Roger Waters The Wall
Special Presentations
A decidedly personal venture for the former Pink Floyd mastermind, this concert film takes Roger Waters’ most iconic composition for the band – a sprawling double album about literally walling oneself off from the outside world – and expands upon those themes to look at its wartime roots.
The concert footage, filmed during a tour a couple of years ago where Waters and his band literally erect an elaborate video wall on stage, rocks appropriately hard, with every member of Waters band giving their best and stunning animations that are perfectly timed and themed to every track of one of the greatest and most widely adapted albums ever created.
It’s nothing like Alan Parker’s Pink Floyd The Wall, though. Here the focus is entirely on the performance except for a road movie wrap around where Waters drives across Europe to show his family history and talk about how World War I claimed his grandfather and how he lost his father in World War II. Waters talks largely about how the album can be seen as an anti-war screed, but he also graciously leaves plenty in there about the dangers of stardom and capitalism for those who prefer to read the material in other ways.
The show and the personal stuff are equally powerful and Waters makes you wish you were there for the show and for his journey. It’s more inviting to the audience than most concert films can muster.
Screens
Sunday, September 14th, 8:30pm, Scotiabank 12
Thanks to SPiN TORONTO for sponsoring our TIFF 2014 coverage.