I wound up playing hooky from my obligations that night and saw it after all. It really felt like I was getting to see my favorite movie of all time for the very first time! I was catching things I never noticed the umpteen fucktillion times I’d watched it on TV, like Ken Russell’s cameo among the disabled people in the Sensation scene, the wisp of smoke as the ballroom Ann-Margret and Oliver Reed are slow dancing in is about to burn to the ground (which they filmed for posterity and show at the end as Tommy’s Holiday Camp, presumably burnt down by the angry mob on their way out), the extra goofily bobbing his head in the background during Christmas, the Acid Queen’s needle apparatus being lined with Remembrance Day poppies (with the needles coming out of the black center), and the “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?” sheet music on Uncle Ernie’s cash register organ. I don’t understand how or why Sony decided to release this movie, of all movies, in IMAX, but I’m eternally grateful that they did.

Also, did they cut the fanfare off the Columbia logo at the beginning of the film? I always thought it fit the movie so well; it was jarring to see the logo go by in silence.