Hmm, didn't realize how long ago this was released.
Finally got around to seeing it just this weekend. As the film starts, I was a little surprised when I realized that they were doing it, with Roger doing his documentary / movie about finding some form of closure re: his Father's death - that storyline is shown in small grabs intercut with the concert footage.
So I was really unsure about that . . .
But I ended up really liking it being done that way. The album, has been around forever and we ( people who will watch this - ie big PF fans ) all know it by heart. So dropping out of it and then transitioning back, didn't feel like it ruined the pace or feel of it. Saying that though, I can also fully understand others might watch it and are just wanting to see the concert footage straight and wont like it, each to their own I guess.
As to why I liked it: well the album has from day 1, being such a personal insight into Water's own life and personal struggles, so then having a present day catch up with him as he faces some of his own life's history that he has clearly chosen not to do, until now when he's getting old himself. He had never visited the memorial grounds where his father's name is listed. These segments are a semi-documentary style, all are shot very well. A few of the scenes, are done as a set up movie type scene, but the dialogue is all based on reality. It feels like they've re-done a conversation he might have had some years earlier, but doing that makes sense, as those conversations are very central to what this is all about.
The concert footage is brilliantly well shot. We do see the mechanics of it all as we see the stagehands putting the bricks in during the show, obviously more of the musicians and performers than we ever could during the show. But also the total spectacle of the wall with its massive size covered in projected footage and imagery. I'd forgotten some of the things that had happened, it was such an overload of visuals and sound at the time.
Highly recommend.
