Nicole McLellan - Pink Floyd's "The Wall"

You know, I’m not really sure what to think. To say that this movie was disturbing is probably an under statement. I’m still trying to figure out how it ties in with the class, which I thought focused more on religion in film. I don’t even know if this film is supposed to be interpreted. Half the people I’ve talked to have told me I would either need to be wasted or tripping on acid to get it, hence my confusion while watching it sober. And I’m not really sure being either wasted or high would really help me understand the film any better than I do now. So with that said, I really don’t know what to say. I mean, the words that come to mind when I think of the film, besides perverse and twisted, are rejection, isolation, abandonment, and pain. I think the wall symbolizes the isolation caused by rejection and abandonment that the main character, whose name I think was Pink but I’m really not sure, experiences throughout his life. This man was isolated by the fact that other kids had a father, while his father never came home from the war. His mother isolated him by smothering him. His schoolteacher singled him out, embarrassed him, and helped fuel the feeling of rejection that Pink seemed to already have. He was encouraged to suppress his emotions as opposed to expressing them. This seemed to cause him to almost become numb to the world around him. Even his wife abandons him after he has shut her out completely. Considering all that has happened to him, I honestly can really only feel bad for the guy.