Tommy (Universal) (1975)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1975
Running Time	106:53
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (56:59)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Ken Russell
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Oliver Reed Ann-Margret Roger Daltrey Elton John Eric Clapton Jack Nicholson
Case	?
RPI	$36.95	Music	The Who

    Tommy 'that deaf, dumb and blind kid, sure plays a mean pinball'.

    Tommy tells the story of a young boy, Tommy (Roger Daltrey), who experiences a dramatic childhood trauma. This experience leaves him with a psychological condition resulting in the apparent loss of his senses. As he grows, his mother and step-father take him to various people for help but all their efforts fail. Despite his handicap, Tommy eventually becomes a world-famous pinball player when he challenges and beats the current pinball wizard. Through his pinball success, Tommy and his parents gain fame and fortune. When Tommy is suddenly cured, he is hailed as a new religious leader gaining a large international following.

    Before watching this disc I had not seen Tommy and was only aware of the movie through the concept album from The Who. Directed by Ken Russell (Altered States, Whore) this movie has generated responses from viewers ranging from brilliant to appalling. The disagreement between viewers is not surprising as the rock opera has always divided viewers. This film has no regular dialogue with the movie comprised entirely of a combination of musical numbers. Performances by Eric Clapton, Tina Turner, Elton John and Jack Nicholson will undoubtedly be remembered by all viewers and they do make the movie interesting.

    This film will continue to evoke a wide range of responses from viewers, but if you are a fan of the rock opera genre or of The Who, it is a disc worth checking out.

Video

    The Pan & Scan transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

    This transfer is quite soft and never exhibits high levels of detail at any stage. Shadow detail also poses a problem for this transfer with most of the dark portions of the picture displaying little detail. Luckily, the majority of the transfer is well-lit and consequently the poor levels of shadow detail do not become a significant problem for the viewer. At no stage during the transfer was any low level noise detected.

    The colours for the film appear muted and slightly washed out as you typically find in a film of this age. During one sequence filmed with red lighting at 31:40, a large amount of chroma noise may be seen as well as high levels of dot crawl. Dot crawl may also seen throughout the closing credit sequence. These artefacts are very obvious and quite disruptive to the viewer.

    At no stage during the transfer were any MPEG artefacts detected.

    A small number of aliasing artefacts may be seen throughout the transfer with examples visible at 51:02, 59:22, 66:02 and 86:13. Luckily each of these artefacts only occur for a short duration and are only very mildly disruptive to the viewer.

    Unfortunately, film artefacts pose a significant problem for this transfer with obvious film damage visible at numerous points during the movie. Some examples of this film damage may be seen at 30:36, 50:03, 87:14 and 89:24. This significant damage is also combined with frequent occurrences of minor flecks and spots throughout the transfer. This damage is quite distracting to the viewer due to its constant presence and occasional severity.

    During the opening credit sequence, a small amount of telecine wobble may be seen but this only lasts a short amount of time and does not occur again in the transfer.

    Disappointingly, no subtitle track is present on this disc.

    The layer change occurs at 56:59 at the start of Chapter 14. This is placed at a scene change and is only mildly disruptive to the viewer.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The musical dialogue for this film remains clear and easy to understand at all times.

    As all dialogue is looped, there are some obvious small synchronization issues but these are never distracting to the viewer. During points in the film where obvious film damage has occurred, the soundfield often briefly collapses to an apparent mono mix. These audio problems are disruptive to the viewer but understandable considering the problems with the source material.

    The whole audio track for this film can be considered the score. This is definitely quite different to the original double LP concept album by The Who. It is highly varied score, featuring heavy use of synthesizers and may appeal to fans of their music. Even if you do not find the musical numbers very appealing, the performances by Jack Nicholson, Eric Clapton, Tina Turner, Elton John and others are very memorable.

    The surround and subwoofer channels are not utilized at all during the transfer.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• 1.85:1 16:9 enhanced transfer
• 5.0 Dolby Digital track from original Sansui/QS matrix "Quintaphonic" mix
• Essay on Audio restoration
• Talent files
• English, Spanish, French subtitles

The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• Nothing

    The Region 1 version of this disc is the clear winner, but due to the unusual nature of the movie unfamiliar viewers may wish to rent the R4 version before purchasing this disc.

    Tommy is a 70s rock opera that will surely appeal to some people but will leave others very disappointed with the direction and performances in the film.

    The Pan & Scan image combined with the damaged source materials results in a highly unsatisfying video transfer.

    The exclusion of the original surround track for this movie is extremely disappointing as this mix would have been interesting from a historical viewpoint.

    No extras are provided on this disc.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall