A confined but troubled rock star descends into madness in the midst of his physical and social isolation from everyone.
Director: Alan Parker
Stars: Bob Geldof, Christine Hargreaves, James Laurenson.
Gillian Gregory ... choreographer
28 songs in the Soundtracks.
Rated 7 on 2012-04-05.
I don't think I saw this in theatres, but I bought a copy on Beta (so we're talking 80's), and liked it a lot. I think by 2012 I had downgraded my rating. Now I don't like this at all, although I do like the music. The images are far more bleak (and narrative) than the lyrics; perhaps the music balances them when not reinforced with images.
I remember when I downgraded to 7 that this seemed like a lot of self-pity. The featurette and c.track confirm that RW (b. '43) lost his father in WW2 as described in the song written for the film (whole unit got wiped out.) And both he and the animation director had bad experiences as schoolboys with teachers who tried to teach by shaming students, by sarcasm, by derision.
Also in the featurette/c.track (made in '98) RW swears by psychoanalysis, and thinks a lot of progress can be made if people got analyzed. Like some could break a generational cycle of abuse. The film shows a teacher getting abused by his wife at home, then taking it out on students. And the film shows the alienated rock star becoming a fascist leader, another form of inflicting abuse.
The featurette/c.track reveals that the fascist men in the film were real skinheads, and got out of control. Why would you employ them to begin with?
Also in the featurette/c.track: Waters & the animation director had worked together on visuals for PF tours, and the band had toured The Wall album before the film was created. So they went at loggerheads with dir. Parker when he joined the project and wanted to assert directorial control. They admit that each had been the big fish is his own small pond, so it was mostly egos at war. But they sounded bitter despite the "rational" analysis.
Original band member Syd Barrett, who wrote the stuff that got PF noticed (pre-Gilmour), was the model for the drugged out psychotic phase of Pink. He had to drop out of PF because he became (perhaps) schizophrenic.
I don't recommend rewatching this, although I won't go down to 5 just yet. I don't find anything redeeming here, and I'm not angry enough with the world to connect with the images.
Although it's MGM-produced (in part), this film is listed as UK in origin on IMDb. It's only on this quest because I own a copy.
MGM & more, dir. Parker; 6-
