Pink Floyd-The Wall is a 1982 British musical film directed by Alan Parker based on Pink Floyds 1979 album The Wall, with the screenplay written by Pink Floyd vocalist and bassist Roger Waters. Bob Geldof plays rock star Pink, who in a semi-autobiographical tale of Waters life is driven to insanity by the pressures of stardom and the traumatic events of his life, constructs a physical and metaphorical wall to protect himself. However, this ultimately backfires as Pink tries to break free of his self-made prison. Pink Floyd-The Wall is a film about the dangers of shutting yourself of from the world and the truth and how you need to learn to you accept your life and everyone’s else’s life despite the ugliness to find the beauty.
The film begins with When the Tigers Broke Free a powerful anti-war song. Pink is somewhat symbolic for roger water in the film as the story is a semi-autobiographical tale of Waters life. From this the film depicts Waters father dying in World War two and the psychological scars that were left behind by the event. This is further shown with a young Pink dressing up in his father’s uniform in a kind of twisted irony as he is too young to understand the real implications of war. The film then transitions to Pink sitting in his hotel room showcasing the state of isolation and desperation that both Pink and Waters find themselves in at this point. This then transitions to In the Flesh? As the shot of the cleaning lady trying to open the door are match cut with young fans trying to break down a concert door showcasing how all of Pinks fears are starting to flow out of his mind. The way that these images of fans are juxtaposed with images of war showcases the anti-war theme of the film as well as how Pinks broken mind showcases a discontent from his fans. The insanity of people is linked to the insanity of war and all the trauma Pink has gone through in his life. With the song In The Flesh? Pink has transformed into a Neo-Nazi leader, a transformation that becomes clearer later as Pink. Uses his fame and influence for power creating a cult of youth that follow his every command. This footage combined with the World War Two footage shows the systematic destruction of old values of freedom to make way for home grown Nazi-like ideology from the very country that helped to defeat them during World War two. The death of Pinks/Waters father emphasises the anti-war message of the film as well as the psychological scars left of both Pink and Waters. Thin Ice also uses anti-war imagery to showcase the horrors of war using World War two footage. Thin Ice also links to pinks destructive mental state as the film reflects his loneliness, depression, and isolation. The film contains Christ like imagery in a pool of blood seeing himself as a human sacrifice to other people.
In Another Brick in the Wall Part 1 thew film shows Pink as a child dealing with the loss of his father with him playing with a model aeroplane at a remembrance service. He also goes to the park and tires to connect to another man who is a father only for him to push him away. With a young Pink being alone it is symbolic of Pinks loneliness and isolation as well as Roger Waters detachment form his mother. This reincorporation of When the Tigers Broke Free showcases how a young Pink/Waters is damaged by the loss with him playing with bullets again this anti-war theme resonates with Pink finding his father’s letter off death and Pink finding his dads uniform.
This anti-war theme is carried as a white dove of peace explodes and becomes a black Nazi eagle tearing up the land and leaving it blooded like how the Nazis dropped bombs on the UK during World War Two. A monster then transforms into a structure releasing planes showcasing the scales of the horrors as gas mask people look like frighted creates showing the horrors of the blitz. The planes in the sky then turn into crosses representing the mass loss and innocent deaths with the soldier’s death representing the death of the soldiers as the Union Jack collapses and becomes a bloody cross criticising the idea of nationalism and patriotism as it only leads people to their deaths by senseless acts of war. The bird is then engulfed in fire and turns into metal suture showcasing the Germans being defeated. The spits of the dead soldiers rise as a dove passes by as only through peace can their souls rest as shown when they turn into crosses. The once union jack is now a bloody cross running into the drain showing that the idea of national pride is stupid and that soldiers dying is pointless.
The Happiest Days of our Lives and Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 is ultimately a critic of the education system. The sequence starts with hands coming out of cattle carts like live animals going to the slaughter and Jewish people going to the concentration camp. Everybody in this sequence wears face masks to show how the education system wishes to mol people into industrialised slaves fit for work. Pink also has a mask on as the headmaster appears as a dominant dictator-like presence. This is reenforced were pinks gets scolded and humiliated for his poetry in class, the poem being lyrics to the song Money by Pink Floyd showing how school kills creativity. The sequence suggests the idea of these teachers being psychopathic towards children as the enjoy the dominance they can’t have in their own lives with the headmaster having a cold domineering wife. The children match into an industrial machine criticises the notion of school being a pipeline to industry and how society wants obedient workers who can run the machines and do the paperwork. This is shown as the students come out of the machine siting on desks with the same masks on, they have just destroyed their individuality. From this they walk through a cold maze with the headmaster barking out orders like a drill instructor, and as the song suggest they are just bricks in the wall, with the children being mirrored to show how industrial this process is. The students then fall into a meat grinder were. They come out as pulp showing how school is designed to make you a shapeless formless entity willing to accept being wage slave as well as being a reference to World War two and the holocaust. The kids then rebel destroying a setting fire to the school and throwing the headmaster on the fire showing that this destruction is needed to break the chains that bind us to be better people and make a better world. However, this turns out to be a dream sequence with pink still being in school.
A large part of the film is pink dealing with the loneliness and isolation brought about from the departure of his wife reflecting Roger Waters own relationship problems. The films next song Mother is a refence to Roger Waters real mother shown as a domineering presence that clearly loved him but protected him too much stunting his growth and development with other people especially women. She projected all her fears and anxieties onto him building up bricking in thew wall separating him form other people, society, and reality. This stunted sexual development giving him a fear of women with his wife leaving him as an adult due to his emotional detachment from his wife. Him spying on and dancing with an older woman as a child again leads to an uncomfortable relationship with women. As a child his mum made him ill by putting all her fears into him as she meets someone else and pink falls into his mental prison. It is clear both Pink and Roger Waters had maternal problems as shown with pink cuddling himself into a ball like a baby. This very much reflects reality as roger water was divorced several times witch links to Pinks wife cheating on him with another man due to his emotional detachment.
The song Empty Spaces is about the distant destroyed relationship between Pink/Waters and his wife with two flowers having sex turning into a person showing the love that was once there turning into hate with the flowers turning into monsters biting each other. With pinks wife represented as a monster carrying his corpse away as budlings represent their cold empty marriage. This is continued with Backs to the Wall describing the pointless ways of trying to save a marriage that is doomed, the face screaming showing Pink trying to get out of the situation as the church they were married in is destroyed they discuss all of ways to potentially before final realising their backs are two the wall and they must end the relationship.
The song Young Lust is a natural continuation of this as girls miniplate men with sex appeal to get backstage to meet a Rockstar. This flows into One of my Turns with the girl being overwhelmed by the superficiality of the Rockstar life and trying to use sex appeal on pink as he watches TV locking himself in his own mental prison realising his life is full of superficial rubbish. Pink has a lot of personal demons specially around his ex-wife. Pinks smashes the hotel room both out of anger at his whole situation as well as acting as a cynical criticism of the Rockstar almost as if he is saying to the groupie “oh you want a Rockstar I’ll give you a Rockstar”. This also links to ex-Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett’s declining mental health.
The song Don’t Leave Me Now is directed both to the girl who just left as well as his ex-wife. Pink bleeding out in a pool with his body in the shape of a cross as a metaphor for Jesus. Not only does Pink and more specifically his fans see him as a Christ like figure, but he ultimately sacrificed for the pleasures of others as shown with the shots of him writhing around in a pool of blood. He clearly missies his love and needs her affection and love not realising he was the one that drove her away. Although he clearly has feelings for her, he manifests her as a giant carnivorous vaginal flower, a creature designed to hurt him showing that he does not understand his own problems and issues and has hurt others and that he must destroy the wall between him and his emotions, other people, and the world. The scene also reflects Syd Barret’s declining mental state causing him to leave the band.
In Another Brick in the Wall part 3 Pink sees the events that happened in his life as something horrible that is caused by both himself and other people as his problems have, made him this way confining him to his mind with life and mentions building the wall. This again reflects Syd Barret’s declining Mental State within his life. With Goodbye Cruel World Witch almost acts as a suicide note In There anybody Out There has Pink completely isolate himself as he has walled off his emotions form other people as not to let anything hurt himself. However, it is obvious that he desires and needs help as shown with him constantly pounding on the wall. With Pink trying and failing the make sense of this in his head with him arranging his mashed-up room. To showcase Pinks detachment from the world he shaves himself bald. This reflects a real-life event when Syd Barret shaved his head and eyebrows before showing up to a band rehearsal during the recording of Wish You Were Here after already being removed from the band.
The song Nobody Home showcasing Pinks isolation and mental health in him trying to distract himself with meaningless pointless stuff, he realises that he is alone and isolated and hates it he wants to get out of his self-destructive cycle, he wants to reach out to the people he hurt in his life, but he can’t. A line in the song “I’ve got a grand piano to prop up my mortal remains”, which is a refence to Pink Floyd keyboard player Richard Wright who was struggling with a cocaine addiction. Pink reverts to the child he once was, with hammers in the barbed wire being symbols of oppression being everywhere. Pink walks amongst the corpses of the dead confronting the death of his father driving home the anti-war message. The younger pink finds his older self in a mental asylum, gets scared and runs away as a warning of what could happen is he doesn’t confront the horrors in his head. This anti-war message is further reenforced with the song Vera Lyn about Pink/Waters dealing with the death of his father during World War Two. Vera Lyn is a signer known for making national songs during World War two such as We’ll Meet Again and (There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover”. This is further reenforced with the song Bring the Boys Back Home a patriotic nationalist song used as irony highlighting the horrors of World War two.
The song Comfortably Numb shows how Pink is used as a living corpse a commodity by the industry for him to perform to people, as she is strung out like a drug addicted heroin addict like how Syd Barrett lost his mind. Form his Pink recounts the events in his life that have led him to this point all of them bricks in the wall keeping him from his own mental prison. A large part of this is his over domineering mother making him get rid of his pet mouse and that mouse dying. Also, by proxy making her son ill by stating that his illnesses were more serious than they were. The film jumps back to the doctors injecting him with a drug and the manager using him as a commodity for the masses. As this happens flashes of people I n his life, his mother, his father, and his teacher come by representing bricks in the wall. Pinks turns into a corpse as he is dragged away to perform showcasing drug addiction as well as how his body his used and abused by the industry as he is a tool and commodity for these people.
This then transitions into the songs Run Like Hell and Waiting for the Worms. Form this he becomes the symbol everyone wants him to be, the racist ruler that controls the masses it is almost as if the film is saying “oh you want me to be a god and a ruler and do my biding then let me show you were it leads”, highlighting the dangers of raising people up on a pedestal. This imagery is very much reminiscent of a Nazi rally, with him getting rid of people that don’t fit his Nazi like ideology such as gay people and Jewish people. This divulges into rioting on the streets with them smashing shop windows, beating people, killing them, looting, and raping. They go around killing people of colour and raping women. Waiting for the worms shows a public Nazi demonstration which descends it into a riot. The use of Nazi symbolism is used as a criticism of Margaret Thatcher’s government and British foreign policy concerning the Falkland’s Wars, this criticism of Thatcher’s involvement in Falklands would be the primary concept of there next album The Final Cut. With Pink yelling stop he is in a mental hospital realising he must confront the pain in his life.
In The Trail Pink confronts his life. Pink is introduced as a prisoner “showing feelings of an almost human nature”, this idea of Pink not being allowed to show feelings is a theme throughout the film. The sequence demonstrates certain characters that we have seen in the film coming together showcasing there feeling towards Pink reflecting elements of his character on to him. The school master wishes to mould Pink into an obedient worker and although shown to be controlling and beating Pink was also controlled and beaten himself by his wife. This is shown with him turning into a hammer, reflecting the Japanese proverb “the nail that sticks out gets hammered down” promoting conformity. Pink is shown to be crazy, although it very much seems like he has lost his mind these stems of oppression that have made him way. As shown by him as a human figure turning into a leaf blowing in the wind. Pinks wife is shown as a horrible domineering force that wants pink to suffer. Although not innocent in these events her character is viewed through pinks mind and therefore is seen as an evil force despite this situation being somewhat his fault. Pinks mum is shown as a domineering presence in a different way that although she wants to control Pink like the others she is doing so as a twisted form of love as she cradles Pink like a baby before turning into a wall meaning she wants to be part of the wall that separates him from himself. There is some great visual imagery as Pink smashes though the sky like a wall when he sings “there must have been a door there in the wall”. The judge then appears literally judging Pink believing everything to be his fault, which is sown by his words. “In all my years of judging I have never heard before of someone more deserving than the full penalty of law. The way you made them suffer your exquisite wife and mother fills me with an urge to defecate. Since my friend you have revealed your deepest fears, I sentence you to be exposed before your peers. Tear down the wall.” As horrible as the judge is being and one sided against Pink, him tearing down his emotional, psychological, and metaphorical walls in his life is ultimately a good thing. The sequence ends with the wall exploding. Pink is finally free of all the psychological trauma with the bricks that were put there by himself. He has separated himself form others and the world and needs to engage and interact with people and form connections as not to create destructive and self-destructive paths. The film ends with Outside the Wall with the aftermath of the explosion. A little boy playing around in the bricks finds a Molotov cocktail and empty’s it in the ground. This shows that lessons have been learnt and that instead of shutting yourself of you should accept and improve your life and everyone’s lives with all its trauma showing Pinks lesson was successful.
Pink Floyds the Wall is about breaking down the barriers in your live. It is about accepting the pain and suffering of your past and your life and the need to move forward and become a better person.