Ken Russell applies his rococo outpourings to Pete Townshend's rock opera and botches not only the visuals but the fine score.
Tommy
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
United Kingdom · 1975
Rated PG · 1h 51m
Director Ken Russell
Starring Roger Daltrey, Oliver Reed, Ann-Margret, Elton John
Genre Drama, Music
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
As a young child, Tommy witnesses the brutal murder of his father, and becomes psychosomatically deaf, mute, and blind, making life with his unsympathetic mother difficult. Tommy's tragic life takes a surprising turn when he finds fame, fortune, and adoration in adulthood as a master pinball player.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Village Voice by Andrew Sarris
Tommy is turning out to be the kind of movie most people probably like more than they care to admit. Modest charm and unpretentiousness are hardly the qualities that I ever thought I would associate with Ken Russell, but there you are, and there Tommy is. [31 Mar 1975, p.68]
This 1975 film's inventiveness begins to flag about halfway through, but by then it's a relief.
For all that Tommy bungles or overdoes, it’s still a powerful experience, musically and visually.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Russell doesn't give a damn about the material he started with, greatest art work of the century or not, and he just goes ahead and gives us one glorious excess after another. He is aided by his performers, especially Ann-Margret, who is simply great as Tommy's mother.
The New York Times by Vincent Canby
Mr. Russell's Tommy virtually explodes with excitement on the screen. A lot of it is not quite the profound social commentary it pretends to be, but that's beside the point of the fun.
Users who liked this film also liked
Brief Encounter
After a chance meeting, two married people begin a passionate, but doomed, romantic affair.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 1945
- Director David Lean
- Cast Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey, Cyril Raymond, Everley Gregg
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Criterion Channel, FlixFling, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Amazon Video, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, Freevee, Shout! Factory TV, Plex, Plex Channel
Empties
(Vratné lahve)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Denmark • 2007
- Director Jan Svěrák
- Cast Zdeněk Svěrák, Daniela Kolářová, Tatiana Dyková, Jiří Macháček, Pavel Landovský, Jan Budař
- Genre Comedy
- Available on Apple TV
Quadrophenia
Postal worker Jimmy Cooper joins a motorcycle gang — but after he bears witness to mounting tensions with a rival gang, he must decide between returning to his dead-end job or life with the Mods.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 1979
- Director Franc Roddam
- Cast Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Phil Davis, Mark Wingett, Sting, Ray Winstone
- Genre Drama, Music
- Available on fuboTV, Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Crackle, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, Shout! Factory TV, Plex, Plex Channel
The Lair of the White Worm
After a mysterious skull is unearthed, residents of a village start disappearing and a pagan god hungers for the taste of virginal flesh.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 1988
- Director Ken Russell
- Cast Amanda Donohoe, Catherine Oxenberg, Sammi Davis, Hugh Grant, Peter Capaldi, Stratford Johns
- Genre Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Tubi TV, VUDU Free, Freevee, Plex, Plex Channel
Emma
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, United States • 1996
- Director Diarmuid Lawrence
- Cast Kate Beckinsale, Mark Strong, Samantha Morton, Raymond Coulthard, Olivia Williams, Bernard Hepton
- Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Tubi TV, Freevee
The Magnificent One
(Le Magnifique)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Italy, Mexico • 1973
- Director Philippe de Broca
- Cast Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jacqueline Bisset, Vittorio Caprioli, Hans Meyer, Monique Tarbès, Mario David
- Genre Action, Comedy, Romance
- Available on Amazon Video, Kanopy
Carry On Matron
The Carry On team serve up another 'prescription' of hilarious comedy!!!
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 1972
- Director Gerald Thomas
- Cast Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Hattie Jacques, Bernard Bresslaw
- Genre Comedy
- Available on Amazon Video
The Boy Friend
EMI-MGM Presents The Return Of Entertainment
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, United States • 1971
- Director Ken Russell
- Cast Twiggy, Christopher Gable, Max Adrian, Bryan Pringle, Murray Melvin, Moyra Fraser
- Genre Comedy, Music, Romance
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
Gothic
Conjure up your deepest, darkest fear... now call that fear to life.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 1986
- Director Ken Russell
- Cast Gabriel Byrne, Julian Sands, Natasha Richardson, Myriam Cyr, Timothy Spall, Alec Mango
- Genre Horror, Drama, Fantasy, History
- Available on Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV, VUDU Free
Ransom
Hijackers. Kidnappers. Killers. Only one man can stop them.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, United States • 1974
- Director Casper Wrede
- Cast Sean Connery, Ian McShane, Jeffry Wickham, Isabel Dean, Robert Harris, James Maxwell
- Genre Action, Drama, Thriller
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Paper Mask
Trust me. I'm a doctor.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 1990
- Director Christopher Morahan
- Cast Paul McGann, Amanda Donohoe, Tom Wilkinson, Jimmy Yuill, Mark Lewis Jones, Oliver Ford Davies
- Genre Drama, Thriller
- Available on Tubi TV
Brief Encounter
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, Italy • 1974
- Director Alan Bridges
- Cast Richard Burton, Sophia Loren, Jack Hedley, Rosemary Leach, Ann Firbank, Gwen Cherrell
- Genre Drama, TV Movie
- Available on fuboTV, Amazon Video, Crackle, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Shout! Factory TV, Plex, Plex Channel