Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3455 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-02-07
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 80 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
By any rational measure, Alan Parker's cinematic interpretation of Pink Floyd's The Wall is a glorious failure. Glorious because its imagery is hypnotically striking, frequently resonant and superbly photographed by the gifted cinematographer Peter Biziou. And a failure because the entire exercise is hopelessly dour, loyal to the bleak themes and psychological torment of Roger Waters' great musical opus, and yet utterly devoid of the humour that Waters certainly found in his own material. Any attempt to visualise The Wall would be fraught with artistic danger, and Parker succumbs to his own self-importance, creating a film that's as fascinating as it is flawed. The film is, for better and worse, the fruit of three artists in conflict--Parker indulging himself, and Waters in league with designer Gerald Scarfe, whose brilliant animated sequences suggest that he should have directed and animated this film in its entirety. Fortunately, this clash of talent and ego does not prevent The Wall from being a mesmerising film. Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof (in his screen debut) is a fine choice to play Waters's alter ego--an alienated, "comfortably numb" rock star whose psychosis manifests itself as an emotional (and symbolically physical) wall between himself and the cold, cruel world. Weaving Waters's autobiographical details into his own jumbled vision, Parker ultimately fails to combine a narrative thread with experimental structure. It's a rich, bizarre, and often astonishing film that will continue to draw a following, but the real source of genius remains the music of Roger Waters. --Jeff Shannon

Video Description
DVD Special Features

Previosly unreleased film footage
Remastered 5.1 Dolby Digital and Surround Encoded PCM Stereo Soundtracks from the original mastertapes
New Hi Definition film transfer from the original widescreen interpositive
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL -
A 25 minute documentary about the making of the film
Running comentary from Roger Waters, Gerald Scarfe, Alan Parker, Peter Biziou, Alan Marshall and James Guthrie.
Original film trailer and production stills
Subtitles, scene/song selection, and secret buttons
Technical Sound System Set Up Guide

Synopsis
Loosely based on the life story of Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd's original front man (who was kicked out of the band for his bizarre and disturbing behavior only to go insane shortly thereafter), PINK FLOYD: THE WALL stars Bob Geldof as Pink, a mentally damaged man who has gone from a hopeful child artist to a burned-out rock star drifting away from reality. As Pink festers in his hotel room, elements of his abusive childhood come back to haunt him until he begins to descend into absolute madness.
Director Alan Parker's intense and fully realized film interpretation of the English band's classic album, THE WALL melds whimsical fantasy with dark Shakespearean drama. The film makes innovative use of sets, costumes, and special effects to create a unique surrealistic strangeness worthy of Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali's UN CHIEN ANDALOU. Both disturbing and bedazzling, PINK FLOYD: THE WALL is a must-see film for any music lover.

Customer Reviews

Absolutely transformed on DVD!
This DVD is absolutely superb - well deserving the five stars. They've taken a fuzzy, muffled, pan and scan, 20 year old film and just completely transformed it. The picture is razor sharp, and in Widescreen for the first time ever. The all important sound - the main device for progressing the narrative, has been converted into Dolby Digital 5.1 using the original mastertapes. Hooked up through a hi-fi or through a surround sound system it just blows you away.

It's just how The Wall was meant to be watched - but the technology didn't exist to do it justice. But with the advent of home cinema systems this DVD just brings the film to life.

What tops it all off for me are the special features included on the disc - which are so numerous it puts other DVD's to shame. Documentaries, music videos, unreleased footage of the film, interviews, trailers, sound set-up sections - it's got it all.

If you've got The Wall on video and can't see the point in upgrading - ignore those voices and buy this DVD! The transformation from VHS to DVD really is amazing.

Great extras, not so cheerful flick
Let's see; a miserable childhood with a smothering mother, a father who dies in the war, a joyless rock star who descends into a drug induced hell of fascism and alienation and a soundtrack that makes Radiohead sound like the Teletubbies. No, The Wall is no date movie, nor is it a popcorn-munching Saturday night blockbuster. But it can be by turns exhilarating, mind-blowing and deadly dull, and it's never looked or sounded better.

For years Floydies have had to put up with a muddy pan and scan print of Alan Parker's great experiment. But this disc boasts a new high definition film transfer from the original wide-screen interpositive (that's the holiest of holies when it comes to clean, virginal prints) and a re-mastered 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack that bursts out of your speakers like it's throwing you a surprise party. Gerald Scarfe's animation is given a stunning makeover and Peter Biziou's photography, always murky on the VHS, is clearer and crisper than ever.

There are few directors who would have the nerve to take on a feature length movie version of an already successful double album, with no dialogue and a thirty-five page script written by a rock star based only on his lyrics. But Alan Parker has never been one to allow himself to be pigeonholed. This is the man who, in musical cinema alone, has given us Bugsy Malone, Fame, The Commitments and Evita.

The film follows the fortunes of Pink, played with a dazed glaze by Bob Geldof, an amalgam of rock's greatest victims including Keith Moon and the Floyd's own Syd Barrett, as he reflects on his life from a trashed hotel room in Los Angeles. One of the problems of the film is that Pink spends so much of his time stoned, staring into space or smashing televisions that you find it difficult to feel sorry for the poor millionaire rock star. But for all the failures of the narrative, The Wall is a film of great moments, most of which come from Scarfe's animation; the marching hammers, the rather rude flower dance and the superb climax of The Trial.

The disc is just crammed with extras. The animated menus are gorgeous and are accompanied by snippets of music from the Floyd's classic seventies albums. There are two documentaries. The first, The other side of the Wall (25 minutes), was made at the time of the film's release and sadly, the years have not been kind. The picture is all flicker and grain and the sounds wobbles to and fro making the 'Gravelly-voice-over-man' sound nauseous. But the film includes rare concert footage from The Wall concerts (although the music is drowned out by the voice-over) and the haircuts sported by Parker, Waters et al, are hilarious. The second, more revealing 45 minute documentary Retrospective comes in two parts and was made last year. Waters, never the prettiest member of the band now looks like Richard Gere (not necessarily a good thing). He, Parker and Scarfe all talk frankly about their often tumultuous relationships and the difficulties in making the film. Waters admits the film lacks humour and is never entirely sure what the film's about. Parker describes trying to direct vast crowds of skinheads who got a little too involved in the fascist rally scenes and Scarfe reveals his astonishment when a scribbled doodle on the back of an envelope became a very expensive set at Shepperton studios. Other contributions come from cinematographer Biziou, producer Alan Marshall and sound engineer James Guthrie who all provide excellent anecdotal dialogue; Biziou particularly enjoys recalling trying to attach a camera to a pendulum for the swimming pool scene. Sadly, the other members of the band, who admittedly had little to do with the film, have been written out of history after their falling-out with Waters and are glimpsed only briefly in the first documentary and in the gallery of productions stills. Still, it would have been nice to hear from guitarist Dave Gilmour who co-produced the soundtrack and made major contributions to the original album.

However, you do get a running commentary from Waters and Scarfe, who can be a little hard on Parker at times and take a long time to warm to the film (there are some long gaps where you suspect they may have nodded off). But they can be informative and funny; Waters' diabolical impersonation of Geldof has to be heard to be believed, and Scarfe describes the painstaking detail that went into the animation. There's also a trailer, the aforementioned production stills, and a gallery of Scarfe's original drawings. They also throw in the original video for Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2), which was hurriedly cobbled together by Scarfe when the single got to number one. Finally there's a wonderfully anorakish Technical Sound Set Up guide, which advises you to buy a sound pressure level to find the optimum positions and levels for your speakers. The only downside is the scene/song selection menu which lists the chapters only by numbers and the inclusion of special 'Secret buttons' which are so secret I have yet to find them.

But this is the kind of disc your machine was made for and if you're a Floyd fan without a DVD player, you owe it to yourself to buy one. Altogether now: "We don't need naaa edjucashun..!"

No fan should be without the DVD
.
You don't need to be a fan of the album to enjoy this, but it helps.
I found the album difficult to understand when it was first released, but it became much clearer when I saw the show in London and finally it all comes together brilliantly with this film. Wonderful visual interpretations and additional tracks to better link the storyline, this is a masterpiece.
This DVD version improves the whole experience again. There are clear improvements in the quality of the picture and the sound track and there are plenty of extras to keep the fans happy.

Pink Floyd have always been self indulgent and Roger Waters has an ego that needs careful handling (something that the excellent director Alan Parker found out a bit too late) and some of the extras are therefore only for die hard fans.

This is an excellent film that has been given another boost. If you liked it on video then buy the DVD - you'll love it.