Pink Floyd: The Wall (El muro)

I recently rented and re-watched Pink Floyd The Wall for the 200th time, and I had forgotten, over the years, why this is my favorite movie. Surprisingly, the reason it is so good has little to do with a rock star having a mental breakdown. Pink being a rock star is almost incidental to the real message of the film. It seems as if director Parker took the initial idea of Pink Floyd's album and ran away with it. The film serves less as a study of one celebrity individual, instead serving as a cinematic indictment of all of our worst aspects as human beings: cruelty, brutality, insanity, herd mentality, fascism--all the most negative traits of twentieth century man are splashed upon the movie screen, as if the Director was asking the audience "Why?" This is a film in rebellion against the status quo. Funny then, that it should be driven by the music of a major rock and roll band. But, all in all, that is besides the point. The film of the Wall begins and ends with scenes of oppression by authoritarian figures (police men, skinheads, teachers, etc.)It is almost as if the entire sub textual content of the film is drawing a parallel between the internal alienation of a single individual and the social and global alienation that fostered the cruelties of World War 2, the holocaust, ad infinitum. Pinks degeneration is the degeneration of Everyman, confronted by a world that is (still) spinning increasingly out of control, away from the light, further behind the wall of its own nihilistic will toward self-obliteration. The violence of the imagery, the final "Trial", and the psychic attack of the final montage of disturbing images (masked children put into a meat grinder, cartoon teachers becoming hammers, neo-Nazis on a rampage) as the scene fades into a blank grey wall, are grand, satirical, operatic "Theater of Cruelty" in a cinematic framework. But it is the final lyric (sung by a repulsive, animated "Judge") that puts the entire scope of this picture into focus: "I sentence you to be EXPOSED before your peers..." The Judge , of course, is not merely talking to the fictional "Pink", but to the viewers of the film, and well, the entire world, for all that, and again, the Director has, seemingly, high jacked the "rock opera" format, and used it as a vehicle to ask that ultimate question: why is mankind so mutually interested in its own self-destruction? Why do nations and civilized cultures slide easily into fascistic thinking? How many war orphans are we still, to this day, creating?

I am not, now, a fan of Pink Floyd's music, although all of the music in this film is beyond excellent. Oddly enough, I am the farthest thing from the dope-smoking "hippy" that is supposed to be a Pink Floyd fan. I am an Industrial musician and a writer. My favorite music, at this point, is anything by NON, Throbbing Gristle, etc. This film has, over the years though, shaped my own artistic outlook in ways I am probably not even aware of. One does not need to smoke dope, or even be a Pink Floyd fan, to be affected quite deeply by this film. Roger Ebert once said that Star Wars was, to him at least "a perfect film". Well, Pink Floyd The Wall, to myself, is a perfect film, whether you are a pothead or no. I have given this film ten stars, but it is a little beyond that. If it was simply a rock movie, it could be rated in a conventional manner. But Allan Parker has done something here that is beyond even the concept of the bestselling album that this movie is based upon. He has crafted a surreal essay on the madness and self-destruction that lurks within the human spirit. And he has created one of the most sobering, angry, and dizzying satirical pieces ever committed to celluloid. In short, this film is a work of sheer, jaundiced brilliance.

If for whatever reason you should find yourself in the company of aliens from the planet Nietsche , a planet whose inhabitants have gone beyond what can be described as human nature so much so that they have no knowledge of what being human is , then show them this film that explains everything

The story starts with the Anzio landings that sees the death of Pink's father . As Plato said " Only the dead have seen the end of war " and that is bitterly true , man will always be man and man will always kill man until the end of time

Pink goes to school and education is a double edged sword . It has the potential to educate young humans but as often happens these young humans find themselves being used as victims of whatever mood the teacher is in . Someone must pay for authorities inaquequacies

Pink leaves school and falls in love , but love is the sharpest and most double edged sword in all of creation . It inspires but it also destroys us . Despite hundreds of millions of human beings being killed in wars , genocide and purges there is nothing so personally painful or as cruel as the betrayal by a lover . The darkest pits of Hell can not be as hellish or as sadistic as infidelity

As Pink descends further into his personal madness we see him take his revenge . Humans are sexual beings and perhaps this is what makes us both demons and avenging angels . Irony is to the fore as he stops becoming a victim and turns into unfeeling fascist dictator . Someone must pay for all the wrongs Pink has endured and it's the innocent that must suffer

You could go to the planet Nietsche with all the written works of every human philosopher who ever lived and that still wouldn't be enough to explain what it's like to be human . As it stands Alan Parker and Roger Waters have made a cogent film explaining why humans are the way they are and how they react to the surrounding universe . It's a film whose soundtrack is every bit as powerful as the human condition

The Wall tells the story of Pink; a burnt out rock star who has retreated into himself. Told in a non-linear fashion we see how he is effected by the loss of the father he never knew in the war; cruel teachers; a wife who leaves him; the adulation of his fans and too many drugs and finally how he grows to see himself as a fascist demagogue.

This is a far from conventional film; there is a minimal amount of dialogue. Instead the story is told through the images we see and the music of Pink Floyd. The images are a mix of conventional live action shots of Pink's life; images of war and animation designed by Gerald Scarfe. This is sometimes tragic and sometimes brutally disturbing. The scenes we see perfectly match the music; adding something to what isn't there on the album in a way that makes it hard to just listen without recalling the imagery. The animated sequences demand separate mention; they are creative and shocking in a way one doesn't expect in western animation; they contain a sense of bleakness, brutality and even flowers that border on pornographic! Overall I'd say that this is a must see for fans of Pink Floyd and for those looking for something different who don't mind being disturbed.

What can you possibly say except that this movie is amazing?

"The Wall" is one of the few movies out there that has a powerful effect on the people are receptive to its message. Told with practically no dialogue, the only guide to the bizarre, frightening, and strange images is the incredible music by Pink Floyd, from their equally good double album. A considerable number of the songs were re-recorded for this movie, and one song (the heart-wrenching "When the Tigers Broke Free") was added. The new versions of the songs are sometimes worse than the album (Waiting for the Worms), and sometimes better (Mother, In the Flesh).

"The Wall" isn't a pleasant movie, nor is it a simplistic or banal movie. It is brutal, cynical, and disturbing, but it has moments of flesh-tingling beauty and an uplifting message in the end, if you persevere. I recommend both it and the album to anyone who enjoys a powerful movie. In my opinion, "The Wall," along with a few other albums, represents the pinnacle of rock music.

"Pink Floyd The Wall" is a great film, based on the already great album by Pink Floyd! I was stunned by the use of imagery, combined with the great soundtrack of the album, which gave us a strange, drugged up vision of what a burnt out rock star would see. It's really crazy! Yet it shows how these famous rock stars are bombarded with fame and applause, and how insane it can drive an already disturbed person. "The Wall" itself, is the isolation and separation from society and saneness, which is a place that can easily be avoided if only people gave us a fair chance to. The depressing part about the film is that none of this is the rock star's fault. He was driven to it by loneliness in his growing up years(since he lost his father to the war), along with psychological torment by his teachers, parents, and above all, his sexually controlling wife. The movie is twisted because this is how the lead character sees the world. Worse yet, after he has already been driven to the edge of his own sanity, in his mind, the people who drove him to that edge, come back to testify against him. It's weird the first time you watch it, and looks a lot like a crazy music video that was pulled out of MTV. The only difference is that this one is telling a story, and has been transferred to the big wide screen. Alan Parker has directed the film, but Roger Waters seems to be in charge here, because it's his album, his story, and his conception. All that's really been done here is transforming the album to celluloid. I in some ways, like this better than the album, because now we have images to reinforce the songs and the story. I wish I could have seen this on the big screen, because the variety of images and the loud music seem compressed and compacted on a small TV set. You might not understand this the first time, especially if you haven't heard the album yet. But it really is a great film, and it actually has a story and a point that most music videos today unfortunately lack! I think that this film will teach people the reasons why these talented individuals suffer and lose their minds. The people that have guided and taken care of them while they grew up, often take away their ability to happily and normally function on their own. And the album and film's lesson is for not only the people who drove him to his wall to back off, but for him to pull himself out.