THE WALL (THE MOVIE)

"We don't need no education"? Hmm, I do think grammar lessons are in order.

The Wall was very popular with my non-progfan peers when it came out. Consequently, I basically ignored it at the time, even though I liked Pink Floyd. My first encounter with the movie was in college at the student center where they had a VCR and a TV set up that was running the thing. This is actually a film better appreciated on a larger screen, but I understood then why the movie had been so popular, getting local weekend midnight movie plays along with Rocky Horror, etc. It good music mixed with fascinating images. OK, it does have some moments that are a bit cheesy. Still a very interesting concept piece. But, the sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, whoohoo! The insanity, shaving of body hair, trashing a hotel room, the fascism, the violence. The film is certainly weird, which has a lot of appeal for me. The music isn't consistently progressive, but there's plenty there to please the prog nut.

Never managed to see it in a theater, but picked up the VHS version (long time ago) and later the DVD version (also long time ago but not so long). I'd go for the DVD (released 1999) over the album or VHS versions (no difference in the movie content, but most likely out of print anyway). You get bonus materials of a documentary about the making of the movie and a retrospective from some of the creative talents responsible for the movie, Roger Waters (of course), Gerald Scarfe (the animator director), Alan Parker (the film director).

The insanity? You're soaking in it.