Pink Floyd: The Wall (5 Stars)

Six days ago the British director Alan Parker passed away. He wasn't a very prolific director, only having made 15 films in his life, but the films that he directed were all very good. I have four of his films in my collection, and I found another five of his films on streaming services, so my first impulse was to watch a series of his films. However, at the moment I don't feel I can spare the time. I have more than a hundred films on my watch list, so I can't justify adding another ten films to the list. For now, I'll just watch his best film, "Pink Floyd's The Wall".

It's impossible to watch the film without comparing it to "Tommy". There are so many parallels that you might think "The Wall" is copying it. Both deal with a boy who lost his father in World War Two and becomes alienated from society, Tommy by being deaf, dumb and blind, Pink (the hero of "The Wall") being cut off by an invisible wall. More to the point, both films can't be explained in every detail.

The director Ken Russell made large changes to the story of the Who's rock opera, whereas Alan Parker kept closer to Pink Floyd's album with the same name. Nevertheless, he made enough changes to make Roger Waters unhappy with the script. It's possible that the vagueness in the interpretation is a result of Alan Parker's changes. I don't know. It's been many years since I last listened to Pink Floyd's album.

The film follows Pink from his fatherless childhood to his life as a rock star on tour in America. Success doesn't make him happy. His wife is being unfaithful, and he's still obsessed with finding a connection to his dead father. He's on the verge of madness. He smashes his hotel room, which is nothing uncommon for rock stars, but he takes enough alcohol and drugs to leave himself close to death. This is a very personal story, a partial autobiography of Roger Waters, but it also mixes in elements of Syd Barrett's life.

Ironically, what I understand least about the film is the nature of the Wall itself. For most of the film it seems like something hostile, intended to suppress Pink, but in the final scenes it's suggested that it was put there to protect him. Maybe that's what Alan Parker is trying to say: you can only be happy if you learn to accept the Wall instead of fighting it. I'm not sure.

The film is intense and oppressive from the beginning. The story isn't told chronologically. The scenes leap from the 1940's to the 1970's and back again, but the film is so well crafted that it's never difficult to follow what's happening.

No other film makes me cry as much as "The Wall". Today I had to take a break after less than 15 minutes, because I was crying too much to be able to see anything. It digs deep into my psyche. I can relate to the madness felt by Pink. His pain is my pain.

It's very difficult to find this film today. It's available on DVD in England, but not in America. It's never been released on Blu-ray, apart from a non-remastered Blu-ray released in Spain. The picture quality is poor, not even up to the quality of other recent DVDs. Will there ever be a (real) Blu-ray release? Maybe not. Roger Waters has distanced himself from this film, and he promotes a live concert recording of Pink Floyd performing the music as the film that people should buy. It's tragic. I also believe it's selfish. Roger Waters was originally intended to play the lead role, but Alan Parker fired him when he realised he couldn't act. He's never got over that insult.

Success Rate:  - 0.2

Alan Parker
14 February 1944 – 31 July 2020