Review of Roger Waters: The Wall (2014) by Dimitri M — 29 Sep 2015

Saw the World Premiere 29th September and must say this is by far the BEST filmed live concert I have ever seen! Maybe it was to do with the 4K resolution of the cinematography, maybe it was to do with the Dolby Surround sound, maybe it was to do with the multi camera angles, but it made me feel like I was standing next to Waters at times performing his "The Wall" in its entirety.

The man is not only a musical genius, but together with Sean Evans, has managed to capture the live performance in a way no other concert movie ever has. The clarity of the picture and the sound fidelity was just amazing. Often when watching live concert films or DVD's it is like you are watching the movie while they play the live sound on CD, you know, they don't quite marry together or you could be forgiven for thinking maybe the artist is lip-syncing. But with this movie there was absolutely no mistake that Waters was performing live as you could almost hear every crackle of his throat, the timbre of his vocal chords, you could almost hear the hairs on his greying beard bristling! I don't know if they came up with a new way of putting vision with audio just for this film but it came across like no other I have ever witnessed.

It incoporated Waters' sombre and melancholic journey to France where a shrine stand with his Father's name on it, he pulls out a trumpet and starts to play a tune I vaguely recognized and was just haunting. The emotional side of Waters leaked out in buckets during the film as it highlights those who have died, not only during both World Wars, but also in Iraq, the Persian Gulf, and other venues which included children displaying their name, dates of birth and dates of death.

The musical performance of Waters and his band live on stage was flawless. You could hear every single guitar strum, every drum beat, every cymbal crash, every note of the keyboards, plus the sound effects and visual show going on the entire length of the Wall they built on this massive stage.

At times the video projection on the wall almost appeared to be three dimensional and added to the overall effect in ways that are almost beyond imagination.

I highly recommend ANY Pink Floyd "The Wall" fans to see this film, and also anybody at all who is interested in watching a visually stunning performance by a man who really is a genius and a legend of his time. Five thumbs up!