Alan Parker
Pink Floyd The Wall

"Pink Floyd: The Wall." Well yes, it wasn't enough for these guys to be immortal in the world of music, they also wanted to deliver a cinematic masterpiece to humanity. The film's plot is very complex and not easily accessible to everyone; in this film, all the genius of Pink Floyd is showcased, all their skill, a film based like the homonymous album on the misfortunes and massacres of the Second World War, the Holocaust, and Nazism. I won't stop to describe the director and the actors, which I find superfluous since the soundtrack alone is enough to make this film a masterpiece, but I will try to make you understand how music (because the film is mainly musical with few parts dedicated to dialogues) manages to mix with evocative images and, above all, with images that make us think and reflect on the horrors of the 2nd World War, creating unforgettable and suggestive scenes (think of the scenes of "Goodbye Blue Skye" and "Comfortably Numb"). I will start talking to you about the most beautiful scenes and their meanings, often very hidden by double meanings arisen from brilliant minds. For those who do not know, the film's plot is the same as the concept "The Wall" and, as I have already said, it is focused on war, Nazism, the extermination of soldiers, and especially the death of Waters' father.

"In the opening scenes, Pink's father (Pink is the protagonist) is killed during a bombing while he was in a trench; years later, Pink relives those memories, and as he leafs through the family album, he finds himself immersed in a pool where the water turns red, seeming like a sea of blood." Let’s analyze this fantastic scene, the sea of blood, the sea of blood caused by war, the blood of billions of young people who, like Pink's father, died in war, all the evil, hate, suffering, and resentment felt by humankind, all gathered in that blood-filled pool; and naked in the center of the pool is Pink, the orphan, the victim of victims, who lost his father in war, who as I will specify later was not able to have a happy childhood (due to the absence of the father), who especially finds himself in the blood and feels its weight upon him, feels the suffering experienced by billions of people pressing on him like a terrible press, who feels part of a great wall, the wall that has always divided people …

"It's Pink's father's funeral, in the church, there are only him and the mother, Pink is intent on playing with a military airplane, doesn't seem sad, and plays with his airplane, carefree he enjoys." Was there perhaps a better way to represent children's innocence? Pink is unconscious of what death is and unconscious of the fact that his father died with his head smashed by a bomb and will not return, he is unconscious of suffering, he himself plays with a war airplane (like the one that killed his father) unaware that that airplane is a symbol of death, here is the innocence of children represented perfectly. The innocence of not knowing how to do harm, of not considering harm at all, of not realizing that in our hearts there is a huge black stain that waits only to expand in our bodies, the innocence of not knowing and not wanting to know about pain and suffering.

"Here is one of my favorite scenes, moving, Pink goes to the park and sees the children playing…with their fathers, he wonders who these men are embracing their children, buying them candies, and dedicating them time and affection, he approaches one of them as if he were his father, but that man doesn't think about him, is too intent on taking his daughter down the slide, beautiful the scene where Pink takes the man's hand looking for the father figure and the man abruptly removes it moving away with his daughter." Well, gentlemen, tell me if through these scenes one does not deeply understand the horror of war, think about it, the benevolent and affectionate father figure who plays and loves his own offspring is highlighted, then the figure of the destined to suffer child, to be alone, the child to whom no one wants to give a hand is emphasized… and why is that? Because a damned war put into action by other damned idiots deprived many children of their fathers, condemning them to a sad life that will inevitably make them different from others, a life without paternal affection, a life alone. Pink feels something is missing in his life, feels something is missing, that the gentle person who loves him and pushes him on the swing is missing, Pink searches for that figure among the crowd but sadly realizes that there is only one such person who pushes you on the swing and that a war ordnance took him away forever.

"Another cult scene… Pink wandering around the house finds his father's clothes and objects (the uniform, the bullets) and uses them to play, he dresses up as a soldier and salutes in the mirror," this scene is related in terms of senses and meanings to that of the funeral, still emphasizing the innocence of children… however, I would like to emphasize that Pink is losing his innocence (that losing innocence will turn into a terrible illness during "Comfortably Numb"), in fact, Pink already begins to take more grown-up attitudes, it is evident from the look, from the hands in the pockets... but we'll talk more about this later

"Well then folks, here I was stunned, I was amazed by these scenes, by this poetry, "Goodbye Blue Sky" or the bombing of London… The dove of peace flies in the sky, but peace will last for a short time, in fact, the dove is killed by the Teutonic eagle which represents the Nazi power that like a black eagle descended upon Europe, war has begun. The eagle descends on London destroying it and shattering it (comparison of the bombing carried out by the Germans on the British capital), here indeed are the scenes where the city is in flames and hundreds of planes fly over it, beautiful the image of the English flag crumbling forming a bleeding cross (symbolizing England's defeat and destruction and the blood that had been shed, innocent blood among the 1000 graves of the fallen), very significant is the end of the scene where the blood flows away into the sewers (making us understand that all this shed blood was useless and that man, who is constantly at war, has not learned a damn thing from these misfortunes).

"My dear folks, I know, so far the film has been laden with dark meanings… and well you deserve to smile, here is some healthy sarcasm "Another Brick In The Wall", centered on the school that in Germany of that time brainwashed kids, talking to them about the myth of the race, the importance of war, and how nice and good Hitler was (the song says "we don't need your education, we don't need thought control, no dark sarcasm in the classroom, hey teachers leave those kids alone"). The bell rings and like many generals in line the professors head to their classrooms, the teachers are ruthless with the students even though they too are esteemed fools (very sarcastic the scene where the school's strictest teacher is scolded by his wife because he doesn't behave well at the table), and here they are in line the kids after lessons, kids falling into a machine that turns them into mince for the grinder, (in Germany the kids educated to war and to the myth of race then became potential soldiers and therefore potential corpses in the trench), significant the scene of the teacher who shouts at the students like a general at his fellow soldiers, the scene ends with the kids breaking everything and occupying the school (references to the autumn of ’68 and the youth riots)

"Now begins a somewhat strange scene but also dense with details. There is young Pink, serving a punishment in the principal's office, while the principal isn't there, he lights a cigarette and spies on a woman undressing using binoculars, subsequently, we see Pink as an adult who remains indifferent to his half-naked wife trying a bit of sex but ends up with nothing due to the man's indifference, then we see young Pink, he is sick, the doctor seems worried and talks privately with the mother, in the middle of the night Pink wakes up and goes to sleep in bed with the mom." Previously I had talked about how young Pink had adult-like behaviors, well these scenes confirm it, but what strikes me is not so much the fact that young Pink smoked and watched naked women (you’ll understand, in 5th grade nowadays they rob stores) but the fact that there seems to be a swap between the bodies, let me explain body adult child’s mind, body child adult's mind, moreover the scene where Pink while the wife sleeps brushes her seeking affection as he did with the mom as a kid is intense, but when he realizes he can’t find a substitute for the mom he turns sadly and falls asleep. Here too the "body swap" is well explained, an adult man who with his wife in bed refuses sex and seeks a mother's love. A very sweet and particular scene.

Now begins a scene focused on Pink's marital crisis, one first sees some scenes of the man's wedding, subsequently, one notices how the wife seeks a husband who is now absent from the couple’s life and is present in the house only physically, he is at the piano with his gaze fixed into the void, and she asks him "Is there anyone in there (referring to the man's head)" but he does not respond. She also begins to be interested in politics and pacifism, at a meeting she meets one of the heads of the political movements and after a brief evening at the bar takes him to bed. Here begins the end of Pink's marriage, his self-destruction begins here, his standing still for hours with his mouth open staring into nothingness, and when he calls the wife on the phone and she does not answer and prefers to continue making love with the politician Pink understands that it's over and collapses to the ground. To perfectly describe the destruction and end of the marriage there is the scene of the two roses that I will now attempt to describe to you but I warn you that it is a scene that must be seen to be understood…

"There are two roses, representing the two partners, one rose begins to take the form of a vagina and the second rose like a penis penetrates it (woe to those who send banning emails, I'm using appropriate terms), here the two roses merge into a single mass of warm colors close to red (the colors of passion), here is to represent the union, love, the highest peak of the relationship but the roses become two monsters that begin to devour each other (like two newlyweds at the lawyer) and here it seems more than evident the metaphor indicating the end of love and marriage and the couple’s decline"

One moment, the film is called "The Wall" but where is the wall? Here it is, my dear folks, right in this scene, a nice tall and gray wall begins to form around the world, which turns flowers into barbed wire, friends into sworn enemies who kill each other, which splits churches in two (I think of Hitler and his aversion to the clergy). The scene ends with a submachine gun firing wildly.

Okay, I please you, here come the boobs... a group of very uninhibited girls sneaks into a party (sexually bribing the cops and bouncers) and crashes a party where Pink is getting drunk, he picks up a girl and takes her home, she is very enthusiastic about the house that looks like a throne to her, but to get straight to the point the girl asks Pink what kind of service he wants to receive and asks him several questions anyway, but he (who probably is either gay or stupid "you shouldn’t laugh") does not give her a look, sits down and starts watching TV documentaries on the world conflict. He at one point explodes and in a beautiful and profound scene begins to smash everything, goes out of his mind, gets furious, devastates the house, finally manages to vent, to unleash the dark feelings that gripped him and at one moment seeks to also commit suicide by throwing himself from the window, but he doesn't. Here Pink feels free for a moment, he has finally vented, and during this outburst managed for a moment to feel free and devoid of the burdens that crushed him.

Now begins a scene where there is a need for Pink to have his wife back, he is lying immobile in the pool, all bloody, and these scenes of his suffering alternate with scenes where the wife continues to have it with the politician, almost saying "Hey look at me, I’m here, and I still need you, where are you my love?" And during this moment of need and desperate hope for her return, Pink finds himself facing his fears that take the form of a gigantic monster trying to kill him. The scene ends with Pink finally getting rid of the damn TV by smashing a bass over it (note that a love movie was on the TV).

Here they are, the wall, in flesh and blood or rather in bricks and cement, 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, the despair in his eyes is noticeable, the anger and effort in his very swollen veins, he jumps, climbs, tries to climb over the wall, but always falls to the ground. The wall is insurmountable…

In this new scene, Pink is fallen into paranoia and total despair, using everything he finds around the house (from bottle caps to food leftovers) he creates a war field, a miniature reproduction of the World War II battlefields, with meticulous attention he sets up every smallest detail. Then he goes to the bathroom and begins to shave completely, the beard, the hair the lashes, shaves himself completely. Here begins the illness, that the PF song playing in the background describes very well (sorry can’t recall the title), a song that describes in every small detail the illness in all its little nuances, and then there’s Pink, in the middle of the trench watching TV and suffering like a dog, having cold chills. A sequence of images that hit us like a dagger and shakes us strongly down to the intestines.

Well, now the theme of fatherless is taken up again with a heart-wrenching scene where soldiers return home and at the station, they are all happy to see their loved ones again, everyone embraces their found wives and children and naturally Pink there in the middle is alone and isolated and the feelings and themes are similar to the park scene where he seeks his father.

Now arrives my favorite part… "Comfortably Numb"… So then Pink’s body (which isn’t dead but seems like a vegetable) is found by a group of people including some doctors, here they start trying to cure Pink with injections, during the video Pink retraces his childhood and all the salient moments concerning it. Subsequently during transport to the hospital Pink begins to turn into a monster with scaly skin, as if all the pain and evil manifested on him under the form of a hideous appearance (new Dorian Gray). He screams and suffers and manages to tear off that putrid decomposing skin, but something in Pink has changed…

This scene is a reproduction of Nuremberg, a rally where Pink would represent Hitler, in fact, like the Fuhrer, he gives speeches to the crowd, kisses children hugs women, shakes soldiers' hands, and all similar bullshit, naturally swastikas are not reproduced (sarcastically replaced by two crossed hammers) and not even the Roman salute is reproduced (replaced by arms crossed in an X). And always as Hitler did, Pink begins to fill people's minds with the bullshit of the superior race and inferior races (Damn wretched theft ignorance dirty filthy) and immediately begins a racial segregation where he initially orders to "smash the homosexuals against the wall," then moves to attack Jews, blacks, and junkies. And when the prick says "If it were up to me, I would have you all killed the crowd stands up and applauds him." Excuse the swearing, but these racist scenes even sarcastically reproduced in a film make me very mad, killing in the name of race… What a great bullshit, how can one kill in the name of race? Damned misery.

Now begin the scenes relating to Nazism, with soldiers roaming the streets beating blacks and Jews… great rallies in the street where the infamous final solution with extermination of blacks, Jews, and handicapped is extolled. In short, too sad events that make my nerves rise. Here is one of the final scenes, a trial against Pink where all his friends, the mother, and the wife accuse him of being guilty, everyone runs for cover looking out for themselves. And the judge sentences Pink to the supreme sentence with a loud shout he announces to the world his sentence: Tear Down The Wall.

And in the final scene, the wall is finally broken.

An arduous task has been to review this film, I hope I have been up to the task. It took commitment and effort to review it (all this time I have not published new reviews I used to write this). I advise you to watch the movie and reflect on it, to better understand that war is always and only a cause of death and does not solve problems but creates them.