8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.2 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Roger Waters, co-founder and principal songwriter of Pink Floyd, fuses the epic and the personal in Roger Waters The Wall, a concert film that goes well beyond the stage. Based on the groundbreaking concept album, Roger Waters The Wall could be called a concept film: it’s a state-of-the-art show that dazzles the senses, combined with an intensely personal road trip that deals with the loss Roger has felt throughout his life due to war. On stage and now on film, Waters has channeled his convictions into his art and his music. With Roger Waters The Wall, Waters – together with his fellow musicians and his creative collaborators – brings audiences an exultant ride of a rock and roll concert, and delivers an unforgettable, deeply emotional experience.
Starring: Roger Waters, Jon CarinMusic | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1
English: LPCM 2.0
English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Swedish, Turkish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
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.
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 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.
Disc One
- Athens (1080p; 6:26)
- Buenos Aires (1080p; 4:14)
- 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
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.
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