When I thought nothing could get weirder than the Coen Brother's "The Hudsucker Proxy," I ran across this strange little rock opera. You'll really have to have a knack for the abstract in order to watch it without going crazy. I watched it and at least made an attempt to figure it out. Here's what I came up with... It's about a small boy (Roger Daltrey) who sees his mother (Ann-Margret) and his father's brother (Oliver Reed) in bed together. Then he becomes dumb, deaf and blind for the next twenty or so years with his mother taking good care of him. They start worshiping Marilyn Monroe (for no apparent reason) and sometimes his parents leave him with people who do really really bad things to him (Tina Turner gives him drugs and other rock stars torture him). Then he somehow becomes the pinball champion of the world; Elton John sings about him. Ann-Margret gets rich off of this and starts dancing in bubbles, baked beans and mud (that's fun to watch). Then Jack Nicholson says he's not really deaf, blind and dumb; it's some sort of mental block. Then Roger Daltrey is suddenly cured and everyone finds out that he's the messiah. Yes, it's that weird! "Tommy" isn't particularly entertaining, but the 70's rock music isn't all that bad. I spent watching the entire movie with the strangest look on my face asking to myself "Holy cow; what the dilly is this?"
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Starring:
Ann-Margret, Oliver Reed, Roger Daltrey, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Jack Nicholson, Robert Powell, Paul Nicholas, Tina Turner, Barry Winch, Victoria Russell, Arthur Brown.
Directed by:
Ken Russell
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1975 musical
Rated PG.
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Don Ignacio's score: C