Have You Got It Yet? - The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Have You Got It Yet? - The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 19, 2024

Pink Floyd has been rather spectacularly well served in the high definition era with any number of releases of various types (i.e., hi-res audio, documentaries, etc.) on Blu-ray, including Pink Floyd: The Story of Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd: Classic Albums - The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd: Delicate Sound of Thunder, Pink Floyd: Animals, Pink Floyd: A Momentary Lapse of Reason, Pink Floyd: The Early Years, Pink Floyd: The Later Years, Pink Floyd: Pulse, Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd: The Division Bell and Pink Floyd: The Endless River, many of which I've had the pleasure of reviewing. For anyone who has enjoyed any (or, if they have very deep pockets in some cases, all) of the above, this sweet but inherently sad documentary about Syd Barrett will probably be a must have.

The documentary perhaps unwisely seeks to answer what is probably an unanswerable question, namely "what happened" to this rock visionary who, like a shooting star, briefly illuminated the firmament before descending into apparent madness. Many long time readers of my reviews know I've personally attempted to answer another unanswerable question about the perceived insanity in classic actress Frances Farmer, and having spent considerable time down that particular rabbit hole, I can tell you from personal experience that sometimes mental illness simply kind of "shows up" in adults, though Have You Got It Yet? makes a pretty substantial case that Barrett gobbling down pounds of LSD may not have helped his stability.

As co-director Roddy Bogawa mentions in a brief interview included as a supplement, this effort was aided immeasurably by the participation of the late Storm Thorgersen (credited as co-director and co-writer), whose life long relationships with several Pink Floyd band members gave immediate access and the sort of "let your guard down" moments in several interviews that I'm sure will be fascinating to fans of the band in general and Barrett in particular. There is also a glut of great material with a number of women with whom Barrett had relationships. Add in some great archival material, including what I'm assuming may be previously unreleased audio of Barrett in the recording studio, and this adds up to a really compelling piece which frankly may not answer its central question, but which still provides a ton of information.

Have You Got It Yet? - The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Have You Got It Yet? - The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Mercury Studios with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer (often) in 1.78:1 (as is often the case with these retrospectives, archival video can be in narrower aspect ratios). This has the unavoidably heterogeneous appearance that typically attends these efforts cobbled together from different material. The contemporary interviews all look sharp as a tack, with a nicely if not overly suffused palette, and good to excellent detail levels. Archival stills actually also tend to look rather good throughout for the most part. Some of the archival video can't help but look somewhat shoddy, and some suffers from pretty bad anomalies like flutter and tracking issues.

Have You Got It Yet? - The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While there is a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 option, the LPCM 2.0 track may suffice perfectly well for many since this is in essence a "talking heads" documentary with only interstitial snippets of music. The surround track does at least marginally open up the musical elements. Both tracks provide nice support for everything, and all interview and other spoken material is rendered cleanly and clearly. Optional English subtitles are available.

Have You Got It Yet? - The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The disc's supplemental material (HD; 25:38) is authored together, with chapter stops for the following sections:

• Arnold Layne Live at the Royal Albert Hall 2006 with David Gilmour and David Bowie


• Arnold Layne Live at the Barbican Center 2007 with Pink Floyd


• Interview with Director Roddy Bogawa


• Syd's Paintings


• Syd's Lyrics


• Director and Producer's Commentary is accessible under the Setup Menu.

Additionally a folded poster and DVD copy are included.

Have You Got It Yet? - The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As is discussed in passing in this piece, a lot of fans came to Pink Floyd after Barrett had already left, and so this enigmatic character was often perceived as some lunatic that had something to do with the band's early years, but who ultimately may have been "irrelevant". Have You Got It Yet? - The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd easily disabuses that notion, and makes a pretty potent case that Barrett was kind of the "poster child" for the drug fueled music scene in at least England during a (no pun intended) heady period in the mid to late sixties. The answers Bogawa and Thorgesen were after may not be completely addressed (and in fact the reason "why" Barrett had mental issues may not have an answer), but this is a really interesting, if kind of heartbreaking, biography. Technical merits are generally solid, and the supplements are very appealing. Recommended.