THE WALL (THE MOVIE)

Everyone in 1982 was talking about Pink Floyd's "The Wall" due to the movie release. Scholars still talk about it as a monumental film. The film depicted vividly Pink's descent from struggling pop star, to catatonic alienated burn out, to vicious megalomaniacal dictator. The original album seemed to pass by unnoticed in 1979 in Australia. The film had more impact and it appeared at the Drive-in and I knew I had to see it. The problem was I did not have a car, so I walked, yes walked! into the Drive-In and perched near a speaker, and watched the film in the dark with the freezing wind blowing and the sounds of cars honking and people talking in their cars. It was so cold I had to watch half the film in the cafeteria area. I just sat on the cold white lino and watched it, the girl behind the counter thought I was nuts but she was nice about it. I remember that so clearly and I was really taken in by the stark imagery.

The animation by Gerald Scarfe absolutely captured my imagination. His copulating flowers that devour one another in a bloody ballet of pulped petals stunned me; there was a sequence during 'What Shall We Do Now?' that shattered my fragile mind, showing scenes of a man's skull being smashed, a guitar transforming from naked woman to icecream and then into a machine gun, a wall blazing across the screen and the primal scream of a face in agony blasting out of the wall. This whole sequence featured new music and lyrics too making this the best sequence in the film.

In 'Goodbye Blue Sky' Scarfe's dark looming clouds and ominous planes hover over the helpless victims and release a tirade of bombs causing devastation. And of course 'The Trial' at the end is brilliant animated eye candy. When that worm appeared and screamed call the school master, I was mesmerized by the animation of school teachers on marionette strings, controlled by fat aggressive wives, and the girlfriend who metamorphoses into a jet, and the cradling brick wall arms of the suffocating mother. Finally the wall is torn down and we see a collage of disturbing images; the wall that Pink built up to keep out the voices that were tearing him apart.

The film features a lot of war imagery and it is well done by director Alan Parker. Apparently he had a hell of a time making this movie due to the creative differences of Waters and others. Parker says it "was a tortured but highly creative time, never to be repeated." He even admits in the huge article of Classic Rock mag that the film is "a mish-mash, an amalgam of lunatic ideas... we thought it was a load of old tosh." Nevertheless it is one of Parker's most popular cult films and still plays at late night cult theatres. Moments of the film that are forever lodged in my memory are 'Run Like Hell', where the skinhead fascist nazis trash a shop and rape and terrorise innocent bystanders. Parker says there were 380 genuine skinheads hired but he had problems controlling them. The jackbooted nazi skinheads went into a pub and terrorised the locals at one point, according to Parker. The lyrics were just as edgy and dangerous, "Cos if they find you in the backseat trying to pick her locks, they're gonna send you back to mother in a cardboard box, you'd better run!" I will never forget the powerful imagery of Pink as a boy running through the fields to hide his pet rat, then he runs on the football oval to escape the parents; all his 'peers' appear in monster guises, his doctor, teacher, mother, girlfriend, taunting him.

'One of my Turns' is a killer moment in the film, and follows the explosive tantrum where Pink, played with incredible force by Bob Geldof, trashes his hotel room causing the stupid groupie to run for cover, and then cuts his hand on the broken window where he threw the TV out in a rage. I could sense the sheer hopelessness and it still has the same ethereal effect on my senses. A very powerful song that captures the sense of a breakup, losing a girl, follows wih 'Don't leave me now'; "I need you babe to put through the shredder in front of my friends..." Geldof floats in the pool with his hand bleeding in a Christ like pose; powerful imagery.

'Is there anybody out there!' shows Pink banging his fists against the 'mad bugger's wall'. As the acoustic piece begins, one of the scariest parts in the film is seen, where Geldof shaves every hair on his head and body, including his eye brows. He then becomes insanely obsessive creating a war scene with rubbish and broken record pieces, and later is found in the asylum by the war torn child. The picture of a total breakdown and burn out captured brilliantly.

'Nobody home' shows Pink outside in a wasteland watching "13 channels of sh*t on the TV to choose from." I like especially "I've got wild staring eyes, and I've got a strong urge to fly, but I've got nowhere to fly to... when I pick up the phone, there'll be nobody home". This is the burnt out portrait of the aftermath of a broken marriage. We even see a massive shadow threatening Pink, the image of a woman metamorphosises into a monster with a twisted cartoon vaginal face and chilling scream.

'Waiting for the worms' is a great sequence with Pink, now a nazi leader controlling the pack; a dictator rock star with delusions of godhood. "Waiting... to cut off the dead wood, ....to clean out the city, ....to fire the ovens... for the blacks and the jews"; the nazi references are quite astonishing and the crossed hammers represent the swastika. Scarfe's animation is brilliant showing the marching hammers that have become an iconic Pink Floyd symbol.

Pink Floyd's "The Wall" was the first album I truly immersed myself in as a teenager, the concept, the music, the lyrics, the sleeve art; everything captured my young imagination and it has never left my consciousness. I will never forget the incredible impact of seeing the film in that cold Drive-In. Since then I acquired the movie book with complete lyrics and hundreds of colour illustrations and it is a treasure in my collection. The images are powerful in any format. The movie is bleak, it is disturbing and it is not for everyone; Waters said in the documentary, "it's a pretty dour two hours.... deeply flawed because it doesn't have any laughs." Nevertheless, Mr, Waters, you have to admit, it is a compelling visual feast.

Share this PINK FLOYD review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to AtomicCrimsonRush
• Report this review (#292634)
• Buy PINK FLOYD music online with PA partners
• Show all PINK FLOYD MP3/Stream
• Go to PINK FLOYD page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to The Wall (The Movie) page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for PINK FLOYD related discussions