You've got to play pinball ... "
  8. We're Not Gonna Take It : “Your freedom doesn't reach us! Enlightenment escapes us! "
  9. sensation .
  10. ^ Roger Ebert: Review accessed on July 30, 2007
  11. Film tips. In: The time . No. 46/1975.
  12. Tommy. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  13. observer.guardian.co.uk
  14. ^ Filming locations for Tommy , accessed July 30, 2007.
  15. ^ Box office / business for Tommy , accessed July 30, 2007.