Large 4to (11 x 8 1/2 in.; 279 x 216 mm). 65 mimeographed stud-bound pages with holograph edits by Townshend and Russell in ink and felt tip, original orange card covers; front cover lacking, title page and one script page detached but present, fore-edges a little creased and handled.

The shooting script for Tommy as used in the soundtrack sequencing

The evolution of Tommy from The Who's 1969 concept album to feature length film went far be𒀰yond mere interpretation.  The script by director Ken Russell sought to expand the original story of the deaf, dumb and blind protagonist into a much further reaching vision -  along the way he goes far beyond Townshend's original message of the hypocrisy of religion and commits fully to his penchant for cinematic excess, but one with a legendary soundtrack.

The confluence of religion and consumer culture are handled in typically anarchic Russell fashion (the worship of a Marilyn Monroe statue for instance) and throughou🍃t the film portrays postwar Britain as fractured, beginning with the family unit (the murder of Tommy's father, the family home a bombed out shell) and continuing to the desperate search for a messiah of sorts - the pop culture ascendancy of a broken young man famed for his mastery of a children's arcade game.

Production began in 1974 and the cast included Roger Daltrey in the lead role, Elton John, Tina Turner's Acꦆid Queen and Ann-Margret as Tommy's mother (for which she was nominated for an Oscar). Townshend was nominated by the Academy for the 𝓰soundtrack.

The present script has numerous edits over twenty plus pages, almost exclusive༺ly to do with song sequencing within the film production. Of particular note is the attention paid by Russell and Townshend to the exact timing of the film's most important scene - Pinball Wizard. ✃(Film critic Roger Ebert called this pinball tournament sequence "the movie's best single scene: a pulsating, orgiastic turn-on edited with the precision of a machine gun burst.")

"Piꦜnball Wizard" is about life's games, playing the machine – the boy and his machine, the disciples with theirs, the scores🥃, results, colours, vibrations and action." (Townshend)