Pink Floyd The Wall is a 1982 musical film by British director Alan Parker based on the 1979 Pink Floyd album The Wall. The screenplay was written by Pink Floyd vocalist and bassist Roger Waters. The film is highly metaphorical and is rich in symbolic imagery and sound. It features very little dialogue and is mainly driven by Pink Floyd's music.
In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine (when ?), Roger Waters discusses how both the album and the film are partially derived from the story "The Wall" by Jean-Paul Sartre. The movie represents the emotional connection Waters developed with Pablo Ibbieta, the protagonist, while he was reading the story. Waters claims the incident between Pablo and Ramón deeply moved him and changed the way he viewed life and eventually helped inspire the movie.
The film contains fifteen minutes of elaborate animation sequences by the political cartoonist and illustrator Gerald Scarfe, part of which depict a nightmarish vision of the German bombing campaign over the United Kingdom during World War II set to the song "Goodbye Blue Sky".
Plot summary
One of Gerald Scarfe's many depictions of the wall from
Pink Floyd The Wall
The film depicts the construction and ultimate demolition of a metaphorical wall. Though the film is open to interpretation, the wall itself clearly reflects a sense of isolation and alienation.
Pink, the protagonist (and unreliable narrator) of the film, is a rock star; one of several reasons behind his apparent depressive emotional state. He is first seen in a quiet hotel room, having trashed it. The opening music is not by Pink Floyd, but is the Vera Lynn recording of The Little Boy that Santa Claus Forgot[1]. During the following scenes, it is revealed that Pink's father was killed during World War II while he was just a baby.
The movie then flashes back to Pink as a young English boy growing up in the early 1950s. Throughout his childhood, Pink longs for a father figure. At school, he is humiliated for writing poems in class. The poems that the teacher reads aloud are lyrics from "Money" from the Pink Floyd album The Dark Side of the Moon. Pink is also affected by his overprotective mother. He eventually gets married, but he and his wife grow apart and she has an affair while Pink is on tour. When Pink learns of the affair, he compensates with expensive materialistic possessions and turns to a willing groupie (Jenny Wright), only to trash the hotel room and drive her away.
Pink slowly begins to lose his mind to metaphorical worms. He shaves off all of his body hair (an incident inspired by former bandmate Syd Barrett, who appeared at a 1975 recording session of Wish You Were Here, having shaved his eyebrows and body hair[2][3]) and, while watching The Dam Busters on television, morphs into his neo-nazi alter-ego. Pink's manager (Bob Hoskins), along with the hotel manager (Michael Ensign) and some paramedics, discover Pink, and inject him with drugs to enable him to perform. On stage, Pink hallucinates that he is a Nazi dictator, his concert a rally. His followers proceed to attack ethnic minorities, rape the white girlfriend of a black man. Later, Pink holds a rally in a suburban neighbourhood singing "Waiting for the Worms". The scene is inter-cut by images of the animated marching hammers that goosestep across ruins.
Pink screams "Stop!", and takes refuge in a bathroom stall at the concert venue, reciting a poem which would later be used as lyrics on Waters' The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking album. Pink puts himself on trial, shown entirely in animation. He is depicted as a small blank-faced doll that rarely moves. The judge is a giant pair of buttocks, speaking out of its anus. After hearing from the various protagonists, the judge orders the wall to be torn down. The wall explodes. The film ends with three children cleaning up a pile of debris after the earlier riot.
History
Even before the original Pink Floyd album was recorded, a film was intended to be made from it.[4] However, the concept of the film was intended to be live footage from the album's tour, with Scarfe's animation and extra scenes. The film was going to star Waters himself. EMI did not intend to make the film, as they did not understand the concept.[5]
Director Alan Parker, a fan of Pink Floyd, asked EMI whether The Wall could be adapted to film. EMI suggested that Parker talk to Waters, who asked Parker to direct the film. Parker instead suggested that he produce it and give the directing task to Scarfe and Michael Seresin, a cinematographer.[6] Waters began work on the film's screenplay after studying scriptwriting books. He and Scarfe produced a special-edition book containing the screenplay and art to pitch the project to investors. While the book depicted Waters in the role of Pink, after screen tests, he was removed from the starring role;[7] he was replaced with the punk musician Bob Geldof.
The iconic "marching hammers."
Since Waters was no longer in the starring role, it no longer made sense for the feature to include Pink Floyd footage, so the live film aspect was dropped[8]. The footage culled from the five Wall concerts at Earl's Court from 13-17 June 1981 that were held specifically for filming was deemed unusable also for technical reasons as the fast Panavision lenses needed for the low light levels turned out to have insufficient resolution for the movie screen. Complex parts such as "Hey You" still had not been properly shot by the end of the live shows [9]. Parker also managed to convince Waters and Scarfe that the concert footage was too theatrical and that it would jar with the animation and stage live action. After the concert footage was dropped, Seresin left the project and Parker became the only director connected to "The Wall." [10].
During production, Geldof suffered a cut to his hand while filming the destruction of the hotel room set as he pulls away the venetian blinds. The footage remains in the film. Also, it was discovered during the filming of the pool scenes that Geldof did not know how to swim. Interiors were shot at Pinewood Studios, and it was suggested that they suspend Geldof in Christopher Reeve's clear cast used for the Superman flying sequences from storage, but his frame was too small by comparison; it was then decided to use a similar mould for Helen Slater from Supergirl, which was a more acceptable fit, and he simply laid on his back.[11]
Premiere
The Wall was shown "out of competition" during the 1982 Cannes Film Festival.[12] Critics and audiences were taken aback. Film critic Roger Ebert has championed it as "one of the great modern musicals," while Steven Spielberg, who was showing E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, also "out of competition", reacted with indifference.[13]
The film's official premiere was at the Empire, Leicester Square in London, on 14 July 1982. It was attended by Pink Floyd members Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Nick Mason, but not Richard Wright, likely because he was fired by Waters earlier on. It was also attended by various celebrities including Bob Geldof, Gerald Scarfe, Pete Townshend, Sting, Roger Taylor, James Hunt, and Andy Summers.
Reception
The film opened with a limited release on August 6, 1982 and entered at #28 of the US box office charts despite only playing in one theatre on its first weekend, grossing over $68,000, a rare feat even by today's standards. The film then spent just over a month below the top 20 while still in the top 30. The film later expanded to over 600 theaters on September 10, achieving #3 at the box office charts, below E.T. and An Officer and a Gentleman. The film eventually earned $22 million dollars before closing in early 1983.
The film received generally favorable reviews. The Internet Movie Database ranked the film with a 7.7 rating (out of over 22,000 votes.) While Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film with a total of a 65% "fresh" rating (out of 17 reviews), while the community of the website ranked the film with a 87 percent (out of 375 reviews.)
Roger Waters has expressed deep reservations about the film, saying that the filming had been "a very unnerving and unpleasant experience...we all fell out in a big way". As for the film itself, he said: "I found it was so unremitting in its onslaugh upon the senses, that it didn't give me, anyway, as an audience, a chance to get involved with it" although he had nothing but praise for Geldof's performance[14]. Parker, who frequently clashed with Waters and Gerald Scarfe, described the filming as "one of the most miserable experiences of my creative life."[15] David Gilmour stated (on both the "In the Studio with Redbeard" episodes of A Momentary Lapse of Reason and On an Island) that the conflict between him and Waters started with the making of the film. Gilmour also stated on the documentary Behind The Wall (which was aired on the BBC in the UK and VH1 in the US) that "the movie was the less successful telling of The Wall story as opposed to the album and concert versions."
Documentary
A documentary was produced about the making of Pink Floyd The Wall entitled The Other Side of the Wall that includes interviews with Parker, Scarfe, and clips of Waters, originally aired on MTV in 1982. A second documentary about the film was produced in 1999 entitled Retrospective that includes interviews with Waters, Parker, Scarfe, and other members of the film's production team. Both are on The Wall DVD as extras.
Video release and rights issues
The film was originally released on VHS and LaserDisc on the former MGM/UA Home Video (in the U.S.) and Thorn-EMI (in the United Kingdom) in 1983[16], and continued on with what became MGM Home Entertainment until around 2000 (it was originally not part of MGM's pre-1986 library acquired by Turner Entertainment). The following year, after Turner merged with Time Warner, the film was incorporated into Turner's holdings. However, since Sony Music had, by that time, owned some rights to the film (along with Roger Waters' production company, Tin Blue, Ltd., and music publishing company Kimbridge Music, as well as a good chunk of the band's catalogue, including The Wall), the video rights were transferred from MGM to Sony Music Video, and all current video releases are from Sony Music[citation needed]. However, Warner Bros. (via Turner) remains the television and theatrical rights holder for the film[citation needed].
There are various releases and re-releases which can mostly be found at IMDB.
Soundtrack
Song changes from album:
| Track |
Changes |
| When the Tigers Broke Free 1 |
New song[17] |
| In the Flesh? |
Extended/re-mixed/lead vocal re-recorded by Geldof[17] |
| The Thin Ice |
Extended/re-mixed[17] with additional piano overdub in second verse |
| Another Brick in the Wall 1 |
Unchanged |
| When the Tigers Broke Free 2 |
New song[17] |
| Goodbye Blue Sky |
Re-mixed[17] (moved positions) |
| The Happiest Days of Our Lives |
Re-mixed[17] |
| Another Brick in the Wall 2 |
Re-mixed[17] with extra lead guitar, children's chorus part edited and shortened, teacher's lines re-recorded by Alex McAvoy and interspersed within children's chorus portion |
| Mother |
Re-recorded completely with exception of guitar solo. Lyrics changed into a more narrative-oriented style to work as film music e.g. "Is it just a waste of time?" became "Am I really dying?".[17] |
| Empty Spaces |
Dropped in favour of "What Shall We Do Now?"[17] |
| What Shall We Do Now? |
An alternate version of "Empty Spaces"[17] |
| Young Lust |
Unchanged, but with screams added and phone call part removed. |
| One of My Turns |
Re-mixed |
| Don't Leave Me Now |
Shortened |
| Another Brick in the Wall 3 |
Re-recorded completely[17] with a faster tempo |
| Goodbye Cruel World |
Unchanged |
| Hey You |
Deleted as Waters and Parker felt the footage was too repetitive (80 per cent of the footage appears in montage sequences elsewhere)[18] , but available as a scratched black and white work print on the DVD version as the original film elements had been destroyed [19]. |
| Is There Anybody Out There? |
Classical guitar re-recorded |
| Nobody Home |
Vocals re-mixed |
| Vera |
Unchanged |
| Bring the Boys Back Home |
Re-recorded completely with brass band and Welsh male vocal choir extended and Roger Waters' lead vocals removed[20] |
| Comfortably Numb |
Re-mixed with screams added. Bass line partially different from album |
| The Show Must Go On |
Not included. |
| In the Flesh |
Re-recorded completelywith brass band and Bob Geldof on lead vocals[17]. |
| Run Like Hell |
Re-mixed and shortened. |
| Waiting for the Worms |
Shortened but with extended coda |
| Stop |
Re-recorded completely[17] with Geldof unaccompanied on lead vocals. (The audio in the background of this scene is from Gary Yudman's introduction from The Wall Live at Earl's Court.) |
| The Trial |
Re-mixed |
| Outside the Wall |
Re-recorded completely[17] with brass band and Welsh male voice choir. Extended. |
The only songs from the album not used in the film are "Hey You" and "The Show Must Go On". Most of the "Hey You" footage was later edited into the film and raw footage of the intact sequence was first made available on the DVD release as a deleted scene.
A soundtrack album from Columbia Records was listed in the film's end credits, but the album was never released, due perhaps to the band's disintegration. To date, only "When the Tigers Broke Free" was released, and became a bonus track on the band's 1982 album The Final Cut, an album Waters intended as an extension to The Wall. Guitarist David Gilmour, however, dismissed the album as a collection of songs that had been rejected for the the Wall project, but were being recycled again.
Notes
- ^ Mabbett, Andy (1995). The Complete Guide to the Music of Pink Floyd. London: Omnibus,. pp. 150p.. ISBN 071194301x.
- ^ http://www.nme.com/news/pink-floyd/23570
- ^ http://www.megapinkfloyd.com/band_members_syd-barrett.asp
- ^ Schaffner, Nicholas. Saucerful of Secrets. Dell Publishing. p. 225.
- ^ Schaffner, Nicholas. Saucerful of Secrets. Dell Publishing. p. 244.
- ^ Schaffner, Nicholas. Saucerful of Secrets. Dell Publishing. pp. 244–245.
- ^ Schaffner, Nicholas. Saucerful of Secrets. Dell Publishing. pp. 245–246.
- ^ Schaffner, Nicholas. Saucerful of Secrets. Dell Publishing. p. 246.
- ^ Pink Floyd's The Wall, page 83
- ^ Pink Floyd's The Wall, page 105
- ^ Geldof, Bob. Is That It?. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
- ^ http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/1982/outOfCompetition.html
- ^ http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,170375,00.html
- ^ Pink Floyd's The Wall, page 129
- ^ Pink Floyd's The Wall, page 118
- ^ Pink Floyd's The Wall, page 127
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Bench, Jeff (2004). Pink Floyd's The Wall. Richmond, Surrey, UK: Reynolds and Hearn,. pp. 107-110p.. ISBN 190311182X.
- ^ Pink Floyd's The Wall, page 118
- ^ Pink Floyd's The Wall, page 128
- ^ Povey, Glenn (2007). Echoes: The Complete History of Pink Floyd. Chesham, Bucks, UK: Mind Head Publishing,. pp. 229p.. ISBN 9780955462405.
Chart positions
| Year |
Chart |
Position |
| 2005 |
Australian ARIA DVD Chart |
#10 |
External links
