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Pink Floyd - The Wall (The Movie) CD (album) cover

THE WALL (THE MOVIE)

Pink Floyd

 

Psychedelic/Space Rock

4.12 | 612 ratings

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HammerOfPink
4 stars More than 4 actually, but not quite 5.

One of the things I love about this movie is the way it is directed... different metaphors are used on screen, and the way the camera focuses in on certain things at different angles in order to give you a bizarre and surreal feel to it.

It excellently tells the story of Pink that we all know from listening to the wall. It's sometimes beautiful, sometimes horrifyingly dark, and it always baffles you. Even people who never heard The Wall have loved it when I showed it to them. The music syncs with the movie very well, and always uses satirical elements that are characteristic of Roger Waters. Gerald Scarf, an amazing animator, also drew a few cartoon scenes for the movie in a very creepy way. His drawing style knows no boundaries, and is very dark and amazing. Each scene in the movie is pretty much unpredictable unless you already know the story, but even then it is. You're always wondering when Pink will suddenly flip out, or if characters from his imagination will suddenly come to life to attack him or what.

This whole metaphorical directing style is what makes this movie surreal. Half of the things you see on the screen are metaphors, like Pink sitting in the lawn chair with the TV and the lamp in the middle of the war field, or when the children go into the meat grinder in Another Brick in the Wall Part 2. In fact it is hard to distinct what actually happens and what are just metaphors/pieces of Pink's crazy imagination. And that's good, because in the eyes of Pink, the real and the unreal mix together in a crazy colloidal cauldron full of emotions, fears, etc.

The only thing that prevents this movie from getting a 5 is being consistent with the album. Almost every single song was rerecorded, even though quite a few sound the same. Some songs are shortened, and others are cut out altogether. The shortened songs are Run Like Hell and Waiting for the Worms. The omitted songs are Hey You (Roger Water's fault, he said to get rid of it, but they have a recording for it), The Show Must Go On, and Stop (which is replaced by Spoken words). I think a lot of this ruins a LOT of the stuff that was on the album itself. Also, Goodbye Blue Sky is randomly out of place. At least it adds in a few extra songs that couldn't make it onto the album, such as When the Tigers Broke free and What Shall We Do Now?

Overall, an amazing movie... surely a mindfuck, but it's very entertaining to watch. You will raise your eyebrows as you see some weird stuff on the screen, but it's very entertaining and fun for any Pink Floyd fan. =)

HammerOfPink | 4/5 |

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