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Thursday, February 9, 2012

Music / Drugs / Film Tonight at SIFF: A Quadrophonic Restoration of Tommy

Posted by David Schmader on Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 4:20 PM

scaled.free-movie-film-poster-tommy_xlg.jpeg

Tonight, SIFF Cinema at the Uptown screens Ken Russell-and-the Who's Tommy, and here are Stranger film intern Amy Scott's reasons why you should go see it.

Referring to Tommy, the musical album, Steve Knopper in Kill Your Idols writes, “The central maddening contradiction of Tommy is it retains musical power because it makes no sense,” and this also applies to Ken Russell’s adaptation, which adds even more breadth to the story's confusion via picture power, with a thick and buttery spread of surrealism.

Reasons to get stoned and watch Tommy:

9) Quadraphonic restoration, SIFF better REPRESENT
1) Ken Russell
7) Tina Turner’s rendition of “The Acid Queen” is AH-MAZING complete with the grooviest bass-line ever, gigantic needles, red platform shoes and a Darth Vader helmet.
11) Russell updates the album’s time period, placing it in 1951, then outfitting it with kaleidoscopic psychedelic imagery and 70s décor
17) Ann-Margret’s champagne, chocolate and baked beans bubble bath and phallic-pillow humping.
546) Roger Daltrey is the most convincing deaf, dumb, and blind kid, ever. His “huh” face after “Christmas,” gets a good ten-seconds of camera love before the slow zoom-out to an awkwardly-robed Eric Clapton
200) “Smash the Mirror” is PERFECT in all of its confetti glass. The song is combined with “I’m Free,” (instead of “Sensation”) and Daltrey waddles haphazardly—on water/through fire, plus upside-down camera angles, carnival-sounding synths, and Pinball worship
5) Keith Moon as “Uncle Ernie”
9) Jack Nicholson sings quietly and winks in time with the music
12) KEN RUSSELL

Plus many more.

Comments (13) RSS

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17 is good, but not as good as State Fair.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on February 9, 2012 at 4:30 PM

Who's Robert Daltrey?

Posted by j.lee on February 9, 2012 at 4:39 PM

Sounds like Amy Scott appreciates film. Hope she does more reviews and write-ups so that there are less "reviews" like this one:

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Movie…

Posted by stinkbug on February 9, 2012 at 4:42 PM

@2 yeah, massive fail.

Also, 1951 is the year Tommy's father comes back, not when the bulk of the movie and its psychedelic craziness take place.

Posted by The Who on February 9, 2012 at 4:47 PM

Any relation between Keri Russel and Ken Russel?

Posted by Will in Seattle

on February 9, 2012 at 5:08 PM

COSTCO CHICKEN MEME! *snicker*

Posted by Dr_Awesome on February 9, 2012 at 5:31 PM

P.s. Goddammit, The Stranger, you should posted this yesterday. Me and The Future Mrs. Dr. Awesome just made plans for the evening. Or we would totally be all over this.

Posted by Dr_Awesome on February 9, 2012 at 5:33 PM

@5, you are the stupidest person who has ever lived.

Posted by Fnarf

on February 9, 2012 at 5:39 PM

@2, I dunno, but Miss Scott's not the first person to make that mistake:

http://www.celebritydietdoctor.com/rober…

Posted by Fnarf

on February 9, 2012 at 5:43 PM

Errr - the film isn't set in 1951. It starts sometime during WW2, then jumps to 1951 for the young Tommy, and jumps again to the adult (Roger Daltrey) Tommy, circa 1975.

Posted by Jared Bascomb on February 9, 2012 at 5:51 PM

Weird.. This movie was on TeeVee this morning, on one of my weird free channels... Hadda get ready for work or I would have totally watched it...

@7 - Seconded! We need some lead time on these cool things, guys!

Platform shoes FTW.

Posted by merry on February 9, 2012 at 6:11 PM

Saw it in 1975 at the Ziegfeld in NYC...with quadrophonic sound...back when people used to actually buy quadrophonic stereos...my Dad took me and my then 13 year old sister Marie...both Elton fans like everyone else at the time...don't know if I want to overwrite that memory.

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe