Almost lost in the mix… Tommy (1975), re-release for BFI Musicals! The Greatest Show on Screen

I'm free, I'm free

And freedom tastes of reality

I'm free, I'm free

And I'm waiting for you to follow me

Written in 1968, The Who’s Tommy was one of the first concept albums and, come 1975, maverick director Ken Russell took charge of turning Pete Townsend’s lyrics into a feature film. The result is a mixed bag so packed full of impact and ideas that its irresistible if occasionally irritating and, ultimately, a little inspiring.

For me Tommy is one of those double LPs that could easily make a decent single album and Quadrophenia is much more rewarding and thought through as a concept – as is Townsend’s complex and partly-abandoned Lifehouse project which formed the basis of their best album, Who’s Next and which has since been “completed” as a radio play. Tommy broke the mold yet has some ill-conceived episodes involving torture and abuse – sexual and pharmaceutical – which pad out the young hero’s “amazing journey” to becoming a pinball wizard and guru, and, some great riffs aside it feels under-powered overall.

The Acid Queen: Tina Turner

Six songs were added to the film score to reinforce the narrative and a host of guest singers including Jack Nicholson as The Specialist, Tina Turner as The Acid Queen, Paul Nicholas as Cousin Kevin and Elton John as The Pinball Wizard. It’s over-the-top in a way only Ken can manage and, as with many of his films, leaves itself behind on a number of occasions whilst still containing some moments of real impact.

Ann-Margret is astonishing and easily the most valuable player on screen, winning an Academy Award nomination as well as a Golden Globe for an extraordinary performance that has her stretch both sinew and vocal-chords as Tommy’s conflicted mother. This is a character far beyond anything you could pick from the original double LP and you can only guess how much of herself she put into her improvisations whether rolling around in baked beans (a nod to the cover of The Who Sell Out?) or howling her anguish at her damaged son.

Oh, not the beans Ken! Ann-Margret

Oliver Reed plays her good-for-little second husband, Frank who kills her first, Captain Walker (Robert Powell) … on his surprise return from the War in which he has been MIA presumed dead. This is the first time I start to see similarities with Pink Floyd’s The Wall as songwriter Roger Water’s father died at the Battle of Anzio and this formed the basis for his over-reaching double album’s worth of alienation later filmed by Alan Parker – he and the director argued ferociously and I wonder how Townsend got on with Russell?

Tommy sees his father’s murder and shuts down his eyes, ears and hearing: he cannot bear reality after what he has seen (Water’s character takes over two side to do the same). Twenty years later he has grown into Roger Daltry who’s vocal range is not matched by his acting although he’s a very strong swimmer. He’s also great at running through surf singing the above-quoted couplet.

Elton dresses down for the occassion...

His parents attempt to find a cure through Eric Clapton’s Marilyn Monroe-based faith – literally a cult of a celebrity - before Tommy is tortured by Tina Turner, knocked about by Paul Nicholas (how could you!) and fiddled with by Keith Moon as evil Uncle Ernie – Moon’s actually quite good on camera in a disturbing way. Tommy finds his way to pinball glory and bests Elton John’s Pinball King in the film’s most famous sequence. Then a specialist - classy Jack - offers a cure for his mental block whilst flirting with Tommy’s mother… she’s just a girl who can’t say no.

It all feels careless even when it’s powerful but it is an amazing journey with some spectacular sequences especially when alongside Townsend’s best songs. Standing highest is We’re Not Going to Take it and Listening to You which leads our hero towards sunrise on the Lakeland peak on which he was conceived by his parents in a more innocent time. You can see Catbells on the background making this somewhere over Derwent Water not far from Keswick.

Roger Daltry in the Lakes

The restoration is crystal clear and Tommy goes to show how vibrant and varied musicals can be; don’t miss it if you are a fan of any or all its wild and conflicting parts… there’s nothing quite like it.

This was an advanced screening as part of the BFI's Musicals programmes and there's so much to look forward to in perhaps the most uplifting season in years and further details are available on their website. Tommy is showing at the BFI and being re-released across the country from 22 November - if ever there was a time for Eyesight for the Blind it is now.

  

With the band, Pete Townsend, Ann-Margret and Keith Moon (Photo Joe Gaffney)

And I ride and I ride... The Passenger (1975), BFI re-release in cinemas from 4th January

"Can I ask you a question, only one, always the same; what are you running away from?"

Michelangelo Antonioni is coming to London in January and February with the BFI screening many of his films including his magnificent run in the sixties: L’Avventura, La Notte, L’Eclisse, Red Desert and Blow Up. I’m also looking forward to seeing 1970’s Zabriskie Point on the big screen – Pink Floyd and explosions are the perfect mix - even though many commentators have seen that as the beginning of his lower quality output. I’d disagree about that film, which is flawed yet still powerful as I would about the director’s next feature in 1975.

The Passenger is a film about identity, coincidence and, possibly, fate. The lead character is a passenger in someone else's life, as he has been with those he has interviewed in his career as a journalist. He's on the run from his own life but is that because he knows his end is both inevitable and imminent?

Meeting at Casa Milà

Beautifully photographed by Luciano Tovi, The Passenger begins in Algiers and takes in London, Munich, Barcelona and southern Spain on its relentless journey. It packs in a huge amount of locations and some amazing buildings including Gaudi's brilliant Casa Milà and, needless to say, it looks absolutely fabulous on screen – so much more splendid than on home media.

Jack Nichoson is David Locke, a documentary film maker, who takes advantage of the death of a man staying in the same hotel. For reasons we spend the rest of the film trying to fathom, Locke assumes the man's identity and passes off his death as his own. The man, Robertson, turns out to be a gunrunner, supplying arms to one of the factions in the Chad civil war. He leaves behind a diary of meetings that Locke then proceeds to try and fulfil, perhaps driven by some sympakthy with their cause.

He is also spurred on by the investigations of former colleague Knight (Ian Hendry) and his estranged wife, a coolly-detached Jenny Runacre (another 70's icon). Along the way Locke meets an un-named architectural student, played by the magnetic Maria Schneider, simply excellent here as an almost non-actorly actor, natural, very responsive and enigmatic - a perfect match for Jack.

Jack

Nicholson gives a performance of intelligence and world-weary complexity. He compliments Antonioni's style perfectly with dryly humorous inventions highlighting the necessary intensity of this conflicted character. Antonioni was impressed with Easy Rider and the related American "new wave" and it's easy to see why he wanted one of the leaders of that generation in this film, a continuation of his counter-cultural examinations in Zabriskie Point.

There is one horrific sequence where Antonioni appears to use film of an actual execution. Watching the film I once again hoped that it wasn't real, but, if it was, you have to question the validity of this injection of actuality even at this distance. The writer, Mark Peploe, has said he found this sequence upsetting although he recognised the need to reflect reality. Whatever the moral and artistic merits, the film is based on these realities and the Chad conflict in question ran for some 40 years.

All at sea

Locke and the girl keep meeting appointments but the insurgents do not make them. By now the police are on their trail and there's a growing sense of impending doom.

The film ends with one of the most stunning single takes I've ever seen. In one amazing shot, lasting over seven minutes, the camera takes a slow and steady journey from Locke's hotel room out towards the chaos in the street and back to the same room as the characters catch up with each other and the story ends. It took a week to film and is a technical tour de force. A supernaturally quiet and understated ending that highlights the loneliness of death... the casual, matter-of-factness of the inevitable end.

It's a film you have to study carefully as Antonioni takes us through at his own pace, we have to experience his story at the rate he dictates. He needs our patience.

When The Girl asks what he is running from, sat in the back of Locke's car as they drive south through the country roads, he replies, "turn your back to the front seat...". She swivels around, throws out her arms, flings her head back and beams as the open road recedes behind them. It's a great moment and says so much about the film and the lives we all live. Maria is completely in the now, eyes bright and just taking in the full glory of the moment as they pass through a beautiful avenue of sunlit trees... then her face changes slightly as she understands beyond the initial thrill of illusory freedom.

The Passenger screens from 4th January at the BFI and across the UK - details are on the BFI site.

It's definitely one to see on the big screen!

So let's take a ride and see what's mine...