Amazon.com video review:
By any rational measure, Alan Parker's cinematic interpretation of
Pink Floyd: The Wall
is a glorious failure. Glorious because its
imagery is hypnotically striking, frequently resonant, and superbly
photographed by the gifted cinematographer Peter Biziou. And a failure
because the entire exercise is hopelessly dour, loyal to the bleak
themes and psychological torment of Roger Waters's great musical opus,
and yet utterly devoid of the humor that Waters certainly found in his
own material. Any attempt to visualize The Wall would be fraught
with artistic danger, and Parker succumbs to his own self-importance,
creating a film that's as fascinating as it is flawed.
The film is, for better and worse, the fruit of three artists in
conflict--Parker indulging himself, and Waters in league with designer
Gerald Scarfe, whose brilliant animated sequences suggest that he should
have directed and animated this film in its entirety. Fortunately, this
clash of talent and ego does not prevent The Wall from being a
mesmerizing film. Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof (in his screen
debut) is a fine choice to play Waters's alter ego--an alienated,
"comfortably numb" rock star whose psychosis manifests itself as an
emotional (and symbolically physical) wall between himself and the cold,
cruel world. Weaving Waters's autobiographical details into his own
jumbled vision, Parker ultimately fails to combine a narrative thread
with experimental structure. It's a rich, bizarre, and often astonishing
film that will continue to draw a following, but the real source of
genius remains the music of Roger Waters. --Jeff Shannon
