After the initial roar from the MGM Studio’s lion, we begin our
dark and mysterious journey of one man from infancy to his insane adulthood, by
a long hallway scene in what appears later to be the top floor of a very
expensive hotel. Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn? Faintly in the
background, the viewer hears the soft voice of a young vixen singing the sweet,
yet sad tale of “The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot.” This song is somwhat ironic, because the main character “Pink” has no father, ever since the war “took
his daddy”. As we slowly descend down the hallway, a view from the rug’s
topography allows us to see a housekeeping lady push a vacuum out into the
hall. The camera angle appears suddenly underneath the foot switch, and you see
the woman click it on with her right foot and you can hear the soft roar of the
vacuum as the title credits explain just exactly what you are getting yourself
into. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Presents, An Alan Parker Film, Pink Floyd The Wall,
By Roger Waters, Designed By Gerald Scarfe. In the next shot, we see Pink’s
father, a WWII soldier, light a lantern then a cigarette as the sound of warplanes
fly in the distance. The first song we hear by Pink Floyd is called “When the
Tigers Broke Free,” however this is not something you will find on the studio
album of which our movie is based, even though the song was written at the same time
in 1979. (Three years prior to the movie from 1982) We watch “Daddy” clean his .44 caliber pistol, examine it, and then
finally load this gun. At the end of the first verse, we zoom in on the lantern
and it fades into a scene of a young Pink running by what appears to be
football uprights and getting closer to the viewer, but not yet close enough to
make out any details as the hazy sun shines down all the while. This is
interesting because the next scene is full of details. A close-up pan shot that starts out focused
on a Mickey Mouse watch, where Mickey’s hands point to about 10:27 and we can
hear our good friend Vera Lynn’s voice once again, slowly moves down a hairy
arm revealing a hand clutching a cigarette in between its first two knuckles
that looks like it was lit, but never smoked. It has burned for so long in the
same spot, the ash is as long as the cigarette would have been in the first
place. This is to give the impression that Pink is so focused on the television,
or perhaps his own inner thoughts that he had forgotten to smoke his cigarette
and it just burned up in his hand. The same shot that began with Mickey
continues to zoom in on Pink’s right eyeball, and as he blinks, instead of
seeing his eye open back up, we see our cleaning lady’s foot come off the
vacuum switch and we then watch her set the hose down, walk toward the double
doors that were at the end of the hallway, proceed to knock persistently, and
then have nobody answer the locked door. We then see the classic full shot of
Pink sitting in his chair, perhaps a little too close to the television, with
his black boots on, the lamp next to him, and his burning cigarette that
continues to burn like his eyes are burning a hole into the TV. The camera
zooms in on the chain lock that is attached to the door and then we see the
maid fumbling around to find the right key to the room. Next our view is of
several sets of feet behind a different chain-locked door, and as the maid
finally opens the door, she is stopped by the room’s chain lock and “In the
Flesh?” begins. This scene starts with a bunch of teenagers breaking through
two different locked doors, and basically turning into a mob of people that starts
running down some hallways, then onto a platform. This image is mirrored by army soldiers running
into battle, and as bombs are going off killing people in the war scene, we
also see this mob turn into rioters who are being harassed and beaten by
police. When the song’s verse starts, we can see Pink dressed in his
Neo-Nazi-Style all black uniform, addressing a crowd of young people, with symbols of
two crossed hammers instead of swastikas, and a low flame burning over an eagle at the bottom
of the screen. The wide-eyed crowd stares at Pink while he rants on stage from
a high balcony, and as the song comes to an end, we flash back to the intense
war scenes, we watch Pink’s father die in a bomb raid while attempting to call
for help on a rotary phone from inside the bunker, and his bleeding hand slips
off the receiver that dangles there. (Just like later in the picture when Pink
can’t reach his cheating wife.) At the
end of our beginning scene, we can hear birds chirping peacefully as we see
Pink’s mother napping in the shade of her lawn chair, while just a few meters
from her is a white baby carriage, which is supposed to show the viewer that
while Pink wasn't even old enough to feed himself, his father had gone off to
die in the war, “leaving just a memory”.
