THE WALL (A FILM BY ROGER WATERS AND SEAN EVANS)

This concert film is not only appealing because of the music of "The Wall" presented by Roger Waters and his band, but because of the story behind the stage. The story reveals the anti-war message and the movie offer to the viewer other surroundings than the actual stage. But don't worry, we have the complete show here. The fact that it was not only a concert made me appreciate more the music of "The Wall" which has never been my favorite Pink Floyd album. The visuals are spectacular in this super production with the big wall, the lights mainly in the red color and the projections on the screen. The musicians are almost out of the picture, except Roger. The surround "atmospheric" sound place you in the show. And on top of that, you can watch this in plenty of languages choices with the subtitles, while this is more important in the extras with the documentary. In the extras, you can see David Gilmour played "Comfortably Numb" on top of the wall. My favorite parts of the show are the atmospheric songs outside the typical rock songs of the "Another Brick in The Wall" suite. The story behind the concept of "The Wall" is beyond the simple anti-war message, but is also based on the concept of alienation that humans fear in their lives in general. The idea of Roger Waters to dedicated this show to the people who have died in the war is really touching considering the fact that his father and grandfather died in this situation so that his universal message of peace has a personal resonance on him. Recommended not only to music listeners, but also those who enjoy a good musical movie.

After Alan Parker's film and the Berlin political show, what can Roger Waters do to excite us, Pink Floyd veterans? well, it seems that quite a bit. First, the visual presentation is absolutely stunning: Waters uses cutting-edge 3D projection techonology to transform the huge wall into a virtual reality platform. The projections are utterly captivating, moving around the stage like it was real, making our eyes wonder if it's real or some kind of trickerry. It's a sight to behold. Waters uses every magic in his vault to include modern political references, satire and social commentary. This is the main reason to get the blu-ray edition (don't settle for DVD, it's not good enough, sorry).

So it's a huge show and it's visually very satisfying. In the musical department, there's not much room to improve, really. OK, the audio quality is much betterh than Berlin or the 80s, easily. But although the mix if fine and the performance of Dave Kilminister and Snowy White is superb, it doesn't really innovate. Roger's vocal performance has deteriorated because of his age, so most of the time he's using playback, which is a sad sight to see.

The live footage wasn't good enough for Rog, apparntly, so he's added a sad and gloomy documentary, which sometimes interrupts the show and makes us wish it won't. Honestly, the docu parts should have been dumped into the "EXTRAS" section of the product. Too many graves, too many dull moments, too many "Sad old Roger" talking about war like a really old man.

So if you're considering getting the blu-ray version, enjoy the stage spectacle but don't expect to be thrilled with the docu bits, thrown here in there to make stuff more "serious-looking". The Wall show in its 2010-2013 version was really a fine audio-visual production, but it has been slightly marred by Roger's car trip around Western Europe, looking for dead people in the grass.

This movie has been available on Netflix for a while. It's part documentary, part live registration of The Wall (recorded between 2010-2013). The opening of the movie was exemplary for what was to come. Music by Roger Waters. Script by Waters. After an idea by Waters. Starring Roger Waters as Roger Waters. The cinematography of the documentary is great, but the idea is artistically corrupt. Old men chatting about, saying things that mean nothing, speaking as if it's a great revelation that comes with old age. In one scripted scene Waters sits at a dark lit bar in France with a French bartender who doesn't speak English. But he wants to tell the story of how his father died in the war anyway (in English). Roger Waters wants to tell his deep story no matter if it relevant/welcome or not.

This reflects back on the live footage of the complete The Wall record. The story has lost its relevance since WO II is more then halve a century ago. Schools have become child friendly. Drugs are known to be dangerous. People get help with their depressions. Communism and Fascism are dead. The Berlin Wall fell thirty years ago. Confusion has been replaced by a bitter understanding of reality or a flight to digital fantasy worlds. The original critique of his generation has actually changed society for the better - destroying its initial power. However, the Wall is still a work potent of a long list of classic symphonic rock songs. Yet Roger Waters has chosen to focus on an impressive show full of dated symbols. Yet again hiding the band behind a meaningless (personal) wall he has failed to tear down all his life. A plain crashing with special effects, brilliant visual material portrayed on the set and a stage full of dummy soldiers. The music sounds worn out, not even that well recorded, as if played by tired people. The average tempo of the songs is much slower then the original and extra instrumental passages add to the feeling of drag. If you would listen to a David Gilmour dvd next (choose any) you'd hear the Pink Floyd legacy played with way more fresh energy and atmosphere.

I could not recommend this film to any-one other than the hardcore fans of Roger Waters. Preferably people who have lived under a pile of bricks themselves for the past four decades.

The Pink Floyd rock opera, The Wall, whose themes of abandonment and isolation are explored through a character called Pink, are appropriated by Roger Waters through a personal journal to follow the last traces of his father, who died in the Second World War in battle for Cassino in Italy. Unsurprisingly the two align since Waters wrote the original lyrics to The Wall. The character Pink, a Rockstar whose star is fading, is alienated from his fans, so goes into a form of self-imposed exile where he substance abuses. He eventually comes out the other side after he abandons his self- isolation. The symbol of this self-isolation is a wall that society erects to protect it's own citizens, but is overtly used to seal itself from the truths of it's own folly. The collapse of Communism in the East Europe in the eighties, associated by the fall of the Berlin Wall, bore the venue for Roger's celebrated 1990 concert which raised money for the Memorial Relief fund charity.

Roger Waters seeks to address his abandonment by his father by journeying to Cassino to pay his respect at his father's grave site. The picturesque site of the hills of Cassino are a perfect place to build the memorial and it is very moving to watch the solitary figure of Roger take a trumpet out of his car and play tribute to his father.

The documentary is cleverly interspersed with the concert performance of The Wall in such a way as to not disturb the flow of the concert. Roger Waters is a master at using silences to highlight the musical nuances within a song. Despite that I would have preferred the documentary to be played before or after the concert, not during it.

A superb cast of musicians have been assembled to play the concert. You couldn't get better guitarists than Dave Kilminster and Snowy White. Multi-instrumentalist Jon Carin shares keyboard duties with Roger's son, Harry Waters. And Graham Broad on drums and percussion has been featuring with Roger Waters since the nineteen eighties. Roger Waters does most of the singing and hasn't lost his touch on voice. He has a chorus of singers including a boys' choir to support him.

The concert itself is a visual feast of lasers and lights, very theatrical, with screen projections of attacking aeroplanes and huge life size floating blimps. Marching Nazi like troops join the stage with Roger firing a toy machine gun over the heads of the audience. As the band plays, a gigantic cardboard brick wall is built around and over the heads of the performers until it reaches a point where most of the musicians are concealed behind the wall. Then after performing the finale song, The Trial, Roger screams at the audience to tear down the wall and the whole thing comes down.

How does this concert performance compare with Pink Floyd's studio album of The Wall? Basically, I think the two support each other. Neither is perfect. This one is longer. Many of the songs are stretched. Others are shortened. The last side of the Pink Floyd album drags a bit after the song Run Like Hell. In Roger's version the wailing sirens of Run Like Hell gives the song more expression and leads to a more fulfilling conclusion when the wall comes down. The first part of Roger's version is impressive as well. From In The Flesh to Mother, through the middle chorus of Another Brick In The Wall, it moves more freely. Where it can't compete is side 3 of the Floyd album from the opening Hey You to Comfortably Numb. While Dave Kilminster performs a great guitar solo on Comfortably Numb there is nobody who can play this solo as well as Dave Gilmour.

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Posted Friday, May 29, 2020 | Review Permalink