Roger Waters the Wall [2Blu-Ray] [Region Free] (English audio. English subtitles)

By now, many reviews have been written on this product. A number of reviewers who have criticized it (albeit in a very minor way) for not being a "complete" concert, or for not having the option of viewing/listening to the live show straight through (i.e., without any of the vignettes of Roger on the road), are, (with all due respect), missing the point. This is NOT just another concert. It is much more than a band getting up on stage and playing a set or two of music. This is musical theater in its grandest form. The portions of the show filmed outside of the stadium are an integral part of the production. Importantly, they do not take up very much time, but they do contribute significantly to the whole. If this were a recording of four guys playing on a small stage in a club, and the camera continually drifted away from the players to show trippy visuals or landscapes (like too many concert videos have done), I'd say thumbs down all the way, but that is NOT what this is. This production was MAMMOTH in size and scope; simply filming the band singing and playing the songs the whole time would have miserably failed to capture its essence. One reviewer who had attended the show in the tenth row and again in the middle of the stadium, (I should have been so lucky to have attended it just once, anywhere in the venue!), wrote that the film did not succeed in replicating the experience of the show and all that it had to offer, because it kept moving from the stage, to the POV of Roger looking out at the crowd, to a vignette on the road, etc., instead of staying in the middle of the stadium focused on the stage. (S/he opined that the middle of the venue was a better spot to be than up close.) Not having seen the show, I won't argue the point. The film did, in my opinion, give the viewer/listener a means of experiencing the production about as well as any film possibly could have done!One might criticize this film (and the live show) as pretentious, over-the-top, depressing, or any number of other things, but it is undeniably a HUGE artistic production and accomplishment. If you enjoy(ed) the album (i.e., Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'), then I highly recommend this film. You not only get to hear the music performed nearly flawlessly by its principal creator and a hand-picked bunch of cracking musicians, but you get to view a spectacle of truly epic proportions to boot. This necessarily means that you don't get to watch the musicians the whole time (like you would on most great concert video recordings... remember that this is NOT just a concert). In my opinion, this is NOT a flaw of the film, but rather an asset. While watching players play is usually the "raison de etre", this is not the case here... the players become more and more hidden by the wall being built as the show progresses, and this is a major part of the production. No stage production of this magnitude exists anywhere else, and it literally has to be seen to be believed! In this case (and perhaps only in this case), the "show" eclipses the players (intentionally and very successfully). The size and scale of the show is absolutely enormous, and for this reason, among others, the production (including the shots on the road and elsewhere) is worthy of a film (hence the film).Last but not least, the quality of everything is superb... the video production, the editing, the sound, the mixing, the musicianship, the stage production... everything. The content is a little dark, (to say the least, hence the R rating), but if you are not put off by it (most fans of The Wall clearly are not), then it's well worth the ride.

Having seen the live performance twice, including once from floor seats, I can say without reservation that you will not be disappointed with this product.Production:The concert is captured intimately both in terms of stage feel, short clips of audience participation, and video from both sides of the stage. Interspersed with the concert are a few short features of Roger on a road trip he takes to visit the graves and war memorials for both his father and grandfather. In a way, the short features provide an additional wall story within the context of the album, the original wall film, and the new concert tour. I feel like these features heightened the emotional catharsis of the wall production and did not detracted from the concert.Visual:The wall tour will likely remain the most visually stunning concert for decades to come. The shear power of the projector banks used to produce the wall imagery, the pyrotechnics, lights, animatronics, and the physical building of the wall are all captured here in glorious detail. I have a 135" 4k screen and the visuals are clean and vivid. Forcing a SDR to HDR conversion darkened the visuals a bit but the added color depth made me feel like I was back in my seat at the show. I still have to hold back tears during the stage reveal of Comfortably NumbAudio:Dolby Atmos! Wow! I cranked this up on a 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos system and the immersion is spectacular. The audio does not go overboard with sound shifting, isolation, or other movement effects, which is a good thing. When these type of effects are used, the immersion is perfect. Obvious Examples are the plane in the opening scene roaring from behind before crashing into the stage or gun fire sounding in front of you before ricocheting behind you. More subtle examples are used during "Is there anybody out there" when the band is obscured by the wall and the sound provides literal depth to the two dimensional edifice of the stage.Final Thoughts:If you are a fan of Pink Floyd, buy this. If you want a reference quality dolby atmos sound track, buy this. If you want to know what the greatest concert production of the early 21st century looks and sounds like, buy this.