Pink Floyd: the Wall

 Number 320 on the top 1000 films of all time is the surrealist, musical part-animated drama 'Pink Floyd: The Wall.'

Pink (Bob Geldof) is a rock star who is becoming paranoid and alienated from society. To protect his increasingly fragile mental state, he builds a figurative wall.

Pink Floyd are one of, if not, my favourite band, so this film was perfect for me. However, if you've never listened to a Pink Floyd song then this film would be lost on you. I am surprised that this film had enough mainstream appeal to appear on this list. Its surrealist nature coupled with its lack of conventional narrative can make it inaccessible to all but the most ardent of Pink Floyd films.

You could argue that this film was an extended music video for Pink Floyd's double album: the Wall. In many ways, that was the intention behind the film - with many of the songs punctuating key moments of the film. All of this accompanied the Terry Jones-esque animation with the overall end result being a fever dream.

The storyline, for what it was, closely mirrored the themes of the album, which again would be lost on non Pink Floyd fans - you have the same themes of isolation, alienation and disconnect from society. There were some scary images too like Pink hallucinating himself as a Fascist dictator at a Neo-Nazi rally - that was populated with real Neo-Nazis singing along to Waiting for the Worms. Another scary scene is the school children marching into the meat grinder and wearing freaky masks. Appropriately, this scene is set to Another Brick in the Wall.

I wasn't entirely convinced by the acting either. Bob Geldof didn't have too much to do other than stare existentially into the middle-distance. Reportedly, he almost didn't take the role, as he didn't like Pink Floyd's music, so that might have contributed to his lacklustre performance.

The Wall also had a troubled production with director Alan Parker and writer and Pink Floyd front man, Roger Waters, often coming to blows. I wonder if that contributed to the disjointed film. But, then again, I think the disjointedness was supposed to be part of the point. The film is all about alienation and disconnection.

I certainly enjoyed the film, but that's more because of the great soundtrack, rather than the film itself. And if you aren't a Pink Floyd fan, you might not like this film at all. Upon its premiere, Steven Spielberg asked "what the fuck was that?" An accurate reaction for sure.