Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
After a series of traumatic childhood events, a psychosomatically deaf, dumb and blind boy becomes a master pinball player and the object of a religious cult.
Ken Russell's film adaptation of The Who's rock opera is a genuinely singular piece of cinema — visually audacious, garish, and hallucinatory in a way that could only exist in the mid-1970s at the intersection of rock music and auteur excess. Russell's cinematography is stunning and deliberately overwhelming, full of surreal imagery and bold compositions that remain iconic. The novelty is extremely high: rock opera as cinematic spectacle, with an all-star cast singing rather than speaking dialogue, is a one-of-a-kind proposition executed with fearless commitment. The acting is uneven — Daltrey is earnest but limited as a largely mute protagonist, while Ann-Margret earned her Oscar nomination with a volcanic performance, and cameos from Elton John, Tina Turner, and Jack Nicholson add charismatic energy. The plot is fragmented and episodic by the nature of the source material, serviceable but not dramatically cohesive. The ending deflates somewhat — the messiah/cult celebrity satire loses momentum and resolves inconclusively, leaving the film's grand ambitions slightly unfulfilled.