Re: tommy movie

[Stuart Pittman <stoo@CAE.COM>]

Kevin Mc re:

>to simply throw shit up on the screen that is wierd 
>for the sake of being wierd and call it art is a cop out.

Who is calling it "art"? You?

>hey, and maybe you can answer this:  why was sally simson's 
>husband from CA a musician dressed like frankenstein's monster?  
>what did that symbolize?  never got that, either.  i'm all for 
>creativity and strangeness- but not simply for the sake of being 
>strange. I find that insulting to an audience's intelligence.

This can perceived as a sarcastic view of rock idols being akin to
monsterous creations which Russell elaborated on in his following 
film "Lisztomania" (starring Rog, in case you're not familiar).

In the story, he uses another guitar-totin' Frankenstein monster
playing in concert to an army of kids. It then leads the children,
(dressed in superhero outfits) to terrorize the senior citizens of
a rural hamlet. The scene is a bizarre blend of the Pied Piper tale
and Hitler Youth Squad.

If you didn't enjoy the "Tommy" film then watching "Lisztomania"
will be a torturous experience for you. However, the scene does
shed more light on the idea.

>"...whose golden beard flows nearly down to the ground." 
>(edit)- this line was removed by Ken Russell in amazing journey.

What makes you think Ken Russell removed the line? Pete rewrote the 
lyrics. There is a great, hard-to-find book by Richard Barnes titled
"The Story of Tommy" which is all about the film production. You
might want to seek it out.


Alan re:

>While the stage production switched it back to the more conventional,
>"happier" version of the father killing the lover, it's not clear to me
>that this is better (more powerful) than the movie's plot version.

I agree, I prefer the film version of the murder as well. Placing "I'm Free"

directly following the mirror smash is another improvement. Sacrilege?
Perhaps...but I would love to hear the excluded song "Deceived" that Pete
additionally wrote for the movie. Stick *that* on a Scoop album, Pete!

>and for the first time ventures out of the house on his own, following his
>vision.  Did it mean anything to you that the colored reflections fused
>into a pure white reflection for this scene?

In paint/pigmentation, blending the primary colours (red,blue&yellow)
together results in brown. Mixing those same colours using light rays
creates white, which is precisely what happens in the mirror. Tommy's
beacon, as it were.

"I am the light",
Stoo