Roger Waters: The Wall is a concert film and documentary from the former Pink Floyd co-front man. The film was shot during Waters'”The Wall Live” sold out 2010-13 world tour, and has Waters performing Floyd’s 1979 concept album to near perfection, with a draw dropping stage show that is unlike anything you’ve seen before.
As the concert begins, the enormous stage is flanked by a wall made up of three foot wide white “bricks,” which move and multiply, on which stunning imagery and pictures are projected. As the concert progresses, more and more of the wall is built, accumulating in the band performing completely behind it. Music aside, the production alone makes for an unforgettable concert experience, even watching it in the comfort of your home.
As for the music, Waters hardly seems to have aged in the nearly forty years since the original album came out. His voice has wavered a bit, but it’s barely noticeable, and the band, while not Floyd, does a fantastic job of letting you forget that. The sound quality is great, and the songs sound as fresh and crisp as the day they were recorded.
One of the themes in the The Wall is loss, specifically, the loss of Pink’s father in World War II. This theme is echoed in this film, as it alternates between the concert and a documentary about Waters reconciling with his own grandfather’s and father’s deaths in World Wars I and II. This is a truly personal journey, and we’re brought along to experience a pilgrimage with himself and his children, as he reflects on how it has affected him and his family.
While both aspects of the film, the concert and the documentary, are both thoroughly engaging, each breaks the rhythm of the other. I would gladly watch either one of them without interruption. Both echo the theme of war and loss, but do nothing to compliment each other. The Blu-Ray would have benefited from allowing the viewer to watch either of them in their entirety.
The Special edition Blu-Ray boasts some nice extra features:
A Visit to Frank Thompson has Waters visiting the grave site of the poet and World War II soldier.
Time Lapses shows two time lapse videos of the assembling of the stage; one of a stadium show, and the other of an indoor arena.
Driving shows some additional conversations from the driving scenes in the film.
Facebook Films is a standard behind the scenes feature, though it’s a fascinating look at how a concert of this magnitude is produced.
There are also two additional performances n the Blu-Ray, each featuring Waters’ former co-front man David Gilmour: Comfortably Numb Live at The O2 with Special Appearance by David Gilmour and Outside The Wall Live at The O2 with Special Appearances by David Gilmour & Nick Mason
Roger Waters: The Wall is a truly spectacular concert film and documentary. Even if you’re only a casual fan of Pink Floyd, this should most definitely be added to your collection.
Specs:
Video
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1
English: LPCM 2.0
Subtitles
English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, German, Bulgarian,
Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Mandarin
(Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Swedish,
Turkish
Discs
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
UV digital copy
iTunes digital copy
Digital copy