Tommy

"A vague haze of delirium," ad infinitum. The end of the Blitz means the birth of the eponymous lad, Dad (Robert Powell) is presumed dead in action so Mum (Ann-Margret) takes up with a holiday-camp sleaze (Oliver Reed). The return and killing of the melted RAF bombardier exacerbates the shock of the Freudian primal scene, the boy retreats within: "Now he is deaf / Now he is dumb / Now he is blind / The guilty are safe / But always accused by his empty eyes." The raid on the inarticulate and its many forms, The Preacher (Eric Clapton) with the communion of pills and Jack Daniels, The Acid Queen (Tina Turner) with the iron maiden of hypodermics, The Specialist (Jack Nicholson) with the solace of quackery. Tommy (Roger Daltrey) finds the sweet spot at the junkyard arcade and topples The Pinball Wizard (Elton John), his plaintive plea persists in fame and fortune: "See me / Feel me / Touch me / Heal me." The Who's rock opera visualized is transcendent illumination or thunderous kitsch, either way a picture Ken Russell was born to make. Cults everywhere, the Divine Marilyn in the Upskirt Temple yields to the new Messiah, whose cross is his name's first letter dotted with a silver ball. Bullying cousin (Paul Nicholas) and pederastic uncle (Keith Moon) have their parts to play, the telly's revolting deluge upon Mum departs from Makavejev's Sweet Movie and has consequences for Cronenberg's Videodrome. "The actors do not act. They quiver." (Godard on Franju's La Tête Contre les Murs) Through the mirror into the sea à la Cocteau, the mountain at the last climbed might be Jodorowsky's. "Each sensation makes a note in his symphony," a principle carried by Russell all the way to his own Zarathustra sunrise. "Listening to you, I get the music / Gazing at you, I get the heat..." Parker's Pink Floyd: The Wall pumps the cheese full of pomposity, as befits the Eighties. With Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, Arthur Brown, and Victoria Russell.