Tommy - More 31 Days of Oscar

Tommy

I'm a big fan of The Who. I own the Tommy album, though it's not one of my favorites. I'd always heard the movie was lousy though, so I never bothered to watch it, but when I saw it on the 31 Days of Oscar lineup, I figured why not?

Well... lousy was right on. Some of the music is still good, but the visuals were... everything I don't like about psychedelia. Just all sorts of nonsensical garbage, including the infamous scene with Ann-Margret covered in beans. And she was Oscar nominated for this one. Crazy.

The cameos were kind of interesting. Eric Clapton showed up early on as a preacher, and looked like he really didn't want to be there. Or he was drunk. Possibly both. Oliver Reed can't sing, as far as I can tell. Tina Turner really gave it her all, but I don't think The Acid Queen really fits her particular vocal talents. The ones that actually worked well were Elton John's Pinball Wizard and, surprisingly, Jack Nicholson as the doctor. Ol' Jack has a halfway decent singing voice.

I'm glad I finally saw it, just cause now I know what people mean when they talk about the Ann-Margret bean scene. But I won't ever want to catch it again.