Customer Rating:  
Summary: What a disappointment!
Comment: Don't get me wrong. The original release of Pink Floyd At Pompeii is amazing. Legendary. What's been done in the name of a "Director's Cut" is nothing short of blasphemy. Lousy, pointless 80's style graphics and some innocuous interview material that should have been added as an extra - not part of the movie. (In the original release there were some behind-the-scenes footage of the band recording Dark Side Of The Moon --- that material worked well in the context of the film.) Oh and don't even get me started about the cropping of the material from 1.33:1 to 16:9. Just Plain Awful!
If the original cut had been released I would have given it FIVE stars - even with 2.0 sound. To make matters worse, the description makes it sound as though the original release is included as an extra but it's not the original release - just the original 'concert' footage. If you're a major fan of the movie (like me) you'd be happier finding a VHS version of the movie.
Customer Rating:
Summary: floyd fans light up!
Comment: The first time I saw this I was excited and found when viewing this film that not only do you get to see pink floyd displaying how extremely talented and creative they are, but get to see them as individuals struggling with the world around them, their relationships with each other and themselves. very cool rare footage of pink floyd during the recording of dark side the moon! They play live and oh man is it swweet!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Same good show, with a little bit more
Comment: Since I lost my VHS version of this film, I had missed the occasional nostalgic viewing. This DVD version brings it all back. It's as good as ever, and includes some new enhancement to the setting at Pompeii. Worth replacing your old version.
Customer Rating:
Summary: See Gilmour Play
Comment: Pink Floyd Live At Pompeii - Great, great, great, great!!!! This DVD contains the "Director's Cut" as well as the original concert film. Basically the Director's cut features lots of extra visuals, including computer graphic recreations of Pompeii, the exploding Vesuvius, and other things like NASA shots of rockets going up into space, space walks, images of suns and stars and moons and planets, all the usual things you'd expect of someone depicting a "space rock" band. It also has some extra bits from the studio in Paris when they were recording "Dark Side of the Moon." The Directors Cut starts out with space and planets animated instead of the big zoom-in to the arena in Pompeei of the original film. Not really an improvement, although it's nice to see something different I guess. Cool to see a grand piano in a roman ampitheatre. Gilmour and Wright shirtless, Waters and Mason in black. Integrates black and white studio shots with colour live stuff from Pompeii. Guys walking over steaming earth, awkward cuts to Wright and Gilmour screwing up their Echoes lyrics. Mason flips his drum stick. Broken drum heads on his kit - 8 drums and 5 cymbals. Racks and racks of amps - one shot goes behind them and we see the cameras and crews that face the band. Back of amps all say "Pink Floyd. London." Shots of the London Underground, clock going backwards, empty platform. Throwaway film experimentation. Pink Floyd's psychedelic breakfast at Abbey Road studios as Nick goes weird about apple pie, Roger's veins as he tries out weird keyboard sounds. Talking about over-using equipment. "It's like saying `give a man a Les Paul guitar and he'll become Eric Clapton." Did Clapton play a Les Paul? Constructing the "On The Run" sequence with sequencers and keyboards. "Careful With That Axe Eugene" with wild lava flows and screams. The and eating oysters. "There's the danger of becoming slaves to the equipment, it happened before. Can't hide behind equipment." Saucerful of Secrets - Waters smashing cymbols with toms, Wright attacking his grand. Fly on Waters' arm - smashes gong that we see on the cover art - all of the guys thin and trim and gangly in t-shirts and jeans, barefoot sand getting into the effects pedals. The band talks money and economics, "rock is not dying like they say," and there's still money in it. Wright doing piano parts in shades fo r "Us and Them" as camera sweeps around. Gilmour "we're not a drug-oriented group. You can trust us." "One of These Days", mason on toms on ctymbols, weird geographic CG. Slow-mo on Mason as the song kicks into high gear, all you see is him, no Gilmour solo or Waters screaming. Mason loses a stick, then pulls a new one out. Nice butterfly logo on blue long-sleeve shirt. Keyboard too high in the mix. Interesting quotes about how well they've learned how to get along, "we're happy together." That wouldn't last. While the others are chatting, Gilmour pulls a perfect "Echoes" guitar solo. "Mesdomoiselle Nobs" with the wailing dog - Wright holding the dog, who sings on cue, Gilmour on harmonica, Waters on guitar (although it sounds like a bass) Address the topic of arguments and in-fighting by claiming that they have the same sense of humour and lust for money. "We can still combine our interest. That's when it breaks down, when one person finds that wheat he's doing isn't interesting, thinks he can do better by himself," says Mason. Then shifts to Gilmour noodling on the guitar, gives a big beautiful smile when he notices the camera. "What would rock `n' roll be without feedback?" Gilmour plays heavy, thick guitar solos on "Brain Damage," they obviously were never used since the finished product is much more relaxed. "Set The Controls For the Heart Of The Sun", Mason's purple butterfly t-shirt - he has two? "Echoes" in studio - Gilmour stops singing - is he being a prick? Images of Roman erotica, humans cavorting with fauns. Closing "Echoes" - sunnyday Pink Floyd with other backdrops. TERRIBLE computer graphics bit (1:23:35). DVD extras. Generally not great, although there is some good stuff. Three posters, one of which calls the show "A Zappaesque musical pastiche." Three newspaper articles from the day. Five "covers of bootlegs" pages with two on each page, so 10 covers. Four previous covers. Four albums' with graphics, two songs' lyrics (why only two? why bother?), one 24-minute interview with directore Adrian Maben that was very interesting. No voice of the interviewer, questions appear as banners. He explains some of the reasons why there were so many wanky graphics and things, he complains that "you are always unsatisfied with something, you never get it right," and I think that even after 30 years he's ruined his chance to "fix" his mistakes. But he didn't have much to work with - apparently the rushes were lost, so he couldn't add any material from 1972 into the film, so he put 2003 stuff in. Big mistake. I read on the Wikipedia that the shots from the studio in Paris that was supposedly of them recording "Dark Side of the Moon" was actually faked - the band had already finished recording the album and were mixing it. Other fake shots were done on a sound stage somewhere. You can tell which ones they were because there are no ruins of Pompeii, the band are squeezed together, and Rick Wright is beardless. But at least they try.
The "Beastie Boys" made a funny tribute to this movie for the video of their song "Gratitude." Cz-Cz-Cz-Czech it out!"
Customer Rating:
Summary: Can Pink Floyd be any less than fantastic?
Comment: Compared to the original version of "Live at Pompeii" this one has more material in it, without anything dropped. There are some more interviews, where Roger makes fun of the interviewer, that's so much fun! And some Odyssey like video parts have been added to the songs that looks pretty cool.
|
