Each of Tommy's important character corresponded to a color, which is apparent as each character is introduced. The opening scene shows Tommy's father, Walker, as a silhouette on a mountain, facing a blazing red sky. Subsequent appearances of Walker, or scenes concerning Walker, have noticeable red objects or lighting on screen. Frank, Nora's money-hungry new lover, corresponds to green. He is introduced to the audience in a green blazer and scenes showing Frank's scheming to make money were green. By relating green to scandalous Frank, the audience foresees some tragedy in Tommy's future when his cult associates appear in green uniforms.

As opposed to the other characters, Tommy does not appear to have an assigned characteristic color until he becomes an adult and suffers through traumatizing events. He appears in green as a boy and on stage playing pinball, illustrating Frank's power over him to the audience. However, later in the film, Tommy meets the Acid Queen who allows him to "meet" his father (the scene uses red lighting) during a bizarre "trip". In a later scene that uses yellow lighting, Tommy's cousin, who knows he is vulnerable, physically beats him. Following this, a scene of Tommy being subjected to his sexually perverse uncle, uses blue lighting. The camera then looks over Tommy's shoulder and exposes the mirror, into which Tommy is staring. In the mirror, Tommy sees three of himself: one red, one yellow, and one blue. These images merge to reveal Tommy's characteristic color: white. The conventional use of white in the arts indicates to the audience, the purity and divinity of Tommy's character. Tommy is related to the majestic white as a developing element of the film's farce on Christianity (a topic for another paper). His color was actually revealed at his birth, in the stark white hospital room, but he was next seen under Frank's (green) influence.

A specific example of color is used when Nora and Tommy return from the vacation camp with Frank. As the characters walk up the driveway, the camera reveals that the house's exterior (previously not shown) is green. Nora and Frank are later shown having sex in the green master bedroom. Immediately following, a shot shows Walker, presumed dead, briefly entering and exiting Tommy's bedroom. Tommy walks after him out into the hallway, revealing a bright red carpet. Frank then attacks and kills Walker. Subsequently Nora and Frank, in a green robe, plead with Tommy at the bedroom door to keep the murder a secret; all the while the red hallway carpet behind Tommy is visible.

An interesting use of color is in a scene with Nora, who is depressed about Tommy's state. She sings about Tommy in a room with a white bed, white walls, white satin drapes, and white shag carpet. In an attempt to free her mind of Tommy she gulps the rest of her Dom Perignon, and pitches the bottle at her television. To mark the success of relieving her mind of Tommy, torrents of baked beans and caviar wash out of the television and cover the white floor. Nora then happily writhes around in the muck, throwing globs of it to further cover the white walls.

Throughout the film, a dark crimson red pertains to Nora's romantic or sexual encounters with the movie's male characters. Nora and Walker are seen lovingly embracing in a crimson walled room of their home, Nora falls in love with Frank as they dance in a red ballroom, and a flirtatious moment with Tommy's doctor includes a close-up of Nora's rich, red lipstick. This color correlation, as related to a later, seemingly innocent natured scene, reveals some disturbing incestuous undertones. The previous shot shows Nora in the back seat of their new Cadillac with Tommy, cocktail in hand. She is showing concern for Tommy's state, but appears to be behaving a bit more intimately than a mother normally would with her son. Next, the disturbing scene opens to a view of the same white room that indicates Nora's thoughts of Tommy, but now Tommy is standing in the room gazing into a mirror, and Nora dances around the room wildly in a crimson dress. She dances and sings in front of Tommy, blocking his view of the mirror, appealing to him for some recognition or attention. Having watched the film in a passive state, this scene does arouse some unexplainable unsettling feelings, but actively watching the film and its use of colors in context blatantly divulges the scene's incestuous nature.

The director's control over the visible aspects of a film is crucial to the meaning of any film's story. However, in Tommy, Ken Russell relies heavily on mise-en-scene, due to the fast pace and omitted time of the story, as well as the consistent musical dialog, whose lyrics can be vague. Particularly, the director's use of color and colored lighting allows the audience to relate colors to the personalities of each character. For example, Green implied Frank's menacing, or negative events. Thus, the director's use of a colored visual cue in the frame can elicit an emotional response or expose complex information to the audience.