Tommy (1975)
 Director Ken Russell was the perfect choice to direct The Who's
landmark rock opera Tommy, transforming it into a
stream-of-consciousness catalogue of wild performances from Roger
Daltrey, Ann-Margret, Oliver Reed, Tina Turner, Elton John, Keith
Moon, Jack Nicholson and others.
Tommy is a deaf, dumb and blind boy who has been reduced to his
near-catatonic state by the trauma of seeing his father murdered
by his mother's lover, scheming holiday camp worker, Frank
Hobbs.
His mother and stepfather told him to forget everything he had
seen and heard, and to never talk about it; but Tommy carried it
to the extreme, turned inward, and stopped seeing, hearing or
speaking at all.
 He
suffered much while growing up, and finally found happiness in, of
all things, playing pinball. When he became the world champion
pinball player it brought his family fame and fortune.
After being spontaneously healed, he began to teach others of
his unique perspective on life, eventually becoming a religious
cult figure.
Tommy's liberation, rise and fall as a wizard of the pinball
tables and a marketable messiah gave Russell all the scope he
could have wished for in striking out at sacred cows.
The cinematic version exposed great yawning cracks in The Who's
rock opera - Cracks which Ken Russell papered over with
panache.
This film (a true opera, with every word being sung) was really
the forerunner to the modern day pop video promo.
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