Directed by Alan Parker and written by Pink Floyd Wall genius Roger waters, Pink Floyd: The Wall is a fantastic odyssey into madness and directed by one of the few men who could actually pull it off. Intermixed with sexually suggestive and brilliant cartoons by Gerald Scarfe the film is an utterly captivating and original work that has stood the test of time.
The Wall started as an album by Pink Floyd in 1979. More a work by Roger Waters than the band itself, the album was a phenomenal success and lead to a crazy, short lived and sold out concert that featured a large number of effects and a huge wall being built on stage to divide the band from the audience. From there, Waters thought that it would make a great film and set about writing the screenplay.
Selecting Alan Parker as director seems like second nature. Few, if any, directors could pull off such an ambitious feat as a full length feature film set to an album. One only needs to look at Fame to see why Parker is the perfect choice. His skill with that film, blending musical sequences with reality into something that is a musical but feels very unlike one, makes him the perfect choice to direct Pink Floyd: The Wall.
The film itself is about a rock star with a troubled past who begins to have a nervous breakdown fuelled by drugs and depression and begins to build a wall between himself and everyone else surrounding him. The film cuts from future to past to present and back and forth continually and is entirely set to the same named album. There is no dialogue and the story is told entirely by images set to the songs of the album.
It is truly amazing how well of a cohesive story is told without the use of dialogue. While a tad confusing at times, for the most part we see, feel and understand the downfall and meltdown of the title character and we get the story as well as the back story. It is rare for a movie to not spell out a story so plainly but this film does it in spades and makes it that much better than it already is.
Parker does an amazing job putting Waters' screenplay on celluloid. Shooting in a full anamorphic scope aspect ratio for the first time, Parker and his cinematographer have made some of the most memorable and striking images of Parker's career, if not of the entire early eighties. Once you see this film you will never forget it, I promise you that. The editing is perfect and couldn't be any better.
And the music is just amazing. I am a huge Pink Floyd fan and this is a film set to their entire classic album. Every song is awesome and plays even better here set to the images that Parker, Waters and Scarfe have created. If you haven't heard this album this is a great way to hear it for the first time. Every song is brilliant but standouts (for me at least) include Another Brick in the Wall (Parts 1-3), Comfortably Numb, Mother and Empty Spaces.
The weakest part of Pink Floyd: The Wall has to be Bob Geldof who is the lead actor and is on screen for most of the picture. Not that his performance is bad, it is actually quite good, but it's just not as out of the world as everyone and everything else involved with this movie. Every other performance works perfectly, as does everything else but every once in a while it becomes clear that Geldof is less an actor and more a musician.
Otherwise this is one of the most original films you will ever see. It is gorgeous to look at, a sight for sore eyes, and it is just as good to listen to. The music is amazing!! The story, told without dialogue, is remarkably coherent for the most part and the animation is trippy, wild and striking. The effects, the design and the look of the film is stunning in itself. War looks like war, the past looks like the past and blood looks like blood. When the animation mixes with real life it looks as good as any hybrid animation/live-action film today if not better.
Parker together with Waters and Scarfe have created the ultimate music video/musical/music based film. I have seen it numerous times and it never gets old or boring (which might stem from my love of Pink Floyd). After 30 years, the film still feels as fresh as when it was released and will probably feel the same way 30 years from now. Such is the power of Pink Floyd and the power of a brilliant director at the top of his game. In a word: Unforgettable!!!
Film Rating: 92%
Breakdown (How Pink Floyd: The Wall scored 92%):
Production Design: 10 out of 10
Cinematography: 10 out of 10
Re-playability: 8 out of 10
Originality: 10 out of 10
Costumes: 8 out of 10
Directing: 10 out of 10
Editing: 10 out of 10
Acting: 8 out of 10
Music: 10 out of 10
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