Search - Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii - The Director's Cut on DVD

Movie Release: 1974 DVD Release: 10/21/2003 Format: DVD Edition: Director's Cut Audio Tracks: Cantonese, English, Japanese Subtitles: Cantonese, English, Japanese SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Studio: Hip-O Members Wishing: 21 Genres: Music, Concerts, Vocal Music

Pink Floyd fared better than many other rock ensembles at having themselves translated to the big screen. Their atmospheric, unconventional music certainly helped; but importantly, they chose talented, established filmmakers to helm these projects, such as Alan Parker for their rock opera Pink Floyd - The Wall and here Adrian Maben, a French documentarian with a keen eye, whose elliptical style and sense of control elevates the film above the many glorified home movies produced by Pink Floyd's contemporaries.

Essentially a Pink Floyd concert without an audience, the bulk of the film shows Pink Floyd (surrounded by an unabashedly displayed crew of shirtless cameramen and roadies) playing music at the center of the crumbling Pompeii amphitheater from mid-day until late into the night. Throught the film Maben intercuts or superimposes images of the Pompeii ruins, the surrounding countryside, eroded mosaics and sculptures, and of course the members of Pink Floyd -- indistinguishable from the disheveled technicians around them -- as they perform songs and instrumental pieces from Meddle and their improvisational double-album Ummagumma. Highlights include a re-working of "One of These Days," focused exclusively on drummer Nick Mason (a session from which no other footage was extant), as the other members of the band play in a starfield of studio lights; and the eastern-tinged "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun," from Capitol's 1968 Saucerful of Secrets album.

Brief, revealing interviews with the band, in England during the recording of their forthcoming album Dark Side of the Moon, were included by Maben as an afterthought, as were a few informal sequences of the band eating breakfast in the studio cafeteria. ~ Anthony Reed, All Movie Guide

Roger Waters
David Gilmour
Nick Mason

Universal has done a fine job of resurrecting this long-time midnight movie favorite for the DVD era. The first highlight of the disc is its stunning transfer: The nicely remastered image captures the film's sharp cinematography in a gorgeous, colorful style and the Dolby soundtrack adds some extra sonic sparkle to an already well-recorded set of Pink Floyd favorites. Universal has also kindly offered the viewer the option of viewing the film in its original concert footage-only theatrical version or the lengthier director's cut. The package is rounded out by a nice batch of extras that cater to the group's fans. Pink Floyd enthusiasts will no doubt enjoy the extensive set of galleries, which include not only stills from the film, but artwork from albums and rare bootlegs, as well as an amusing set of vintage press articles on the group. The best extra, however, is an interview featurette with director Adrian Maben. In this briskly-paced short, he lays out the full story of the film in both its versions as well as his own refreshingly candid thoughts on the finished product. All in all, this disc of Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii is a nicely-crafted special edition and something that every Pink Floyd fan should check out. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide