Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Roger Waters: The Wall Blu-ray Movie Review

See him, feel him.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 4, 2015

Fortunately for one Dr. Ben Carson (who one assumes is otherwise occupied at the moment), it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see the connective tissues linking Pink Floyd The Wall and The Who’s Tommy. Aside from the obvious fact that both offerings are rock operas which debuted as concept albums and then went on to various other multimedia versions, both pieces deal with a young male dealing with the vagaries of war, including at least the temporary absence of a father figure, vagaries which in turn lead the youngster through a gauntlet of various taunts, abuse and other psychologically damaging interactions to the point where the kid more or less completely withdraws into some magical interior world. It’s perhaps a little ironic that Roger Waters, a sometimes contentious soul who has not been shy about defending his own “intellectual property”, should have fashioned a rock opera which shares so many salient similarities with (mostly) Pete Townshend’s immortal creation. Tommy of course presaged The Wall by quite a few years, coming out in 1969 and morphing into Ken Russell’s hyperbolically hallucinogenic film version in 1975. It wasn’t until four years after that film that The Wall had its first album release, ultimately giving Pink Floyd not just a Number One album but their sole trip to the top of the singles charts with “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2).” The Wall was actually the swan song for the aggregation that many Pink Floyd fans remember most fondly, with David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason supporting Waters. As Waters has proven in his post-Floyd career, he’s uniquely interested in crafting albums or at least song cycles that tend to explore stories in one form or another, and that tendency is firmly on display in Roger Waters The Wall, an interesting if fragmented film which combines elements from Waters’ live tour (which features a lot of material from The Wall) with interstitial sequences documenting Waters’ own quest to come to terms with the passing of his father in World War II when Waters was just a baby. Waters is obviously attempting to weave a larger tale here, including references to innocent victims of other conflicts down through the sad litany of wars the human race seems intent on continuing, and it’s arguable as to whether the material in The Wall actually supports such a high falutin’ concept. That said, Roger Waters The Wall offers some incredible stagecraft in its concert sequences and some ostensibly heartfelt (if perhaps self serving) moments as Waters deals with his own familial legacy.

When Waters traipses into a geometrically arranged cemetery and pulls out a bugle, one almost expects him to break into “Taps” as some sort of elegy, but instead he offers one of several segues that Roger Waters The Wall makes between these “road” trips and concert footage culled from what were evidently several live performances over the course of Waters’ tour. Some of the segues are quite artfully handled, with parts of the image slowly morphing from “real life” to the staged music events, but at the same time there’s an undeniable disconnect at hand. To put it simply: was The Wall really about war when you get right down to it? Sure, the tragedies that accompany wartime were certainly part of the genesis of the piece, but Pink’s isolation ultimately isn’t due to any actual wartime activities on the part of the character himself. That means that the whole structural artifice of Roger Waters The Wall is perhaps built on a fairly wobbly foundation.

If some may find the interstitial elements with Waters coming to terms with his father’s death either too pretentious seeming or at least attempting for an emotional level that some may not be able to share, there will probably be less controversy over the absolutely riveting stagecraft of the shows which are offered as part of the concert segments. There is in fact a wall which becomes a magical screen of sorts, and Waters and the band are surrounded by an amazing array not just of projections but actual three dimensional props courtesy of some giant puppet like characters (based on The Wall’s Gerald Scarfe illustrations) that “come to life” at various points.

Because of this bifurcated approach, Roger Waters The Wall tends to kind of lurch from an energy standpoint, with the private aspects playing almost like depressive interludes that take place in between the more manic concert offerings. Waters obviously wants to provide his fans with some epochal philosophical ruminations in this kind of odd mash up of various elements, but ironically the “walls” between the concert sequences and the intimate personal story Waters is exploring tend to fragment the approach, making any world shattering conclusions harder to come by.

Roger Waters: The Wall Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Roger Waters The Wall is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Studios with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. According to the IMDb, Rogers Waters The Wall was shot with the Red One camera, and the results are for the most part extremely sharp and precise looking. It does seem probable that at least some short moments may have been captured with lower fi units, especially with regard to some of the brief shots of various audience members, shots that can be littered with noise and fairly soft looking (see screenshot 16). Otherwise, though, this presentation offers robustly saturated colors and wonderfully deep black levels. A number of lighting choices may detract minimally from detail levels at times, but there are no issues with posterizing or banding, two regular problems that tend to afflict a lot of Blu-ray concert videos. Close-ups reveal commendable levels of fine detail, offering precise looks at (to cite one example) the rather deep crags in Waters' face. There are some minor image instability issues that tend to crop up in what look like Steadicam shots, where (for example) the camera will travel through an interior room or along a rural road. In some of these tracking shots, side information occasionally destabilizes, but never to an overly problematic level.

Roger Waters: The Wall Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Roger Waters The Wall features a Dolby Atmos track (with a Dolby TrueHD 7.1 core, the version reviewed here) which is amazingly crisp, precise and (at times) incredibly bombastic. In fact, without posting a "sonic spoiler", those audiophiles who love horror films for their sudden LFE startle effects may find their adrenaline pumping rather soon after the film begins. While the concert sections offer the most impressively immersive moments, even the relatively quieter sequences like Waters in his car or at the cemetery offer excellent if subtle ambient environmental effects. Fidelity is superb, with the massed synthesizers and other rhythm instruments in the concert sections sounding clear and distinct, despite Waters' tendency to voice things densely in midranges. Dynamic range is also extremely wide, both within the concert sequences themselves, but also with regard to the changes between the concert and personal sequences.

Roger Waters: The Wall Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• A Visit to Frank Thompson (1080p; 4:58) documents Waters' trek to the Bulgarian grave of a war hero, where Waters reads from the man's writings.


• Time Lapses

  Athens (1080p; 6:26)

  Buenos Aires (1080p; 4:14)

Disc Two (Bonus Disc)

• Driving (1080p; 6:38) documents Waters tooling about in his car and having various discussions.


• Facebook Films (1080p; 57:54) offer a number of brief snippets detailing various elements of the Waters Wall Tour of 2010-2013:

  Celebrity

  Us and Them

  America

  The Alan Parker Film

  Lighting

  Rolling Stone Cover Shoot

  Flags

  Kids

  New York

  Uncle Jimmy

  Puppets

  Instruments

  Frightened

  Top of the Wall

  Hammers

  Birthday

  Air Drummer

  Digitized

  Doppler

  Snowy's Note

  Trumpet

  Malfunction

  Projectors

  Occupy

  Stadiums

  Dave and Nick

  Quebec

  Health

  Cops

  Poll Star Awards Part 1

  Poll Star Awards Part 1

• Comfortably Numb Live at the 02 with Special Appearance by David Gilmour (1080p; 8:19)


• Outside the Wall Live at the O2 with Special Appearances by David Gilmour and Nick Mason (1080p; 8:50)

Roger Waters: The Wall Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Roger Waters The Wall may throw some diehard Pink Floyd fans for a loop who may be expecting a straight ahead concert version of the epochal album. Waters is obviously aiming for the fences here, but he may have whiffed at least a little, with an undeniable disconnect between the two main thrusts of the film, despite some very artful attempts to organically weave them together, at least in terms of visual segues and the like. While kind of an odd crazy quilt at best, Roger Waters The Wall provides some serious spectacle in the concert sequences and the private moments with Roger are, while perhaps too self serving to ever resonate fully, still viscerally emotional. Technical merits are top notch, and Roger Waters The Wall comes Recommended.