It's been a while since I did a review on this site, I thought I'd do it the old fashioned way because I am so mad that I may break every microphone I use. As you no doubt of guessed, Nostalgia Critic has done a "Review" of The Movie Adaptation of The Wall. Years ago my counterpart S.T. did a written CIEIR on it back when he thought he was a real person. (Long Story.). But since CIEIR was more or less dedicated to finding out if concepts of fiction could exist for real and NC pissed me off that much, I thought it'd be the proper time to give a proper review of this movie.
First off a little history. Pink Floyd started out as a Psychedelic/Space Rock band in 1963, it's members at the time Syd Barret, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Bob Klose. Over time the band changed it's course in both member and music, with the most prominent leaving being Syd Barrett. Rumors of drugs and a lingering insanity on his part. However none was so infamous than the 1977 Spitting Incident in Montreal. It was during a concert where the Band was promoting Animals and two things among most happened. The first sparked by a fan, who let off a firework, while the Band was performing "Pigs on the Wing." prompting Waters to rant on stage to the fan and the screaming fans that follwed. The second the aforementioned incident. Most concerts often have a fence or a barrier that allows the fans to see the musicians, but can't get near them. More or less out of fear of being swarmed or worse, some angry Misery style fan wanting to harm them one way or another. This concert was no exception. However one "Brave" individual decided to take it upon themselves to climb said barrier and meet the band face to face. They got their wish, but on top of that, in the heat of his anger, Roger Waters spat directly in the fan's face. However as justified in his anger he has been in this instance, Waters felt disgusted with himself afterwards. And while history shows the band didn't last long after, The Wall was meant to be his first stepping stone in redeeming himself.
Now it's not uncommon for music to tell a story, that's part of the medium. Whether it's a personal story or a fictional story. It makes no difference so long as it's entertaining. And this Album was no exception. The Wall was made in 1979 and after it's astounding success it spawned many concerts, a feature film and is considered won of Pink Floyd's most well known, well liked albums along side Dark Side of The Moon. And this story is just as important as the music used to entertain us. Which is why I was immediately shocked and disgusted the way Nostalgia Critic handled the "review", but I'll get to that later.
The Wall itself revolves around a protagonist by the name of Pink. Pink serves as an amalgamation of life stories based around key members of the band. The most prominent being Syd Barret, who long since left before the conception of the album. Roger Waters, who insists that at least %75 of it is based around him and some shades of David Gilmour.
Ever since the day of his birth, Pink always felt like he got the shit end of the stick. His father dying in World War II, before he had a chance to meet him. His teachers constantly abusing him, while they themselves have to go home and deal with similar abuse from their fat and psychopathic wives. Then we have his mother, a woman with a severe case of abandonment issues, who smothers and shelters Pink in fear he may leave or die like his father. All these moments, inspire him to build the titular wall. A barrier between his own mind and all of reality, with realities woes serving as the bricks used to build the wall.
The Album time skips to Pink's adult life, where he is now a successful Rock Musician. However his past insecurities along with the empty spaces of his wall, being filled with Drugs, Sex and Fame cause him to neglect his wife. In an attempt to make up for his behavior he tries to call his wife during a post-concert party in Los Angeles. Only to find out through the operator, that his wife cheated on him with another man. He brings one of his groupies home, in an attempt to revenge lay. However his repressed rage at his wife, not only halts said attempt, but causes him to go violent and trash the hotel room he was staying at. All the while, imagining his wife as no longer a human being, but a monster out to hurt him. He finishes his wall and cuts himself completely out of the real world. Only to realize his mistake not too long after. While trapped, he reminisces about his past, specifically a moment where he among many families in Post-WWII England are waiting for word of their loved ones returning. Eventually his manager comes in with a doctor in tow. He gives Pink a drug in hopes to bring him out of his catatonia. Only for Pink to transform into a Neo-Nazi persona with a surrogate band. In essence he's become everything he's hated about the world and the very bricks in his wall. As his persona he rallies his concert goers to weed out anything he deems undesirable and gets them to take to the streets. Whether or not this actually happened or is a hallucination is uncertain, but the movie implies it was a hallucination. At the height of his Reich he orders everything to stop and realizes that he is mostly to blame for the problems in his life. Specifically how he chose to deal with them. He puts himself on trial where he puts caricatures of his Teacher, Wife and Mother on the stand who lay out their version of why he's the problem. The teacher thinks he's undisciplined. The mother simply wants him home. His wife, the only one who actually has a right to be pissed, tells it flat out. ("You should have talked to me more often than you did. BUT NOOO!!!") The Judge, Worm Your Honour, who started out as a worm, but then morphed into a literal giant ass on two Legs, only takes the Wife and Mother's testimony into account and sentences Pink to be exposed before his peers. Pink tears down the wall, but it's left ambiguous to whether or not he lived through it and if he did, whether he learned his lesson or is doomed to repeat the cycle. ("Isn't this where we came in?")
The Wall, in all it's forms, the Rock Opera, The Concert, The Movie, has the themes of: Loss, Paranoia, Insecurity, Sex,
Drugs, Rock and Roll, Alienation and most of all, the endless cycle of
conformity and anarchy. Pink shrived to be an anarchist, because he
was angry at the conformity on both sides of the war which he believed
resulted in his father's death. Only for him to become a conformist
just as bad if not worse than the Nazis and teachers he hated as a
child. He was afraid of getting smothered by his wife, which as a
result alienated him from her and vice versa. He saw every perceived
negative influence as monsters out to get and change him and thought
trying to wall up his true feelings would make him feel better as he
tried to fill the void with Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll. Only to
realize that had he opened up more to the people that loved him he would
have been able to let go of his past and become a better person. Which
was ultimately what the monsters within his wall also wanted him to do.
And whether or not he succeeded, died or was doomed to repeat the cycle, is up to us.
Now this is where I never got why Nostalgia Critic did what he did here. All of this could have been easily addressed even with his clip-less review of the matter. But instead he opted in a shallow, hollow parody that misses the mark on what the original work was meant to convey. And to top it off, you stole music from them. You changed the lyrics, but the instrumentals were the same and sold it as though it's your own. Walker Brothers, I hope Waters sues you back to the stone age for this. Fair use does not apply to what you did here.
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