The Wall: Live in Berlin

absolutely fabulous! Watched the tape till it wore out. now the DVD is absolutely wonderful. the graphics and sound amazing. If you are a true fan, this is a must have. Crystal clear video, Dolby surround fills the room, like being there. The historical info is well done and the bonus material informative.

By the Summer of 1990 the cold war had ended thus saving mankind from the threat of thermo-nuclear conflict , the Berlin wall had been knocked down and the unification of Germany was underway and how did humanity celebrate these Earth shattering historical events ?

With a rock concert !

But it wasn't just any rock concert , it was a rock concert performed by Roger Waters and friends of their own interpretation of Water's masterpiece album THE WALL an album I fell deeply in love with a couple of years previously . Strange as it may seem I never thought about attending the concert in the flesh ( great title for a song BTW ) because the thought of travelling halfway across Europe was somewhat daunting and the thought of watching a concept album about alienation and social isolation being performed alongside 300,000 would have been too ironic even for me so I decided to watch it on television even though the signs weren't good since Phil Collins and a few other big names invited to attend snubbed the event and Waters replaced them with little known acts namely Sinead O' Connor , Bryan Adams and The Scorpions

The concert was opened by Group Captain Leonard Cheshire VC who spent much of the second world war bombing Nazi Germany back to the stone age and who spent the remainder of his life as a selfless charity worker . No doubt this apt introduction revolves around the idea of reconciliation and a new way forward for Europe . Then the concert proper started which was a strange mix of the good , bad and sublime

The Good : A Russian red army band performing a rousing version of Bring The Boys Back Home with the wall in the background illuminated with photographs of war , Waters performing his own penned tracks like Another Brick In The Wall Part Three and as a fascist dictator Waiting For The Worms

The Bad: I know it's a live concert performed to a worldwide audience of tens of millions and accidents do happen but many of the early tracks were ruined by technical difficulties . Some of the guests were inappropriate like Thomas Dolby and Cyndi Lauper

The Sublime : Albert Finney and Tim curry camping it up during the prosecution sequence . The wall being demolished ion stage as Pink breaks out of his barrier of isolation

All in all ( Geddit ? ) one of the most spectacular , memorable and just plain bizarre concerts ever performed

I have an old recording of the original Alan Parker film, brilliant but quite dour and depressing and certainly not for all occasions. It was whilst checking online for a DVD replacement that I stumbled across this gem.

With the international line-up (you know who they are, by now!) how could I resist? I think at the time, it was quite expensive to buy on Amazon but I did find a cheaper, brand-new alternative, on a well known auction-style site...

The staging is audacious and spectacular, with loads always going on, a feast for the eyes and a good imagining from the original. The (now) familiar music just spills out from it and into the night air and it must have been a real goose-bumped experience for anyone actually there, especially bearing in mind the significance of a big Wall in Berlin tumbling down, brick by brick (which it does!).

Yes, it's a Korean release, with indecipherable writing on the case and it wants to play with English subtitles by default - but turn them off and it looks good, when considering it's a relative oldie and is in 4:3 ratio. Sound I found better when tweaked a bit, my oldish Panasonic DVD player having 2 'virtual surround sound' settings, engage the second one and it comes alive, adding a spatial bigness about it all, that helps match the total OTT'ness that you expect with any Pink Floyd/Walters live show.

It is odd that I'd never heard of this Live version and I'm so glad I bought it - anyone who even remotely enjoyed the album, or original film will find this immensely enjoyable and more importantly, entertaining. Great Show!

Today I have watched this concert maybe for the twentieth time. It is one of the best concerts ever made. Roger Waters and all the participants are perfect. Mandatory for those who appreciate excellent musicians. My vote is ten.

I see only one other report on this and can't disagree more. I was fortunate enough to see Floyd perform The Wall live at the LA Sports Arena in 1979. I'm told that, due to stage size requirements, they only "built" the full wall on stage in LA and NY. The performance in Berlin in 1990 is the closest one can get to what they might have seen in '79. The sound on the DVD is excellent and the cinematography was nothing short of outstanding. Having the variety of musicians and vocalists involved was terrific with the sole exception of Van Morrison, who gave an extremely weak performance for Comfortably Numb, which on the album is one of the highlight songs. This DVD is absolutely worth the price and can be enjoyed many times. For comparison, watch the theatrical version which delves deeply into the trauma of "Pink's" life, played wonderfully by Bob Geldorf of the Boomtown Rats.