https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEQEgpyrQ3Q (Trailer) 

If you’re looking for a movie that will engulf you with its heart felt emotion, capture you with its freakish and utterly bizarre animation and turn your stomach with its outlandish visuals and messages, Pink Floyds “The Wall” is a perfect film for that. Alan Parker’s adaptation of the popular Pink Floyd album “The Wall”, with the screen play written by Rodger water, portrays the key theme of isolation stylistically and distinctively in a manner that allows the films narrative and protagonist to express devastation through a purely visual medium. Utilizing both live action and animation by political cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, and the songs from the Pink Floyd concept album. With these concepts in mind this films genre can be argued as an anime, drama, and musical all in one, which is a strange combination of different elements that I personally think is what makes this film stand out.  

A short summary on “The Wall”, aside from being a phenomenal album, is about a successful, yet drug addicted musician named Pink, who is reliving his rather scaring, isolated childhood in a Los Angeles hotel room. With an array of flashbacks and drug induced hallucinations, Pink is reliving his lonely upbringing as being a child whose father was lost in the war. Being a child with no father and lonely state of mind, Pink builds a symbolic wall to separate himself from his mother and the world he has come to know.  

Animation is where this film truly grasps the viewer in my opinion. Through its political, dark imagery Gerald Scarfe knocks it out of the park with his depictions of war time in Europe. As a young boy Pink loses his father in the war which can be depicted through live action and animation. An example of this in animation can be noticed by its highly apocalyptic imagery and animated sequence that illustrates a dove being graphically transformed into a large black bird with sharp talons swooping down and ripping a piece of the city out of the ground, leaving a bloody wound on the land as it fly’s away into the dark cloudy sky. Accompanied by the powerful song “Goodbye Blue Sky”, this scene is my favorite from the film as it has a gut-wrenching, sinister vibe that it gives off, alluding to the horrors that war provides. Along with many other animated scenes in the film, this scene is a fantastic example of animation and the power that it can hold in a film that simply could not be accomplished through live action screenplay.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJERIgkekmg  

This can be included within the world of drama through a scene involving a song that is arguably the most recognizable song from the album, “Another brick in the wall pt.2”. Dramatic films are meant to shows us human being either at their worst or somewhere in between, and that is exactly what this film can do so well. Contributing to Pink’s isolation which is aided by his teacher, Pink writes in a little black book which is ridiculed with persistent scrutiny from his old miserable teacher. His teacher takes it from him and mocks him for his writing, while allowing the class to join in on the verbal abuse that the teacher is giving out as well. Although Pink should have been paying attention in class, his teachers reaction improves nothing of the situation. Turning Pinks school classroom into an unwanted bad environment which aids in Pinks isolation as he grows older. This can be further reinforced by the sequences that follow. Accompanied by Pink Floyds “Another Brick in The Wall pt.2”. Children are seen wearing bizarre and unsettling masks that make them unidentifiable to the viewer, are seen walking through a machine in single file lines, forcing them to work at their desks. Finally, they are then led to the students falling into a meat grinder. These metaphorical images reflect Pinks own experiences and feelings towards the school. It gives the feeling that the education system is only there to keep the children restricted and depressed. Next in the scene, the students backlash and burn the school to the ground, even throwing their teacher onto the fire. This reinforces that Pink Floyds “The Wall” is an excellent example of drama because all of that was in Pinks imagination. Revealing a lot about Pink this scene dives into how Pink uses his imagination to flee from the hardships of the real world.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m55RDNlWnLI&t=217s  

When people think of a musical, often that will translate to a Disney movie or a movie that you can also see on Broadway. Alan Parker does a fantastic job capturing the attributes of a musical within this film. To understand fully on how a musical genre can be interpreted, this film can be compared to a Broadway show, in respect to its choreography being in tune with the music being played. Stylistically, this film is far different than any Broadway show, but I only use that comparison to help explain the genre. When watching the scene where Pink is sitting in his hotel room by himself strung out on drugs, he is accompanied by one of my favorite Floyd songs, “Comfortably numb”. Aside from being a near perfect song, the editing involved between Pink as an adult in his current state and being paired with flashbacks as him as a child, create an aesthetically beautiful scene.  A group of individuals break into Pinks room and find him unresponsive and in sync with the song lyrics can be viewed saying “Hello, hello…is there anybody in there?”. These lyrics from the song go hand in hand with the choreography and provide a sense of unity between the music and screenplay, thus providing evidence to a musical genre. Another example within the same scene can be found when the song says, “it’s just a little pin prick” and simultaneously Pink is being injected with a needle of some sort of medicine, which he then proceeds to scream which is directly from the song. There are other elements within this film that aid in this opinion of musical drama however, this example is my favorite.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8fFVOoqepc  

In conclusion Alan Parker’s Pink Floyd film “The Wall” is in my opinion an underrated film that many people have not seen. This is a powerful film that is meant for an older audience to be interpreted correctly.  This is a great example of a film that contain ingredients from genres such as, anime, drama, and musical. If you have not seen this film and are a Pink Floyd fan, then add this to the watchlist.  

Works cited: 

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-pink-floyd-the-wall-1982. 

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pink_floyd_the_wall

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jul/15/pink-floyd-the-wall-film-review-1982