I saw this show at Cleveland Stadium before they tore it down and put up the monkeyhouse they call Jacob's Field. I had seats WAAAY back in the stands, and, although they would be considered bad seats at any other concert, those seats are the only place to see a Floyd concert from. One of the things I really appreciate Pink Floyd for is the fact that they know if they give a concert, there are going to be several thousand people attending it, and only a handful of them will be able to really SEE them perform - for everyone else, it'll be a bunch of doll-sized (or smaller) images doing something that looks like playing instruments. Because of this, a Pink Floyd concert is a show in the true sense of the word - the lights, the movies shown on the round screen, the surround sound set-up, everything - is designed to be experienced from a distance. I enjoyed the show live and enjoyed it even more in this excellent video.
One of the great things about this concert is the inclusion of outside musicians. Pink Floyd does amazing things in the studio - lots of layering and overdubs that give their records a rich, unmistakable sound, and the fact that they go to the added expense and trouble of hiring other musicians and back-up singers to fill the sound out instead of relying on pre-recorded tapes is something I appreciate. When I go to a concert, I want to hear what I heard on the record re-created live, not a "Gee, that was close, but where is the such-and-such" live version.
This video is flawless - no cutaways to "psychedelic" footage of amoebas or such during solos, no "Hey, look at the neat effects we can do" - type transitions. The director used his multiple cameras very well, employing skycams, cranes, and handheld cameras perfectly and editing what he ended up with beautifully. He and his crew capture the essence of a Pink Floyd show expertly, employing dissolves, black and white footage, angles and camera movement with real care and deference to the music and the show itself. One of the hallmarks of a good concert film is not seeing the cameras or operators in the background, and you'd have to look very hard in this one to spot any. This video is about the music and the show, not about the style of the direction, and that's how it should be.
The audio is good for what it is - Hi-Fi VHS stereo - and was great before the advent of DVD and DTS and Dolby Digital, but now, like everyone else, I'm spoiled. I WANT THIS MOVIE ON DVD! NOW!!! I have no idea what the holdup on this is. The company that owns it HAS to know that there are millions of Pink Floyd fans that would snap this up the second it's released.
