The Movie:

"…we came in?"

Pink Floyd's The Wall is considered by many music fans to be the best concept album ever recorded. For me, The Who's Tommy takes the lead, and The Wall is actually third in line of best Pink Floyd concept albums, right behind Animals and The Dark Side of the Moon. However, The Wall still holds a special place in my heart, since it's the one rock album that I practically grew up with. It was played so much in my house, that I had memorized all three Another Brick in the Walls by the time I was six. What makes The Wall timeless is its universal themes of peace, anti-authoritarianism, and isolation.

Roger Waters' semi-autobiographical work was inspired by his grief regarding his father being killed in WWII when Waters was just a baby. Of course there are other personal elements (Or Bricks, if we want to stick to the album's overall theme) about his life that he brought forth in the album, as well as in the underrated Alan Parker film. Yet during the last couple of decades, Waters has been focusing on the anti-war aspects of his work. The 1990 Berlin concert performed right after the fall of the wall was perhaps a too literal approach to the subject matter. And even though the music is timeless, I bet the acts that appeared during the performance will make the concert film that resulted out of it, also titled Roger Waters The Wall, feel very dated.

But any fan looking for a good concert film based on The Wall shouldn't despair, since this new Roger Waters The Wall perfectly captures Waters' powerful recent live tour of the album. I saw that concert a couple of years ago, and for those who've already experienced it live, you'll basically see the exact same concert with lush and stark cinematography, intercut with short vignettes about Waters going on a trip to Italy in order to see the site of his father's death. For those who haven't experienced Waters' new take on The Wall, the updated and grandiose approach to the material should please you.

The songs are the same, but for the visuals in the concert, Waters focuses a lot more on the anti-war aspects of the album. He wisely expands his theme from WWII into all wars, including the recent disastrous conflicts in the Middle East. His show finds a nice balance between the old and the new, as he liberally uses the brilliant Gerald Scarfe animated segments from Alan Parker's film in their entirety, while melding them with new pop art visuals about lives needlessly lost during wars. The performance is electric, and the expertly framed cinematography gives fans an extremely close look into the concert.

The quiet segments that appear every five songs or so work both as a palate cleanser, and as a way to understand Waters' troubled family past regarding wars, as well as his motivations behind writing The Wall in the first place. The concert and trip segments, very different in tone and visual approach, actually end up complementing each other very well.

The Blu-ray:

Video:

The concert itself uses a harsh color scheme, where a single color can take over the entire stage. This is ripe for any transfer to suffer from color bleeding issues. However, Roger Waters The Wall's 1080p transfer passes that test with flying colors (No pun intended) and brings the audience a gorgeous and clear representation of the concert. Both the extremely warm colors of the concert, as well as the colder color scheme of the trip to Italy segments are captured perfectly.

Audio:

The Dolby Atmos 7.1 track will be a feast for your surround system, even if you only have a 5.1 set up like I do. Every channel comes to life. The concert is mixed so well, with appropriate panning depending on the placement of the camera, that it always feels like we're in the middle of the performance.

Extras:

Disc 1:

A Visit to Frank Thompson: This is basically a deleted scene, where Waters visits the grave of a war hero.

Time Lapses: Two sequences with time-lapse photography showing the crew putting together the sets.

Disc 2:

Driving: Basically another deleted scene where Waters talks about the car he takes on his trip.

Facebook Films: An hour of short documentaries about the tour. This stuff is essential if you want a virtual back stage pass to the tour.

Comfortably Numb Live: This is the video that went viral a couple of years ago, where David Gilmour surprisingly joins Waters on stage.

Outside The Wall Live: This time, both Gilmour and Nick Mason join Waters. As far as I can tell, Richard Wright had already passed by the time this was filmed, so this is as close to a Floyd reunion as we get.

I guess the Amazon Exclusive comes with a ton of goodies, but I only got the regular Blu-ray version.

Final Thoughts:

Roger Waters' new version of The Wall is a gorgeous, brave, thought provoking, and endlessly creative take on his original material. This beautifully shot concert film is highly recommended, especially to those who have never seen the concert live.

"Isn't this where…"

Oktay Ege Kozak is a film critic and screenwriter based in Portland, Oregon. He also writes for The Playlist, The Oregon Herald, and Beyazperde.com