Music Narrates a Film: A Review of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”
He sits motionless, staring hypnotically at the television through the cracks in the wall. An un-smoked, burned cigarette lies in between his fingers, leaving a perfect trail of ash. He will occasionally twitch, that is the only thing telling us he is alive when we see Pink in real-time. We also see him as a child in his flashbacks and as fascist leader in his hallucinations. Pink Floyd, played by Bob Geldof, is a burnt out rock-star. Too much booze, too many drugs, and lots of dissatisfaction in his life has lead Pink to self-confinement and insanity. Because of this, the star has built a metaphorical but protective wall around him. In real-time, Pink is a prisoner behind the wall, longing to escape. But while hallucinating, the fascist alter ego of his enforces the wall and what it stands for, causing constant internal conflict in our main character.
The film was adapted from British band Pink Floyd’s album, The Wall. Before the album was even recorded, singer Roger Waters intended that a movie be made from it. The movie, directed by Alan Parker, tells the story through the music of Pink Floyd, with little dialogue. It also features about fifteen minutes of animation by Gerald Scarfe. Waters’ vivid and original screenplay, make for a thrilling story highlighting inner-conflict and social norms that are more common than people tend to realize. More often than not, people build walls around themselves internally because they’re scared of letting new people in. Although the metaphorical wall in this film is an extreme case, after over thirty years, these problems are still very apparent in society, making the film timeless.
The music from The Wall on it’s own can be somewhat confusing because it was written to tell a story rather than to entertain listeners. You have to actually engage as an active listener and try to pay attention to the lyrics to truly understand the points being made. But once you do, it’s magical. The music rages from soft whispering to commanding shouts with sound effects from everyday life to enhance the points being made and show that everybody can relate to them. The soundtrack of the film is essential. Before seeing this film, I never thought that a movie with so much meaning could be made with such little dialogue, but Waters proved me wrong by having almost no dialogue in this film but extreme levels of meaning. There is music to represent every version of Pink portrayed in the movie.
One particularly unique portrayal of Pink is through his hallucinations. When he isn’t leading the construction of the wall, he sees himself as a literal prisoner, horrified of the other characters in his head that keep the wall up. In these hallucinations, everything is animated. Pink sees the bricks of his wall being metaphorically represented by other objects. Flowers represent the women in his life and during these animations, the flowers transform into needles and other destructive things. The beauty and loveliness of these women end up smothering Pink and tearing him apart. In these animations, Pink literally is put on trial by his internal demons and he receives a sentencing. Scarfe’s animations are crucial to the plot because without them, we couldn’t see what Pink does in his head. Instead, we would only see them as normal objects without any purpose to the plot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS_FCbQ-okM
The most interesting part about the movie The Wall is the fact that it is narrated by a musical album. For example, most people have heard “Another Brick in the Wall pt. 2”, easily distinguished by the popular, “we don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control.” But what most people don’t understand is how that one particular popular song is only a small part of a much larger story, where our protagonist seeks an alternate education system that encourages young minds to think for themselves. The album/ movie is a big political statement, touching on issues such as police brutality, the education system, and government.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDl6iuku_mw
Overall, The Wall excellently portrays a common issue among people everywhere: internal conflict leading to self-protection from the outside world. With the help of Alan Parker and Gerald Scarfe, Roger Waters plays out his elaborate but classic story on the big screen. The film isn’t intended to be a relaxing Friday night movie, but rather a surreal and intellectual movie to make the audience think. After the film, your head may hurt and you might ask yourself, “What the hell did I just watch?” But you certainly will never forget it and never get tired of it. After seeing the film countless times, I still find hidden details that help to tie up and enhance the plot. I am amazed time after time how meticulous all of the artists had to be to get the music and on screen adaptation to align so perfectly.