“Tommy” The Who and director Ken Russell met at a turning point in time

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2019.09.14Omori Sawako

"Tommy" synopsis

Due to the shock of the incident he witnessed when he was young, Tommy is locked inside his heart and is unable to see, hear, or speak. Unable to even understand love, he grew up cut off from the outside world, but when he channeled the chaotic energy of his youth into a pinball, he was reborn. Tommy is released into the free world, and is soon worshiped as a miraculous savior.

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A unique rock musical returns to the screen

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of revival screenings of Western films made in the 70s and 80s. In the Tokyo area, a revival screening of the unique musical ``Tommy'', which is a film adaptation of The Who 's masterpiece album, has begun. This movie was first shown in Japan in 1976. Using Quintaphonic Sound, the latest sound system at the time, the film was shown at concert-level volume. As a result, there are even stories of complaints coming from people in the next room at the same movie theater, or of persistent ringing in the ears.

I think there were cases where the movie was shown at a masterpiece theater after the roadshow, but I think it's been a long time since it was screened in a roadshow. This is a milestone year, 43 years since the first release in Japan and 50 years since the release of the original album. Considering its age, it can be considered an "antique", but will it be able to withstand being shown on today's screens?

The film will be screened in two theaters in Tokyo: Uplink Shibuya and Uplink Kichijoji (as of September 13, 2019). The latter is a mini-theater complex that just opened on the second basement floor of Kichijoji PARCO in December of last year, and as it is a theater that puts a lot of effort into its sound system, it seemed like an appropriate theater for a work that is particular about sound. Although it is called a musical, it does not have a cute style like the Hollywood musicals of the past, but is a Monster piece full of poison that is unique to its country of origin, England. I decided to sit in front of the screen and wait for the moment when the Monster would wake up from its deep sleep.

“Tommy” preview

The opening begins. A man stands on a rocky mountain and watches the sunset. Walker, the man who becomes the father of the main character, Tommy, is enjoying a picnic with the woman who will become his mother. The two love each other, but the man ends up going to the battlefield as a soldier. The mother gave birth to a child alone, and a son was born on the day Britain won the Great War (1945). The child is named Tommy. However, the father is killed in battle, leaving only the mother and son.

As the story begins, we hear the first vocals from The Who's Pete Townshend: "Captain Walker never came home. The child who is about to be born will never know his father's face." And Tommy's strange fate is traced. The actors' lines are completely eliminated, and the story unfolds solely through songs. Cuts change rapidly, and bizarre scenes appear one after another. Personally, I had seen this work many times before, but the fact that it was shown as a movie rather than a TV-sized image gave it a different impression than usual. The sound and the screen. Both are works whose true quality can only be conveyed through their "size."

The original album was released in 1969, when drug culture was on the rise, and the movie was made in the 1970s, when the aftermath of that was still lingering, so the movie also has a mysterious hallucinogenic effect, which is felt in the core of the body. It sinks in. It draws the viewer into the world of the film and makes them want to immerse themselves in that world again and again. Works with such Monster power continue to rampage across screens.

The journey of Tommy's inner self - The Who's concept

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