Pink Floyd:
The Wall (1982)
‘If ya don’t eat yer meat,
you can’t have any pudding!
How can ya have any pudding
if ya don’t eat ya meat?’
Recently I viewed The Rocky Horror Picture show (1975) all the way through for the first time as I’d never seen it in one going and only liked the first half.
I liked it all of it.
I watched The Who’s Tommy (1975) as well because the only other time I had seen it I thought it was a disorganised, incoherent mess.
I loved it and whilst it is trippy (70s after all) it does make sense (sort of) and is brilliant.
As for Pink Floyds The Wall? Well the Beeb never shows that.
In fact no-one does and it can’t be because they show a few of those scenes from The Dam Busters (1955) which feature prominently at times.
Those who have seen it know what I mean.
I’m not alone in saying I didn’t fully understand what was going on so I will quote Wikipaedia as someone on there thankfully does.
‘The film centres around a confined rocker named Pink, who, after being driven into insanity by the death of his father and many depressive moments during his lifetime, constructs a metaphorical (and sometimes physical) wall to be protected from the world and emotional situations around him. When this coping mechanism backfires he puts himself on trial’
Using a mixture of live action and animated scenes with some being a combination of the two The Wall tells its story by constantly using flashbacks to the main character Pinks childhood and mixing it with his current depressive existence and the daydreams he retreats into.
This is how I found it hard to follow at times as it doesn’t explain what is going on to you all that much but this is an Alan Parker directed film of a 70s Pink Floyd album so off the wall (pun intended) is something you should expect and enjoy.
I did.
There is very little dialogue as the film uses Floyd songs but instead of simply playing the songs of the album and fitting the film around like others have for instance the awful Mamma Mia! (2008), here all bar 3 songs have been remixed, re-recorded and had lyrics changed so you aren’t simply listening to the album.
Pink is played by Bob Geldof who sings lead on a lot of the Pink Floyd songs so fans will have a new listening experience plus his performance overall is excellent.
The whole film is excellent but I’m a fan anyway of the band and those 70s-esque probably LSD inspired rock-operas making this an easy watch for me.
Which reminds me I need to watch Yellow Submarine (1968) again.
The imagery is dark and depressing which also makes this easy for me to watch and some of the concepts are simple but effective especially the use of the Wall as well as the reason behind the school teachers treatment of his pupils but the real reason anyone will watch this is the music.
It’s Pink Floyd so there is your answer.
Honestly. If you’re a fan you’ll love it but if not then maybe you wont.
But you should.
Unlike the band as well as director who don’t like this that much. I don’t know if their opinions have changed but they do seem to be the only ones who don’t.
It seems the making of The Wall is as traumatic as what what Pink is going through with one director quitting the production to animation director Gerald Scarfe stating how he would turn up at Pinewood Studios with a bottle of Jack Daniels just so he could get through the day.
Then there is the story about when Bob Geldof was offered the role by his agent during a taxi ride and he repeatedly refused it saying how he didn’t like Floyds music unaware that the driver was the brother of Pink Floyd band member Roger Waters.
I hope they appreciate this film more because it really is something fans love even if the final product was not the vision of their concept they wanted.
