Pink Floyd: The Wall 25th Anniversary - Deluxe Edition

Rating:
Summary: Great band, great album, HORRIBLE film
Review: Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982.)

INTRODUCTION:
Pink Floyd is one of the greatest classic rock bands of all time, and it's not suprising that they decided to release a full-length feature film, the way a number of other classic rock bands did. How does The Wall measure up? Read on and find out.

BASIC PLOT:
If this film DOES have a plot, it's not one that's possible for the viewer to follow.

FILM OPINIONS:
Pink Floyd is a great band. The Wall is a great album. But this film is one of the worst films I have ever seen. There is no storyline whatsoever! And since the footage is continually shifting, it's impossible for the viewer to know just what the hell is going on! When you make a full-length movie, you ALWAYS include a plot! Failure to do so destroys this film. A weak plot is better than no plot! Not even the music of Pink Floyd can save this film. This is Pink Floyd's equivalent of the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour - a great album and a crappy film that share the same name.

DVD:
The special edition DVD of this film has NO bonus features that weren't on the original DVD pressing, but it's five bucks cheaper, so it's the version to buy. However, I'm getting sick of having to buy movies on DVD more than once due to these "special edition" releases films keep getting. Why can't movie companies release the special edition at first? It would make a lot more sense.

OVERALL:
DO NOT BUY, OR EVEN RENT, THIS MOVIE (not even if you're a Pink Floyd fan!) This film is simply horrible, and you'll only become dumber by watching it. I understand that I'm probably going to take a lot of heat for this review, but I don't care. This is my opinion, and I stand by it. Final verdict? Simple. Steer clear.

As a final note, DO NOT respond to this review in your own reviews or e-mail me regarding it.



Rating:
Summary: Pink Floyd's classic film The Wall gets deluxe reissue
Review: The film version of Pink Floyd's The Wall was released in August of 1982.
The movie did fairly well at the box office. It initially grossed $23 million which was alot of money back in 1982 and competing against films like E.T., Rocky III and the first Poltergeist.
I first saw the movie when my father rented this movie for me when I was 9. It is still a great film even today.
The screenplay was written by Roger Waters and the film was directed by Alan Parker(Midnight Express, The Committments and Evita) and starred Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof in the leading role as Pink.
Initially, the film was going to comprise of concert footage the band shot at Earls Court Arena in London plus animations from Gerald Scarfe but the filming was not good up to Parker's standards yet many fans(me included) who saw the VH1 documentary on The Wall's 20th anniversary in 2000 Behind The Wall disagree wholeheartedly.
In the end, Roger re-wrote the screenplay to tell the story of Pink, a rock star whom had a traumatic life which was based on part Roger Waters(whom has a cameo appearance as one of the wedding guests) and Floyd founder Syd Barrett.
Pink's father died in WWII and grew up with an overbearing mother. During his growing up, he had to deal with a cruel sarcastic teacher, an unhappy marriage and a successful music career. One night after calling his wife and hearing another man hanging up on him, he invites a groupie into his hotel room and loses it literally.
Once Pink is walled up, you see some references of the band's past(the hotel room trashing scene was reminiscent of Roy Harper trashing his backstage trailer at Knebworth in 1975, the shaving of body and other things were references of Syd and the fascist Pink is reminiscent to those whom were part of some bad movement).
To counter these images, we get some great animations from Gerald Scarfe which were used in the original live concerts from 1980 and 1981.
The film is also noted for having the unreleased tracks When The Tigers Broke Free(parts 1 and 2), a new re-recorded version of Mother, the studio version of What Shall We Do Now left off of the original album due to time constraints. Plus new versions of Another Brick in the Wall(part 3), Is There Anybody Out There?, Bring the Boys Back Home and Outside the Wall.
Also, Bob Geldof does the vocals on both parts to In The Flesh.
This DVD has bonuses of The Other Side of The Wall documentary as aired on MTV in 1982, the Another Brick video filmed to promote the album, the theatrical trailer and various other surprises.
In January of 2005, Columbia Records(the band's ex-label) re-released the film on DVD with a better cover than the original DVD with a brick wall cover with slipcase and a cool promotional movie poster to celebrate the original Wall album's 25th anniversary.
Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent adaptaion of Pink Floyd's classic
Review: The film version of Pink Floyd's The Wall was released in August of 1982. The movie did fairly well at the box office. It initially grossed $23 million which was alot of money back in 1982 and competing against films like E.T., Rocky III and the first Poltergeist. I first saw the movie when my father rented this movie for me when I was 9. It is still a great film even today. The screenplay was written by Roger Waters amd the film was directed by Alan Parker(Midnight Express, The Committments and Evita) and starred Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof in the leading role as Pink. The movie tells the story of Pink, a rock star whom had a traumatic life. His father died in WWII, an overbearing mother, cruel sarcastic teachers, an unhappy marriage and a successful music career. One night after calling his wife and hearing she cheats on him, he invites a groupie into his hotel and loses it. The character was based on part-Waters, part-Keith Moon, part-Syd Barrett and part fascism. The film is noted for having the unreleased tracks When The Tigers Broke Free(parts 1 and 2), a new version of Mother, the studio version of What Shall We Do Now. Plus new versions of Another Brick in the Wall(part 3), Is There Anybody Out There?, Bring the Boys Back Home and Outside the Wall. Also, Bob Geldof does the vocals on both parts to In The Flesh. Gerald Scarfe's animations in this film are the same as the ones shown at the original Wall concerts Pink Floyd performed in 1980 and 1981. This DVD has bonuses of The Other Side of The Wall documentary as aired on MTV in 1982, the Another Brick video filmed to promote the album, the theatrical trailer and various other surprises. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: A review of the "window dressings" only
Review: The movie itself - compelling, bizarre, incomprehensible (slightly less so once you listen to the director's commentary, but still a baffling story), and completely addictive. It's a film you won't be watching every week, but certainly once you put it on, you've pretty much committed yourself to falling under its spell for the duration.

But I'm here to primarily discuss the diffrences between the two editions of the DVD. If you have the previous edition of this DVD, don't bother getting this one thinking that you're upgrading. The "limited edition" disc itself is absolutely no different than the old one - same menus, same extras (nothing more, nothing less), same audio encoding and video transfer, even the same artwork on the disc. The packaging is the only difference here, and it's a beautiful slim digipak that looks more like "The Wall" album than the original box did. Of course, the original box mimicked the film's promotional poster, so if you're more of a purist in that sense, get that one. The box is then slipped into an clear acetate case with the movie's logo printed on the outside. Inside is a fold-out of the movie poster and a few photos.

What's odd though is that the "limited edition" is actually 5 bucks less than the previous version. Five bucks more just to get a standard plastic clamshell case? I think not! That in itself is what finally led me to purchase this movie, was the lower price!

Rating:
Summary: Great Album, Great Live Album, Great Movie, Great DVD!
Review: What more can be said that hasn't been said already? If you liked the album then definitely get the dvd. You'll never hear The Wall the same after you see this.