Pete Townshend Doc Premieres at Telluride — SkimNews
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- "Pete Townshend: Behind Blue Eyes" premiered at Telluride, directed by Frank Marshall and Nigel Sinclair, and features previously unseen 16mm footage shot at Holmhurst Manor in 1972 alongside outtakes from the Who's 1970 Isle of Wight performance.
- Pete Townshend, now 81, sits for an extended on-camera interview alongside Roger Daltrey, with the film centering on his creation of "Tommy" and the creative crisis that followed its success.
- The documentary acknowledges the Who's influence on punk but omits "My Generation" entirely and skips discussion of Ken Russell's opulently feverish 1975 film adaptation of "Tommy."
- The film mentions Keith Moon's death from an overdose of chlomethiazole — a sedative prescribed to ease alcohol withdrawal — but never addresses his drinking, and ignores Townshend's two marriages and his 1980 acknowledgment of a period living a "gay existence."
- Townshend's addiction period, during which he drank three bottles of Cognac a day by his own account, is referenced but the documentary doesn't explore why he descended into addiction.
Why it matters: For an 81-year-old rock icon whose story was already told in the 1979 doc "The Kids Are Alright," "Behind Blue Eyes" carves a different path by skipping seismic moments like "My Generation" and Moon's drinking — positioning itself as a Townshend mood piece rather than a definitive portrait. That selective approach will resonate with fans wanting his confessional angle, less so with newcomers.
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