Unfortunately I never had a chance to see the movie in theaters when it first came out. I saw it for the first time on video in 1990. Did it look wild seeing it on a huge screen like that? I can imagine the beans and chocolate scene taking on a different dimension like that.
shareI saw this at the Ziegfeld in Manhattan in 1975 where it was played at its proper sound level - LOUD. I saw it a second time at a local theater on Long Island the same year and became painfully aware that there was more than one soundtrack.
I've also rented this on tape and again on DVD but there appears no way to capture the experience of the Ziegfeld big screen at home.
Tina Turner got a standing ovation at the end of Acid Queen. Never before or since have I seen that in the middle of a movie.
I saw this first on the big screen at a majorly modern(for the time) theatre in a suburb of Kansas City at the age of 10. I believe they advertised 70mm film and stereo Dolby sound. Between that and the huge screen, mixed with Ken Russell's freaky, over-the-top lighting and colours, I was completely blown away and obsessed. I went out and bought the soundtrack the next day and still have it.
One thing I'd forgotten about until just a few years ago, just for the occasion, the theatre had installed a big mirror ball which hung from the ceiling a little to the front of the center of the room! They turned it on and lit it during the "Sparks" sequence of the film. It was magical!
In '75 I was 19. We stood in line at a big theater in Westwood (L.A.). We were high, of course, and loved it. Townshend built a studio at home just for the purpose of mixing this movie. He wanted to have "hands on" with the sound. And if you don't already know, Tommy is the first movie EVER to be mixed in 5.1. Townshend wanted a center channel. He beat Disney to the punch.
shareSadly I'm a bit too young to have seen this in the pictures, but my father did at the ripe old age of 17.
No one else would go to it with him, so he went himself absolutely stoned out of his mind, still sometimes talks about it and how amazing it was.
Thanks dad, for the good taste in music. (And fine exotic tobaccos...)
"I did it for me. I liked it!"
yup, I was 14 in 1975 and took my little brother who was 9, I think I might have damaged him a bit, but he is a Who fan :)
I remember we saw it during the day and just came out into the bright sunlight, totally dazed and deafened from the BIG sound... We had Jaws that same year so it was a good summer for films....
Tommy REALLY does need to be seen on the big screen with big sound.. I have watched it on TV and the sound is crap.. I guess if you had a Blu-Ray and surround sound speakers it could be okay
That's an extremely lucky experience to have! Deafened and dazed by the sun just after seeing Tommy... Perfect!
Surround sound speakers are the only way, I wish they'd show this in a cinema somewhere again though. (Highly unlikely)
"I did it for me. I liked it!"
This is a fun thread!
I was 14 in 1975. I had gotten the double LP soundtrack album for Christmas (I still love the layout and design of that album!) and listened to it over and over, imagining how the scenes would play out in the movie.
Finally it was playing near us at the 4-plex at the mall. My dad took me to see it- and the print was terrible! Beat up and scratched, and the (mono) sound volume low. I loved the movie, but felt cheated by the presentation. It felt like I hadn't really seen the movie.
So, a year or two later, the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood played a special engagement of "Tommy" in 70mm and 6-track stereo. And my dad went with me to see it again.
And it was amazing! Mind-blowing on a HUGE screen with eardrum-piercing (but outstanding quality) audio pumping out of the speakers. It was a brand new movie, and I knew this was what the filmmakers had intended the experience to be.
We left the theater with our ears ringing. The movie is such an audio-visual assault, and the slogan "Your senses will never be the same" is perfectly apt. You left the theater feeling like you've taken a hit of something.
I saw it when it first came out. I rode my bike with my cousin to the mall and sat in one of those tunnel theaters that resemble a bowling alley. hahaha
shareI'm the same age as a few already mentioned. I was 15 in '75. Such a great year!
Anyway, I went with my best friend and we sat on the second or third row and we were blown AWAY to put it mildly.
I saw it TWICE on the big screen. I was 15 in '75. Friends and I took the damn bus across town to the only theater showing it. We thought it was great, or at least wanted to think so. Hated Oliver Reed and Ann-Margret and that stupid little boy even then. Just sat through it to get to The Who, much like I'm doing now while its on TCM!
shareI saw it over and over and over again when it came out. I was 12. I would stay in my seat in the back row corner and watch every showing. Did that more than once.
shareI saw it at the Pi Alley Cinema in Boston. Easter eve midnight show 1975. I was 17. I went with about 6 of my friends. Great time!!!
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