Pink Floyd - The Wall (1982) review

(6/10)

It's all Pink Floyd's music and style, but it leaves you feeling like your brain exploded.

PLOT:In this cult classic pulled directly from the mind of Roger Waters, we follow a rock star named Pink Floyd (Bob Geldof) and his life. We learn that his father died in the war, his mother overprotected him, he was sent to a rough boarding school as a child, and than his wife cheated on him. He calls each issue "another brick in the wall"; the wall he refers to is the mental wall isolating himself from the outside world psychologically. Now, he's sitting in some hotel in L.A. steadily losing touch with the outside world. This doesn't end real well. It's a great plot idea executed crazily, which I'll get into later on.



ACTING:There really isn't that much acting to be seen here, but of what there is, it's pretty good. The only true actor is Bob Geldof as Pink. Geldof does a pretty great job of conveying Pink's emotional and non-emotional moments. The other shiners besides him would be James Laurenson as Pink's father, Eleanor David as Pink's wife, Kevin McKeon as young Pink, and Alex McCoy as the teacher with honorable mentions to the cameos of Bob Hoskins as Pink's manager and Nell Campbell as a groupie.

SCORE:The soundtrack is the complete album of Pink Floyd's The Wall (except maybe for "Hey You"), so needless to say, the soundtrack is beautiful, rockin', and unique.

EFFECTS:There are a few effects of blood and make-up, and they look pretty cool, but they aren't the absolute best I've seen.

ANIMATION:There are several sequences of animation used to either get a point across or illustrate an event that can't be seen by the eye, and they are very well done. The animation I believe is extremely unique and detailed. I loved it.



OTHER CONTENT:This film is a trip through Roger Waters' imagination that you probably won't be soon forgetting. It is psychological, trippy, dramatic, confusing, and even somewhat scary. It is a Floyd masterpiece, but it has a few flaws. All of the metaphors and illustrations make the plot vague and difficult to determine, and they are so unnecessary at times that it's easy to become confused to the point of utter disorientation. If it didn't stray so far from the point, it would be so much better, but it comes off as a heart attack for the brain.

OVERALL,an ok Pink Floyd film with a great but crazy plot, good acting, rockin' Floyd score, pretty cool effects, unique and detailed animation, and an overall trip, but all of the powerful imagery and illustrations make the plot difficult to determine and the whole thing's confusing and difficult to follow.