MOVIE REVIEWS

***Focuses on the early years and skims over the rest*** This quality documentary from 2011 is only 80 minutes long with 50 minutes spent on the band’s beginnings in the 60s and the Syd Barrett years, plus the immediate aftermath, which covers their first two albums when they sounded like a cross between The Doors and latter-day Beatles. Speaking of whom, the film shows how The Beatles were recording SGT. PEPPER’S at the same studio when the Floyd boys were recording THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN (1967) and how the Fab Four were influenced by Floyd’s creative and boundless psychedelia. This leaves 30 minutes for the rest of their career, including the most important period revolving around DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (1973), WISH YOU WERE HERE (1975), ANIMALS (1977) and THE WALL (1979), with ANIMALS being inexplicably omitted altogether! Still, what's here is very good with lots of footage from the era in question and interviews with the surviving band members & Co.

Yes, this is more about the band and less about "The Wall" tour. Why it is described as a documentary about the behind-the-scenes making of the tour is a mystery. Still, this is a pretty decent documentary about the beginnings of the band and the post-Waters era with a lot of footage from each decade.