De-Bricking Pink Floyd's "The Wall"
- elizabethhys
- Oct 22, 2016
- 4 min read
Mask Ana2omica's Top-Pick of the Month is well-suited for MA2 fans. If you've never seen Pink Floyd's "The Wall" it is a MUST for those of us who are...different.
It's the 80's and "Pink" (No, not THAT one) is a male rock star going through a mid-life crisis. His whole life has been scarred by the loss of his father in WWII when Pink was just a baby. The opening scene depicts a brain-fried, drug addicted, zombie-like Pink in his hotel room watching re-runs of WWII movies while a mob of crazed fans (represented by the hotel's maid) attempt to break in. Pink couldn't care less. He is as the song goes, "Comfortably Numb".
Flashback to Pink's childhood. A kid without a Dad in post-war Britain. It sucks. Pink's mother is overprotective and smothering to compensate, but he is inconsolable and blames the world for his father's untimely, death. Images and animations of a bloody, war-weary England and its survivors haunt the story as Pink struggles to find his place in the world. His earliest experiences in building "The Wall" form, here. In a public playground he's rejected by another child's father. Later, in grade school his teacher humiliates him for writing poems during class: "Poems, Everyone! Poems! We have ourselves a poet!" These "poems" will eventually become the lyrics to one of Pink Floyd's most famous songs, "Money". Pink fantasizes about the children of his school revolting in one explosive, fiery rebellion where books, desks, and asshole teachers get tossed into bonfires. Thus, "We Don't Need No Education" is born. Increasingly, Pink views others as just "bricks in the wall" of his life---building blocks to his growing isolation.
As he grows into manhood, he becomes a bit of a "peeping Tom". He hides this behavior from his mother to whom he is heard reflectively asking advice on everything from sex to "Will they drop The Bomb?" or "Mother, should I build The Wall?" It's unclear as to whether or not she actually answers him, so Pink eventually gets married. Unbeknownst to his new bride he is by this time, completely emotionally detached and self-medicating with various drugs. Flash forward a few years into their marriage, and it's obvious to his wife that Pink has left the building. She consoles herself by leaving him for another man. Pink is devastated.
He decides to console himself with one of his many groupie fans, but the results are catastrophic. He suffers a violent, mental breakdown and embarks on probably one of the most teeth-gritting scenes of self-surgical cutting in a rock 'n' roll movie. (Bob Geldof actually did his own "shaving", here) When he emerges from the bathroom, he is like a newborn alien: pale; no body hair; no eyebrows; still a little bloody. Not a scene for the queasy. It is at this point that Pink decides to end his life. His manager (played by a very young Bob Hoskins) breaks into Pink's room with an entourage of band roadies and promoters only to find he has overdosed (on heroin) and is barely, alive. They quickly revive him "Pulp Fiction" style and literally drag him through the hotel in order to perform, onstage. The images here of Pink's final metamorphosis are disturbing. As David Gilmour's searing guitar solo in "Comfortably Numb" rages in the background, Pink deteriorates right before our eyes into a pink, slimy, lumpy mass of flesh and is dumped into the back of his waiting limo to go to The Show. Think, Creepy Pasta.
Scenes from his life flash by---all of the people he felt betrayed or misunderstood by---the "bricks". By the end of it, his transformation is complete and we're left with a Hitler-like, Nazi-looking Pink, goose-stepping it into an arena with his own storm troopers in tow. Wow.
It is clear that Pink has decided the answer to his suffering is to become what he hates. Cold, dictatorial, and intolerant of anyone, different. He commands mobs of followers who are fanatical and murderous. His goon squads terrorize ethnic neighborhoods and threaten anyone who refuses to join their ranks. Think, Election Year 2016. After much mayhem and carnage Pink suffers another breakdown--this one forces him to reconsider his life and his choices. It suddenly occurs to him that maybe he's the problem, after all. What follows is an over-the-top-animated depiction of Pink's life under review by his own imaginary court drama. Everyone from his ex, to his doting mother is brought to the stand to accuse or defend him---now, a helpless-looking meat puppet backed against his own wall.
In the end he is found, guilty. His punishment? "To be exposed before your peers!" The Judge, thunders. Cries of "Tear down The Wall! Tear down The Wall!" are chanted over and over until a massive explosion of bricks go flying out in every direction. Thus, Pink and those like him become liberated from their own self-imposed prisons. The final scene is of small children gathering what is left of this abominable wall for scraps and resources in an attempt to rebuild their lives. Overall, a great movie and album---usually watched while high as a kite---but my personal recommendation is to brace yourself and watch it, sober.
Watch "Pink Floyd's The Wall " Here:
To Buy the Album or DVD:
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