Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Pink Floyd: The Wall Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 2, 2022

The era of the commercially successful "rock opera" is often credited as having begun with The Who's original album release of Tommy in 1969, and while I've had some, um, energetic discussions with some Pink Floyd fans about this, to my sensibility it seems incredible that anyone would try to argue that Tommy influenced Pink Floyd's The Wall, either subliminally or perhaps even overtly. Aside from the patently unavoidable similarities in "idiom", consider just for a moment at least two of the salient similarities between the projects: both feature focal characters more or less lost in their interior worlds, and both feature characters dealing with the trauma of a father either thought to be or actually lost in battle. Now the fact that the original album version of The Wall came out almost exactly a decade after the original album version of Tommy probably also unavoidably came with the baggage of a relative latecomer to the rock opera ranks like Pink Floyd's opus to maybe not be understood as something overly innovative, let alone radical. In that regard, it's kind of interesting to then compare the feature film adaptations of both pieces, the infamous 1975 Ken Russell entry linked to above, and this perhaps equally infamous (at least to some) Alan Parker offering from 1982. While I'm not sure many would term Parker a "visionary" as some have labeled Russell, he brings an undeniable psychedelic swagger to this piece, which includes some long animated sequences done by Gerald Scarfe. A lot of people were kind of comically aghast at some of the "over the top" elements of Russell's Tommy back in the day, to which Parker might have been potentially thinking, "Hold my beer".

Also perhaps at least subliminally tethering Tommy to The Wall is the fact that The Who's titular character becomes a superstar while The Wall's Pink (Bob Geldof) is already a superstar, and is perhaps feeling a very Tommy-like insular isolation as a result. In fact, as the film goes on to document, Pink may be virtually catatonic, lost in an interior world full of weird animations as delivered by Gerald Scarfe. Kind of hilariously, it wasn't just the Acid Queen (memorably Tina Turner in the film) that led some to decry Russell's Tommy as a "drug fueled spectacle", but The Wall even in its original formulation is in its own way such an entity, not the least reason being that Pink is a staunch adherent of the age old trifecta of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure the narrative through line of either the original album or this really audacious film ever is able to successfully weave together a number of admittedly fascinating elements. As we begin to explore the nooks and crannies of Pink's addled mind, the story takes a number of weird detours that are Dystopian in nature and often play oddly like outtakes from something akin to 1984 or even Brazil. Even in its "live action" sequences, The Wall is often hallucinatory in terms of both framings and even content, and can actually make some of Russell's work in Tommy seem relatively tame in comparison.

There are all sorts of online sources available for those interested which get into the really fractious production of this film, one which evidently rankled quite a few of the people involved with it for any number of reasons. This didn't seem to have the immediate visceral impact that Russell's Tommy did when that film first came out, but it's really a rather interesting amalgamation of admittedly loosely connected ideas that are at least knit together somewhat by the expansive score.

Pink Floyd: The Wall Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Pink Floyd: The Wall is presented on Blu-ray with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. A member had listed this as a bootleg, though per a message from another member I'll relay in a moment, my research suggests this may not be. There is a 2019 copyright attributed to something called Blackfire Productions, and a cursory internet search of that name in Spain brings up a seemingly reputable company, at least from what I've been able to discern. This is all salient because this disc came to my attention courtesy of that aforementioned other member here, one who had appreciated my many reviews of other Pink Floyd releases and was wondering if I could take a look at this and determine whether or not it's a bootleg. So, to cut to the chase, my sense is this is not a bootleg, though as always with my reviews, if anyone can point me to authoritative data to the contrary, I'll post an update here. One way or the other, and perhaps making the "is it or isn't it?" questioning moot, is the fact that this transfer isn't without some fairly noticeable problems. Before moving on to the appearance, I'll just add in closing with regard to this issue, for those who may be interested, that all of the packaging here, up to an including the "official" Blu-ray case and the various logos like Dolby and DTS-HD Master Audio, look professional to my eyes, so if this is not a licensed release, someone at least went to some trouble to make it look decent (in terms of packaging). Now, as to the transfer. The first thing of course is the older compression codec, and that may have contributed to some anomalies on tap, though whatever source was utilized has some noticeable damage throughout from virtually the first frame (which is of an official Metro Goldwyn Mayer masthead). A lot of blemishes, scratches, nicks and dirt are pretty regularly visible. The palette is somewhat variant, looking kind of anemic and milky at times, but then attaining significant warmth and robust qualities at others. The biggest issue to me are what I'm assuming are kind of odd compression artifacts where in live action sequences in particular where there's fast motion in the frame, whatever is moving can be encircled by little "ripples", in a digital version of what was called ghosting in the video days. You can notice it, for example, in the first playground scene fairly early in the film. Also, while there is a grain field, it's not especially organic looking, and has a somewhat processed appearance, and in fact I'd call the entire look here kind of processed and digital a lot of the time. At its best in the live action sequences, this transfer offers some relatively secure detail levels and a reasonably vivid palette. The Scarfe animation sequences probably come through the best overall, despite the same sorts of damage noted above.

Pink Floyd: The Wall Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Pink Floyd: The Wall features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. I frankly never saw this film in a theatrical exhibition and I also frankly can't recall if I've ever seen it either broadcast or in a home video version with surround sound, and so some of what I'm reacting to may not rise to the level of concern (and/or annoyance) that it did with me. The basic news here is this is an extremely robust, nicely spacious, track, that has some actually kind of awesome dynamic range. Everything from the hallucinatory band moments to the overwhelming orchestral forces is delivered with nice fidelity and no distortion problems at all. The one area that kind of bugged me was the actual mix, which repeatedly stuffs the vocals down to almost imperceptible levels. Now some of this I'm assuming was intentional, especially considering the "interior" aspects of Pink's deteriorating psyche, but just on a basic level, I found some of the singing hard to hear. Because this is a Spanish release, only Spanish subtitles are included, but they are optional.

Pink Floyd: The Wall Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Of (SD; 25:44) is an archival piece with some behind the scenes footage and interviews.


• Video Clip: Another Brick in the Wall (V.O.S.E.) (SD; 3:14)


• Hey, You (V.O.S.E.) (SD; 4:37)


• Trailer (SD; 1:54)

Pink Floyd: The Wall Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I have to say my reactions to this disc are pretty widely variant. It's far from an optimal presentation of the film, especially in the video department, and yet it's the only Blu-ray of the film available at this point, and the video has at least a couple of (relatively and intermittently) redeeming virtues. My recommendation here is to parse through the screenshots to get a feel for the appearance of the transfer, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.