So Normally Im really good at picking out metaphors but the Acid Queen scene where she turns into the Iron Maiden kinda has me stumped. My theory is that it's supposed to represent something that usually brings pleasure brings him nothing but pain. I mean thats just my theory but maybe someone has better insight to what his visions mean and what the scene represents. THANKS!
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I always thought the scene would've looked better if the AQ had put Tommy in the Iron Maiden herself rather than her morph into it because that made it seem like he was tripping before she'd drugged him.
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To answer the question, an "iron maiden" is a chastity belt. In less enlightened times than our own, His Lordship would tie up his lady in an iron contraption designed to prevent her from having sex while he was away. I'm not making this up; I wish I were.
shareapart from that its a torture device as well, which is the kind of Iron Maiden being represented in this movie :)
The victim would be enclosed in an armor shaped as a human - forcing him/her to stand up during the entire torture process.
The torturer would pierce the armor through various holes with knives, nails etc. until the victim would die from blodloss, since the holes often were placed so that you wouldnt pierce anything vital
evil way to die
Actually an iron maiden was a medieval torture/execution device. It was shaped like a woman and had nails on the inside, much like the syringes in the film. When someone was put inside, the doors would close and the nails would pierce them, causing the person to bleed to death in the maiden's embrace.
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T~O
"Hell's Not So Bad If You Get To Keep An Angel With You"
I only saw this film for the first time last night, and apart from that scene meaning he (and the acid queen?) were having a trip, I also thought there was a sexual metaphor in there.
It seemed the room they were in was in some sort of sleazy hotel, with signs in the lobby saying 'dancing girls' or something similiar, so the acid queen could be some sort of stripper or prostitute. There's also a line close to "I'll show you a good time".
She transforms into the iron maiden, then we see Tommy inside it... He's 'inside' her... Blood starts flowing, the needles become erect with blood... Think you can see where im going with this.
Maybe it was just me?
...I am Jack's signature...
Aside from the injection (which they make pretty clear) I heard someone say that, specifically, the Iron Maiden was to represent that the Acid Queen was essentially raping Tommy by forcing him inside of her.
And if you're like me, then you'll read this like it's part of the message too!
It's an acid trip. Blood is first drawn into the syringe(s) as you do in administering acid, to dilute the chemical before injection, then Tommy goes though several common experiences of taking acid.Yeeeeah...no. The thing is, neither acid nor ANY kind of hallucinogens are EVER injected. Maybe in the song they're talking about an acid trip, but the scene in the movie very clearly indicates heroin, because if you remember, when the "iron maiden" opens up, Tommy is poked full of holes with poppies in their places. The poppies are a dual theme in the movie, because they are a long-time symbol of war-time memorial (and are used extensively to hearken back to Tommy's father, a soldier who suffered terrible wounds), and they are also where opium comes from, which in turn, of course, is used to make heroin, among many other forms of the drug including morphine, used extensively to treat war wounds and make dying more comfortable by putting the dying soldier into a painless bliss state.
Nice *beep* Xeokym, guess the filmmakers probly meant this scene to have a few different meanings.
...I am Jack's signature...
Yeah I agree, it was definitely heroin symbolism, even though she's called the Acid Queen & supposed to be sending him on a psychedelic trip as per the song lyrics. And I think it's also like scar 007 said, she's kind of "raping" him, in effort to get him to "awaken," utilizing both pleasure & pain. Neither of which work, apparently.
shareI also think it might represent a pre-birth state, like in his mother's womb, when it opens and he has poppies and crosses all over him and metal balls in his hand and his mother lies on the floor amidst those balls. I felt like the "drug trip" or what you may call it caused him to remember the shock his mother experienced with him inside her, when she received the message of the father's death. So instead of curing him, he is re-traumatized by the "memory" once more, on one more layer.
The acid queen seems to be like a dark mirror image of his mother, or what his mother failed to give him as a child (love, affection, attention, touch, truly seeing him and so on). He is send to a prostitute to get physical attention, but it is not a valid substitute for what he lacks, therefore, it causes more trauma.
Then there are the cushions as walls (don't know the right term for it) like in a loony bin, and at the same time, she seems to be considered as a kind of lay therapist of some reputation ("queen" with assistances and technical devices etc.) and on top of that being a prostitute - it's really a weird figure. There is so much to discover and think about in this scene, it's really magical, great art!
It means there was a *beep* load of badly cut coke around in the '70s.
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