Pink Floyd - The Wall (1982)

Pink Floyd - The Wall (1982)

I've been a fan of Pink Floyd since I was a kid, and this musical set to the brilliant music of Pin Floyd's album The Wall is stunning. The Wall is an eccentric concept, and in pure Pink Floyd fashion delivers masterful images set to a lavish storyline about a depressed rock star named Pink. The Wall is a film that should only be viewed by fans of the band, as the film follows the story of the album. The images are superbly well drawn and the sequences are very memorable. As a fan of the album, I was stunned at what I watched. The result is a near flawless musical set to one of Rock's greatest concept albums. This film is fairly simple, but set to the epic songs; it elevates the film to an entire level of musical. This isn't Grease; this is a true musical, with music that's from the heart. The cast do a fine job and there are some good performances in this film. But with every musical, The Wall is strong on music and not dialogue. You end up not caring because the film is so engrossing and compelling that it doesn't matter what's going on. I feel that Pink Floyd's music has always been hypnotic and intelligent. This musical is most certainly that, it hypnotizes you and takes you on an interesting journey where the lead character, Pink builds "The Wall" a metaphor for isolation. Pink seeks to isolate himself from the world, his pain, his fans and fame, and "The Wall" continues to build. This is a stunning musical set to brilliant music.

The story of a depressed, self-loathing rock star, told as a long, grandiose, surrealistic movie video. Roger Waters lyrics for "The Wall" are whiny, pretentious, muddled, and occasionally brilliant, which could be said of this entire production: it's uneven but there are many indelible, grotesque moments, and it's hard to take your eyes off the screen. Gerald Scarfe's brilliant, nightmarish animations---birds turning into warplanes, flowers mating and eating each other, marching fascist hammers---are the high point.