Tommy (1975) on Netflix
Nora's husband is reported missing in the war. She raises their son Tommy and takes up with Frank. A struggle at home leaves the boy unable to hear, speak or see.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.6/1024,715 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes70%
Trailer
Plot summary
Group Captain Walker flies bombers in World War II and is shot down, listed as missing and presumed dead. Back home, his wife Nora gives birth to a boy, Tommy, on V-E Day. Five years later, at a holiday camp, she takes up with Frank, a worker there, and Tommy comes to look up to him and dreams of running a camp of his own. On New Year's Eve, Walker returns and finds the two of them together. Tommy watches the struggle through the reflection of a mirror, and Nora and Frank insist he saw and heard nothing and must never speak of it. The boy shuts the world out, appearing deaf, dumb and blind. Faith healing and a drug dealer bring no change, and Nora and Frank leave him with relatives.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Tommy (1975)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- On 11 June 1974 the pier caught fire and was badly damaged while the production was filming there. According to Russell the fire started during the Ann-Margret and Oliver Reed dancing scene; smoke drifts in front of the camera in several shots, and he used a shot of the building fully ablaze for the destruction of Tommy's Holiday Camp.
- During the filming Ann-Margret accidentally struck her hand on the broken glass of the TV screen, causing a severe laceration, and Russell had to take her to hospital to have the wound stitched, although she was back on set the next day.
- The giant "pinballs" in the scene near the end of the film were in fact obsolete buoys found in a British Navy yard, simply sprayed silver and filmed in situ around Portsmouth.
- Jagger was reportedly offered the role of The Acid Queen but insisted on singing three of his own songs, so the part was given to Tina Turner instead.
- Elton John initially turned down the role of the Pinball Wizard, and David Essex recorded a test audio version of the song as a possible replacement; producer Robert Stigwood held out until John agreed, reportedly on condition that he could keep the gigantic Dr. Martens boots he wore in the scene.
- Jack Nicholson said of his role as the Specialist: "In my whole career there was only one time when a director said to me, 'OK, come right down the pike and just look beautiful, Jack.' That was Ken Russell on Tommy."
- Roger Daltrey was announced as Tommy and Keith Moon as Uncle Ernie, amid rumors involving David Bowie, Elton John, Barbra Streisand and Mick Jagger; Daltrey was cast at Russell's specific request, over the wishes of his own management.
- Tommy was released in a special sound system called Quintaphonic Sound, much as Walt Disney's Fantasia had needed Fantasound, which required each theater that showed it to be specially prepared; like Fantasound, Quintaphonic Sound was never used again.
