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Rating: When a reviewer gives such a score to this film, it is wise to preface it with what many (very often) do, so I will: I am a convinced Floydian. And I also know that there are already 2 reviews on this work, and I am exercising the freedom of expression (assuming it truly exists). Let’s move on.
The film in question, clearly, is based on the legendary 1979 Pink Floyd concept, namely "The Wall", a work that still ranks high in sales charts worldwide, generally one of the greatest commercial successes in music. A record that has changed many lives, but on which some fans have disagreed. Nonetheless, a must of the genre it belongs to. Let's move to the film, directed by the good Alan Parker in 1982, about 3 years later. Certainly an ambitious project, as it's not easy to represent an auditory work audiovisually. Despite this, the intentions are good, therefore, after a very slow start, the film opens with the historic "In the Flesh?", with its rocking rhythm, fitting to accompany a gesture of "demolition", as it clearly appears. But I would prefer not to dwell on the music, since we all know it, and we all know how beautiful and expressive it is. Let’s move on to the weak points that this work surely has. First of all, the excessive pursuit of a state of misery. Let me explain: the atmosphere of the film is too claustrophobic in some scenes, and the author's suffering is taken too far, whereas I would see it much more in a state of passivity (as rightly highlighted in other scenes). But this is just the first point, and I would like to delve into more specifics. Take "Comfortably Numb", a truly splendid track, where everyone certainly remembers the guitar solos and the voices that feature: well, for me, the scene accompanying this moment is indeed wrong. Much of the psychedelia that was overused in other scenes is missing here; I find it a song that requires much more creativity in the representation, perhaps even with the use of the fantastic drawings that characterize the rest of the film.
And now we rightly come to this: the drawn scenes are the strong point of this work, starting with "Goodbye Blue Sky", which depicts a parable on war (a topic on which Pink's story is centered) with terrifying plane/eagles with lethal talons; then there's "Don't Leave Me Now", where the persecution of memories is well rendered by a monster that corners our protagonist; but another truly splendid scene is that of "Empty Spaces", where the pencil draws the famous, terrifying (in my opinion) white wall, a symbol of war but also of "perfect equality" among soldiers, who are nothing more than white (thus personality-less) bricks in a vast structure of death. At this moment, a part not recorded on the '79 album was added, with a very interesting text. And with this note, I return to the flaws: where did "Hey You" go? It is the only missing track. Why? I'm sorry, but it's a point of disadvantage. Yes, indeed.
Let's jump to the finale, the most successful scene, the one that "glues" perfectly to the track it belongs to: "The Trial". A scene that I had imagined practically the same way just by listening to the record. Here all the fundamental characters of the story reappear: Pink's teacher, his mother, the woman, and finally the cruel judge, who condemns him without mercy. A perfect conclusion.
Many things would need to be said, and I know this discussion is a bit confused (although I think my position is clear), but let's sum it up: the direction cannot be said to shine, in fact it appears "inexperienced"; the effort, however, is worthy of praise, given the difficulty of such an endeavor in general; the drawn scenes are fantastic, while others are poorly crafted, and some make viewing difficult or even boring; the music is perfect, of course. Finally, I add another point in favor, namely the "instructive" purpose of the film: in the sense that when I watched it, it helped me better understand the meaning(s) of the entire record, and furthermore made me appreciate it more on a purely auditory level.
Doing a mathematical average in my head, the result is an almost perfect 3 out of five.
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By Axlspark
The soundtrack alone is enough to make this film a masterpiece.
Here it is admire it. In front of it is Pink. Now comes the key scene of the film, Pink, tormented and bloody, tries in every way to climb over the wall... but always falls to the ground.
