 |
 |
Anamorphic
widescreen |
|
Dolby Digital
5.1 |
 |
DTS |
|
|
Trailer(s) |
|
Featurette(s) |
|
Documentary |
|
Audio commentary
|
|
Deleted scenes
|
|
Concept art
/ storyboards |
|
Multi-angle
feature |
|
|
|
|
Pink:
I'm waiting in this cell because I have to know... have I been guilty
all this time?
A
cinematic adaptation of the seminal 1970s rock album.
 To
avoid any confusion, let me state for the record that I'm a huge fan
of the album this movie was based on. Its music has been in my life
for over fifteen years now and I still love it. Roger Waters' lyrics
deal with childhood memories, depression, repressed emotions, cynical
observations of human behavior, pitch black humor and incredible perception
with regard to the life of the rock star and its trappings. The music
needs no introduction: very few guitar players match up to the musical
ability of David Gilmour and all the band's arrangements are spot on.
This movie adaptation is a different story altogether. The original
album serves as the script's backbone with some embellishments from
both the stage show and discarded material from the original album (the
tracks 'When The Tigers Broke Free' and 'What Shall We Do Now?'). The
biggest difference however was made by director Alan Parker. Not a man
known for subtle statements in cinema, he seemed perfectly suited to
the project. However, he did not get along with Roger Waters and Gerald
Scarfe, leaving as end result an unsatisfying compromise. The animation
by Gerald Scarfe was the best indication of what the material could
look like and the original idea had been to film a Pink Floyd concert
of The Wall with his animations as a part of that. The quality of all
this proved to be below par and with Alan Parker on board it was decided
to turn it into a feature movie narrative.
Waters claims in the running commentary on this DVD that Parker's vision
made it too bleak, without any redeeming quality or humor. It's true
that too many of the scenes lead nowhere or are rendered meaningless
in the context of the story (hence the reason why the 'Hey You' footage
was cut from the movie). Parker seems to have been obsessed with providing
outrageous images in what he must have found an outrageous but exciting
concept. For Waters, it was an autobiographical story and as such he
felt personally attacked when Parker came up with his own interpretations.
But the movie's greatest fault is that it doesn't say anything the lyrics
didn't already say better, with Gerald Scarfe's animations providing
the only real added value in this unusual adaptation. |
|
 |
 |
|
|
Identical
releases are available for Region 1 and Region 2.
The
anamorphic transfer is framed at the original aspect ratio of 2:35:1
and has been remastered to meet the demands of a quality DVD presentation.
Obviously it's not free of the inherent weakness of a 20-year-old picture
but the colours and details are good. Focus can be a bit soft and the
image quality is not totally consistent throughout the picture.
The sound has been upgraded for this DVD to a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix
(a very nice 2.0 mix is also available ) that is very powerful in places.
I did notice some hiss on the tracks and some of the effects are not
quite as crisp as they used to be. I found some of the surround effects
dissapointing or not used to the best effect (for instance in 'Another
Brick In The Wall part 1', it seems David Gilmour's distorted guitar
accents in the chorus are just lazily thrown in by cranking a fader
up and down). It never sounds as good as the album and I hope we'll
be seeing an upgraded DTS version in the near future.
Out
of the loads of extras on this disc, most interesting is the 45 minute
in-depth documentary 'Retrospective' in which Roger Waters and Gerald
Scarfe recollect how the film was made and especially what the concept
for the movie was before Alan Parker came on board. (Parker himself
is also interviewed, but not at length). The documentary 'The Other
Side Of The Wal'l was made at the time of the movie and adds a fascinating
look at Scarfe's animation work and some behind the scenes stuff.
I found the running commentary by Waters and Scarfe hilarious although
opinions seem to differ on this. Waters is in great form throughout,
making wisecracks and offering hilarious voice-overs for what's on-screen
from time to time. He also seems genuinely moved by the segment of 'Anybody
Out There', 'Nobody Home' and 'Bring The Boys Back Home' (the emotional
core of the story). Scarfe is more down to earth and tries to elicit
some comments from Waters on Alan Parker (Scarfe:"You care to comment
on the relationship with Alan?" Waters: "What relationship?").
Great is the addition of the original music video for 'Another Brick
In The Wall part 2', one of the greatest music videos of all time, which
was mainly put together by Scarfe. Production stills, the original trailer
and a technical sound system setup guide make up the remainder of the
extras.The
menus are elaborate with music and images providing an interesting concept
where old Pink Floyd titles are used as chapter heads. The menus do take
some time to load but are easy to navigate.
Gerard
Castelein
Reviewed: 2001
Click
here for IMDB info on Pink
Floyd the Wall.
Click here
to return to the front page.
|
|
| |
