Pink Floyd - The Wall

Rating:
Summary: Depressing Genius
Review: Pink Floyd's depress-o-rama/work of genius in all it's acid-drenched glory. If you're reading this review, you surely know the tale: Roger Waters artistically relates his walk on the fine line between genius and madness, love and hatred, self-loss and self-redemption. You will be hard-pressed to find many works of cinematic art transferred to DVD with as much care as this rock opera masterpiece. The picture quality is sharp and crisp and the sound has been processed with care. This is a must-have for any Floyd fan with a DVD player.

Rating:
Summary: Not your normal movie
Review: I think just about everyone has seen this movie, and if not, they should give it a good watching.
This edition comes with a really long retrospective real (~ hour) with all the key participants in the making of the movie.
The sound-track really takes advantage of 5.1 or DDS (whichever) which really draws you into the movie even more.
An excelent buy for just about anyone...
Note: Don't show it to your kids unless you want them having nightmares for a couple days. The imagary is pretty strong and graphic...

Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: This DVD brought out absolutely everything Roger Waters was thinking about when he created the Wall. The commentary was awesome. To finally have every last scene explained to you from the man himself was truly awesome.

Rating:
Summary: One Of The Best Movies I've Seen
Review: Pink Floyd:The Wall is one of the most creative, inspiering films I've seen. It gives a look into the mind of Roger Waters, and gives insite to the album itself. I was amazed at both the animation scenes, as well as the rest of the movie. To make a long story short, Roger Waters is a basket case, as well as a genius. This is a must own movie.

Rating:
Summary: Best music film ever
Review: THE FILM

The film has been extremly well cleaned up for the DVD release. It is a vast improvement on the VHS edition, it looks like an entirely new film. The film itself is as fantastic as ever. The visuals are stunning and the music breathtaking. The film is one of the most underated ever if not the MOST.

THE EXTRAS

Their are some great extras on this DVD release. The interactive menus are brilliant with shots of the film playing in the background. This is also where the secret buttons come into play. In the corner of each screen you will see a picture in a box. If you press your number nine key it will play some music from the part of the film shown in the box.

Their are two documentaries on the DVD. One is old - 'The other side of the wall' this was made during the film and shows some back stage footage, it is quite informative, but dosen't look very good. 'Retrospective' is a new documentary made especially for the DVD. It is a lot better than the other one.

Their is also the 'Another Brick in the wall part 2' video, which to be honest is a bit rubbish. The trailer is also included as is the 'Hey you' film footage, (This is the unseen footage, it is not inserted into the film). The footage is quite interesting to watch although a lot of it was actualy re-edited into the film. The commentary from Roger Waters and Gerald Scarfe is fabulous. It is very interesting to hear what they think about the film. It also sheads some light on the scenes that you may just have misinterpreted.

Also included are some pictures of cartoons drawn by Gerald Scarfe, and some photos from production. You also get four lobby cards. All in all this is a well worth purchase. Even if you don't like Pink Floyd's music this is a great film visually.

Rating:
Summary: Pink Floyd The Wall
Review: As an album, Pink Floyd's "The Wall" thrust on the music world an opus with the towering angst of a burnt-out rock star cursing his environment for causing him to build a "wall" against it and its tortures, both trivial and relevant.

Now, the film version provides a backdrop for the popular album as the literal adaptation by director Alan Parker assaults the senses by entering the mind of a character driven to the border between genius and madness by the pressures of reality.

Except for substituting "When the Tigers Broke Free" for "Hey You," the album's material is complete. Many of the tracks have been reworked, a tad slower and much richer than the originals, revealing all the nuances that the film's crisp sound uncovers.

Roger Waters, bass player for Pink Floyd as well as the film's maestro, knew exactly how his audience would react toward his film even as he designed the poster art, which offers vivid snatches of several scenes scattered around the autistic main character. He is right: one doesn't remember the film as a whole so much as one is more inclined to remember a bombastic series of vignettes that have somehow surrounded Pink (played by Bob Geldof, lead singer of the Boomtown Rats).

The images, however, do reflect a kind of demented poetry to them. Blood, whether it's dripping into a pool or a sink full of shaving cream, looks exquisite on film, just as light in the form of a match and a fluorescent bulb can appear to bring warmth as well as an oppressive glare to different scenes.

Reviewing "The Wall" is entirely different from reviewing other movies made from albums, like "Quadrophenia" or "Sgt. Pepper," because "The Wall" is meant as a piece of didactic art as opposed to a conventional rendition of an album, explaining the album's concept and themes rather than attempt to dramatize the 1.

The universal themes of love, sex, war and oppression link each scene as Pink attempts to provide some sort of rationale for his world. In several scenes one can almost hear Waters describing how he wants the scene shot in order to bring about this or that type of symbolism.

"In the lyrics it says 'his fat and psychopathic wife," Waters might have explained to Parker, "but that's just his warped perception of her. Actually, she is just an average wife who uses her stern facade to instill in him the perfect behavior he lacks. Get it? Okay, let's shoot it from the ground looking up so she looks bigger than life and gives her a little more respect."

"The Wall" as a story is so lyrically tight that the album by contrast can't be pinned down to an examination of definite meanings. The film maintains this cornucopia of interpretations by painting numerous layers through images that sometimes flow, sometimes collide with each other. For example, Gerald Scarfe's animations can metamorphose a dove into a symbol of Nazi Germany, the Royal Air Force and finally the ruins of England, reversing any Phoenix myths.

Scarfe also triumphs with the visual accompaniment to the lengthened version of "Empty Spaces" as the path of "Shooting superstars" is sarcastically examined. And a tender love scene between two flowers erupts into a violent rape as pistil and stamen battle each other mercilessly.

The central point of the film is that Waters, or any other rock star, has the ability to become a fascist dictator in relatively the same kind of war that destroyed his father, the cornerstone of his wall. And that rock and roll has become a religion (or Reich) that has the same hierarchy and rituals as a socialistic society. The audience, however, is oblivious to it all, even as it enjoys it, and has for thirty some years.

"The Wall" has the potential to be either a depressing hour-and-a-half of celluloid or a brilliantly colored, insightful tool to see just how far we will let out entertainers rule our lives, and vice versa. As I stepped out of the theater after viewing the film, one teenage girl remarked to her friends that it was the dumbest movie she had seen since "Altered States." Ironically, she is the audience that Waters aimed the film at.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely phenomenal!
Review: I'm still amazed when I watch this movie. Its not enough the music that Roger Waters composed is out of this world, the animation and direction that this movie takes is mind bending. Take a trip into the pysche of Roger Waters and feel first hand the alienation, the pain, the anguish that he feels.

The video quality is a definite improvement upon the VHS tape (which I still own). The picture is so crisp! For someone who hasn't seen any of the extras on this DVD, its worth buying just for that. Close to an hour of interviews, 30 minute documentary on the making of, animation stills, original trailer for the movie, extra footage of "Hey You" that was edited out of the final product, and commentary by Roger Waters and the animationist. Including the commentary, all the extras run at least 3 hours. Don't delay, buy this now. It will be money WELL SPENT!

Rating:
Summary: Long overdue
Review: A few years back, a limitted edition of "The Wall" appeared on laserdisc with secondary audio commentary from director Alan Parker. This time around it's the largely silent since his departure from Pink Floyd Roger Waters' turn. In case you didn't notice, he and the remaining band don't get along very well anymore.

One thing about this disc, with as much storage capacity as a DVD provides, it's not nearly enough for Waters' ego. You may not agree with his claim that "I am Pink Floyd," but there's no denying that on this movie, he was. The other band members had absolutely no say in the creative, artistic and editorial content of this film.

As a film that's been disected and analyzed in many a film class and college psychology course, it's worthwhile to finally have commentary from the mouth of the film's driving creative force. If you're as big a fan of the film as myself, it's worthwhile to find the laserdisc and hear Alan Parker's commentary as well. Whether or not you're in the Waters camp in the Pink Floyd blow up or not, his is the opinion on this film that really matters.

From a digital transfer standpoint, this is a gorgeous release, even cleaner than the laserdisc version. The audio has a few troubles though. This film was released in the old Dolby format. As a result, there are moments when the new dolby digital audio pushes the limitations of the source audio. (I.E. you can't really create a true 5.1 audio track from a film that never had it to begin with.)

This film remains a masterpiece and a source of inspiration for many a director. One moment that springs to mind is the opening shot closeup of the fully burnt cigarette in Pink's hand. This exact shot turns up ten + years later in the opening of "Aliens." While largely dismissed by critics on it's release, this film has withstood apathy and is now largely regarded with the respect deserved. Critics may not have appreciated this film but, from the number of times it's cinematography gets aped in film since, obviously a lot of young directors did.

Other Alan Parker films that are worth checking out, "The Commitments," "Mississippi Burning," "Angel Heart," "Midnight Express." He also did "Fame" and "Evita" if musical films are your thing.

Rating:
Summary: The reason DVD was invented
Review: It seems almost a crime to release a DVD without taking advantage of all the technical possibilities. Happily this release is not guilty of such actions. Full of goodies from the original trailier to production sketches to two documentaries and running commentary it's easy to spend hours not even watching the movie. Don't forget to do that though, as the clarity of the picture is astounding. The visual quality of this DVD has me amazed. Throwing in the extra features is more than the icing on the cake-it's like a second cake. No DVD collector should be without this one.

Rating:
Summary: simply awesome
Review: if you're thinking no movie could ever do the album justice, you're very wrong. this movie is so awesome, the music compliments every second of the movie. and it also gives insight to what The Wall is really about. if you like Pink Floyd, don't think twice. buy this now!