Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Tommy 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf March 18, 2025

In 1969, The Who unleashed “Tommy,” their electrified stab at a rock opera after years of tinkering with the complex creative format. A musical achievement of impressive ambition and crunchy stacked-amp rock theatrics, “Tommy” understandably became a sensation with critics and fans, justifiably branded the defining album of the band’s extensive career. The material soon embarked on a marathon tour of different interpretations, eventually making iconic leaps to Broadway in 1992 and a feature film event in 1975, handed over to cinema’s most persistent rascal, daredevil director Ken Russell, who’s never shied away from offering excess and volume, always delighting in some form of chaos. It was a match made in cinema heaven. The official tagline for the picture stated simply: “Your senses will never be the same.” In this world of “Tommy,” which touches on religion, violence, and insanity, it was a promise delivered in full.

Receiving the news that her fighter pilot husband was shot down behind enemy lines during World War II, Nora (Ann-Margret) fears she must soldier on as a single parent with her son, Tommy (played as an adult by Who singer Roger Daltry). Finding love again with holiday camp scamp Uncle Frank (Oliver Reed), Nora accepts a new man into her life, only to find her husband didn’t actually perish as previously believed. In a fit of rage, Uncle Frank kills the pilot in front of young Tommy, with the impressionable boy instructed to bury this horrible vision deep within. Electing to shut down all of his senses, Tommy, now “deaf, dumb, and blind,” lives a life of maddening psychosomatic blankness, with a series of professionals and hooligans taking their turns tormenting the boy, hoping to crack his baffling shell. Instead of medicine or violence, Tommy’s mind is electrified by the healing power of pinball, which makes him a world champion, and soon a flawed messianic figure overseeing a rapidly increasing flock of followers desperately hunting for a spiritual leader.

To write that “Tommy” is a strange movie is selling the unbelievable amount of psychedelic folds and avant-garde chutzpah on display here frighteningly short. Russell isn’t preserving the rounded edges of the original recorded work. Instead, he shreds it through his specialized command of cinema language, interpreting The Who’s beloved rock opera as a labyrinthine tour of the mind and soul, following Tommy’s life from his days as a nonspeaking boy to his development into a golden-haired messiah. Deeply rooted in era-appropriate synesthesia style and barnstorming Euro filmmaking sensibilities, “Tommy” is contorted masterfully by Russell, who seems only moderately invested in the music, instead expelling gale-force energy assembling this episodic descent into one abyssal, semi-satiric, ear-ringing acid trip.

Thwacked by Russell’s abstract impulses, “Tommy” is a sensorial assault that perfectly captures the world of the album. Granted, the music’s been reconsidered and reworked to fit into its big screen home (personally, I really enjoy the fullness of the movie music, and there’s no better version of “Cousin Kevin” than Paul Nicholas’s nefarious performance here), also reimagined with a generous push of synths to capture the 1970’s mood, but fixating on the band’s sound misses the point. Russell doesn’t want your ears, he wants your whole damn head, filling the frame with every camera and editorial trick in the book to create a swell of shock as Tommy plunges deeper into his illness, while his world fights back with increasing frustration. “Tommy” is a head-spinning, backhand slap of a feature film, skillfully reaching out to viewers with an array of songs, grotesqueries, perversions, and baked beans, guaranteeing the picture an immediate reaction from anyone daring to take it all in.

Russell fires on all cylinders here, poking and prodding his cast to reach explosive levels of thespian expression. Reed is sufficiently agitated as Uncle Frank (the actor’s known battle with the bottle is used to expand the character, and possibly cover for dismal singing abilities), and Daltry embodies all the childlike stillness of Tommy, generously articulating the character’s arc of pinball enlightenment. However, nothing comes close to Ann- Margret, who takes the form of a human tornado as Nora, supplying a deliciously unhinged performance that needs to be seen to be believed. Able to deliver the forceful singing and absolute mania the part requires, Ann-Margret received a much-deserved Academy Award nomination for her thunderous performance, which miraculously straddles the fine line between mortifying and exhilarating. Famous supporting turns from Elton John (as the Pinball Wizard, rocking size 140 shoes), Tina Turner (hyperventilating like a maniac as the Acid Queen, selling the stuffing out of the character’s threat level), and Jack Nicholson (“singing” as The Specialist, but he’s not here for his vocals) help to beautify the marquee value of the feature, but the core essence of “Tommy” remains in the quivering carriage of Ann-Margret and her heroic personification of Russell’s funhouse directorial approach.

For additional information and analysis, please read Martin Liebman’s 2010 Blu-ray review.

Tommy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Screencaps are taken from the Blu-ray.

"Tommy" was originally issued on Blu-ray in 2010, now returning with a UHD release from Shout Factory, listed as a "new 4K transfer from the 35mm original picture negative and 35mm color interpositive." The Dolby Vision viewing experience remains quite film-like, with nicely resolved grain throughout. Detail is strong, securing clear looks at the cast and their various states of distress and prolong moments of staring. Skin particulars are often distinct, capturing makeup additions and imperfections. Costuming retain fibrousness. Decorative additions are textured, and interiors are dimensional, exploring the sets as far as the cinematography allows. Exteriors go deep, providing a look at locations and naturalistic expanse. Colors are alert, maintaining the wild lighting of the feature, and costuming is vivid, offering crisp whites and deep primaries, including the redness of flowers and blood. Pinball silvers are clear as well. Skin tones are natural. Blacks are secure, preserving evening events and shadow play. Highlights are tasteful. Source is in good condition.

Tommy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD MA mixes are offered for "Tommy," the default setting is the 5.0 "Quintaphonic" track, which represents the original theatrical experience. The listening event is completely engaging and circular, delivering forceful musical moods throughout. Surrounds are alert and playful, exploring movement and separation during the songs. Vocals are crisp and centered, and they're extremely pronounced (personal preference for a more blended mix comes into play here), losing no intelligibility along the way. Instrumentation is sharp, delivering snappy percussion, rumbly bass, and nuanced guitars and synth/organ. Sound effects are defined.

Tommy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There is no supplementary material on this release.

Tommy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"Tommy" has been pushed and pulled through a myriad of interpretations, and while the songs and characterizations retain familiarity, artistic approaches vary wildly. The durability of the material is a testament to the dazzling musical foundation laid by The Who, but also to the story's remarkable malleability and enduring relevance as it questions the powers of sudden deities, financial and otherwise. Ken Russell's "Tommy" is the most berserk version of the rock opera, steamrolling along without a second thought, trusting the gorgeous music, pure labor of the ensemble, and visual eruption will provide enough of a magnificent cinematic vibration.