Re: Tommy the movie, totally

[Alan McKendree <amck@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2002 06:30:30 -0700 (PDT)
>From: "Mark R. Leaman" <bushchoked@yahoo.com>

I agree with the vast majority of your post...just a few comments.

>Speaking of strong images, when Frank and Nora are yelling at young Tommy,
>it's a very effective bit. It might be the most realistic part of the
>movie.

Yep, very effective.  Harrowing, but it's supposed to be.

>Amazing Journey is all great...it might be the most powerful part of the
>movie. I know it affects me every time I watch it, when Tommy turns away
>from his parents.

Yep, I love that moment too, although I perceive it not as explicitly
turning away form his parents as suddenly having direction of his own
(although HE perceives it still as following someone else).

>I personally get a kick out of Tommy's rejection of the nativity...but I'm
>no fan of organized religion. The same effect comes to me with Eyesight,
>and I do love the revision of the song too.

Me too, on all four counts.  The astounding music of Eyesight to the Blind
coupled with the razor-sharp commentary on "standard religion" amazed and
delighted me the first time I saw it.  Church of Marilyn Monroe?!? My mind
boggled.  And howdaya like that long shat that starts with a closeup of the
altar (if memory serves) and pulls back between the statue's legs to reveal
her? :-D

>There, too, we see the crippled...a reference to the fact that theater
>managers >used to bring cripples up to the front of the audience, back in
>the early days.

I didn't think it was a reference to that, just to the usual sad practice
of sad and desperate people searching for a cure anywhere.  Kudos to
Russell and the actors (the actual handicapped people) for the courage to
put in that part.

On Acid Queen, here's one for you.  Ever explicitly notice that in Tommy's
first closeup, there's a red lens refraction from a light behind Tommy with
a gap in it that EXACTLY frames Tommy's eye?  It's at 33:12 on my DVD.

>Also I think it's worth noting the bottle in the TV, because Moon had a
>champagne bottle thrown through a wall framed in his house.

Absolutely.  An "Easter egg" for the Who fans.

>There's A Doctor is hilarious, with lowbrow Frank assuming the Upper Class
>lifestyle (Nora is better suited for it), with the pheasent and
>bottle...but, as in the next scene, his lower class mentality comes out.

Right.

>And in Go To The Mirror they're giving a nod to a style and genre of
>romance >movies, with the interaction between Nora and the Doc.

This song is actually on of my most serious problems with the movie, in
that they cut out the entire "Listening to You" theme.  As I will say to
anyone I can get to stand still long enough, this song is the climax of the
work, and should not be tampered with but rather given the strongest
possible treatment.  The movie changes the climax from Go to the Mirror to
I'm Free...it's not until I'm Free that you know Tommy's going to be all
right...because suddenly he IS alright.

>The TV Station scene is a great observation of how religion is marketed.
>And music, and movies, and everything really.

It's good, but as you say below:

>The end...is weak....And you've got to love Daltrey silouhetted against
>the sun.

Right on both counts.

Cheers,

Alan
R. I. P. Ox
John Entwistle 1944 - 2002