# Pink Floyd The Wall (film)

Pink Floyd The Wall is a 1982 film about an alienated rock star who descends into insanity, by way of isolation, obsession, drugs, destructive tantrums, and a failing marriage. Based on the 1979 album The Wall by the rock band Pink Floyd.
    Directed by Alan Parker. Written by Roger Waters.

## Pink

* [singing] Daddy's flown across the ocean Leaving just a memory A snapshot in the family album Daddy, what else did you leave for me? Daddy, what'd ya leave behind for me? All in all, it was just a brick in the wall. All in all it was all just bricks in the wall.
* [singing] We don't need no education We don't need no thought control No dark sarcasm in the classroom Teacher, leave them kids alone Hey, teachers! leave them kids alone! All in all, it's just another brick in the wall. All in all, you're just another brick in the wall.
* [singing] I don't need no arms around me And I don't need no drugs to calm me. I have seen the writing on the wall. Don't think I need anything at all. No! Don't think I'll need anything at all. All in all, it was all just bricks in the wall. All in all, you were all just bricks in the wall.
* [singing] Are there any queers in the theatre tonight? Get 'em up against the wall! That one in the spotlight, he don't look right! Get him up against the wall! And that one looks Jewish... and that one's a coon! Who let all this riff raff into the room? That one's smoking a joint! And that one's got spots! If I had my way, I'd have all of you shot!
* Stop! I wanna go home, take off this uniform, and leave the show. I'm waiting in this cell because I have to know... have I been guilty all this time?
* Is there anybody out there?

## Teacher

* "You! You! Yes, you! Stand still, laddie!"
* When we grew up and went to school
    There were certain teachers who would
    Hurt the children anyway they could
    By pouring their derision
    Upon anything we did
    And exposing every weakness
    However carefully hidden by the kids
* "What have we here, laddie? Mysterious scribblings? A secret code? Oh, poems, no less! Poems, everybody!
    [Classmates laugh]
    The laddie reckons himself a poet!
    [Classmates laugh]
    [Reads poem from Pink's little black book]
       Money, /
       Get back /
       I'm all right, Jack /
       Keep your hands off my stack.
    [Classmates laugh]
       New car /
       Caviar /
       Four-star daydream /
       Think I'll buy me a football team.
    [Classmates laugh]
    [Slams the book onto Pink's desk]
    Absolute rubbish, laddie!
    [Whacks him with a ruler, growls]
    Get on with your work!
    Repeat after me:
    "An acre is the area of a rectangle
    whose length is one furlong
    and whose width is one chain"
* But in town it was well known
    When they got home at night, their fat and psychopathic wives
    Would thrash them within inches of their lives!
* We don't need no education
    We don't need no thought control
    No dark sarcasm in the classroom
    Teachers leave them kids alone
    Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone!
    All in all it's just ey another brick in the wall.
    "Wrong, Do it again!"
    All in all you're just ey another brick in the wall.
    We don't need no education
    "If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding!"
    We don't need no thought control
    "How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"
    No dark sarcasm in the classroom
    "You! Yes, you! Laddy! Poems, everybody!... "
    Teachers leave them kids alone
    Hey! Teacher! Leave us kids alone!
    All in all you're just ey another brick in the wall.
    All in all you're just ey another brick in the wall.
* We don't need no education
    We don't need no thought control
* "An acre is the area of a rectangle
       whose length is…."
* [A phone ringing]

## Others

* "Mother": [lyrics] Hush now baby, baby, don't you cry. Mother's gonna make all of your nightmares come true. Mother's gonna put all of her fears into you. Mother's gonna keep you right here under her wing. She won't let you fly, but she might let you sing. Mama will keep baby cozy and warm. Ooooh babe, ooooh babe, oooooh babe, Of course Mama's gonna help build the wall.
* Groupie: [While Pink watches TV, ignoring her] Oh, my God. What a fabulous room. Are all these your guitars? [Touches guitars] God. This place is bigger than our whole apartment. [Pause] You like the tube, huh? [Pause] Can I get a drink of water? Can I get you a drink of water? [Goes into the bathroom] Oh, wow! Look at this tub! Wanna take a bath? [Comes back out] What are you watching? [Her voice begins echoing and fading] Hello? Hello? Are you feeling okay?
* Pink's Manager: [Discovers Pink's hotel room trashed, while Pink, who is due to perform, is unconscious] Fuck me! He's gone completely around the bleedin' twist! [to Pink] You vicious bastard, you never did like me, did you? [Inaudibly, continunes to harangue the unconscious Pink as the medical team attempts to revive him] The boy's an asthmatic.
* Hotel Manager: [Outraged by the condition of Pink's room] An asthmatic?
* Pink's Manager: He's an artist! [Stuffs cash into hotel manager's pockets, then begins slapping Pink] He's coming around! There, you see! How do you feel? [Directs roadies as they dress the barely-conscious Pink and drag him out of hotel room, down the hall, and into a limousine, which will take him to the concert hall].

## From "The Trial"

    Prosecutor: Good morning, Worm, Your Honor! The crown will plainly show the prisoner who now stands before you Was caught red-handed showing feelings Showing feelings of an almost human nature This will not do. CALL THE SCHOOLMASTER!
    Teacher: I always said he'd come to no good in the end your honor. If they'd let me have my way I could have flayed him into shape. But my hands were tied, the bleeding hearts and artists Let him get away with murder. Let me hammer him today?
    Pink Floyd: Crazy. Toys in the attic, I am crazy. Truly gone fishing. They must have taken my marbles away!
    Chorus: Crazy. Toys in the attic, he is crazy.
    Pink's Wife: You little shit, you're in it now I hope they throw away the key. You should have talked to me more often than you did, but no! You had to go your own way, have you broken any homes up lately? Just five minutes, Worm, Your Honor, him and me, alone.
    Pink's Mother: Baaaaaaaaaabe! Come to mother, baby, Let me hold you in my arms. M'lud, I never wanted him to get in any trouble. Why'd he ever have to leave me? Worm, Your Honor, let me take him home.
    Pink Floyd: Crazy. Over the rainbow, I am crazy. Bars in the window. There must have been a door there in the wall when I came in!
    Chorus: Crazy. Over the rainbow, he is crazy.
    The Judge: [disgusted] The evidence before the court is incontrovertible, there's no need for the jury to retire! In all my years of judging, I have never heard before someone more deserving of the full penalty of law! The way you made them suffer, your exquisite wife and mother, fills me with the urge to DEFECATE! Since, my friend, you have revealed your deepest fear I sentence you to be exposed before your peers. TEAR DOWN THE WALL!!!!
    Crowd chanting: TEAR DOWN THE WALL! TEAR DOWN THE WALL! TEAR DOWN THE WALL! TEAR DOWN THE WALL! TEAR DOWN THE WALL! TEAR DOWN THE WALL!!!

## Dialogue

    [Pink is playing the piano, ignoring his wife]
    Pink's Wife: [muffled, slowly growing more distinct] Hello? Hello? Is there anybody in there?
    [Pink finally looks up]
    Pink's Wife: Do you remember me? I'm the one from the registry [sic] office. (A register office in the UK is where couples can get married without any religious ceremony)

## Quotes about Pink Floyd The Wall

* There were a number of different influences, some literary. Graham Swift’s novel Waterland [1983] was a book we had to read in school. It has multiple timelines, and the way it cuts between them and how effective that was, combining history with the present. I happened to read that around about the same time as I watched Alan Parker’s Pink Floyd: The Wall [1982], which is a truly remarkable, impressionistic film. Like, what the fuck is that movie? It’s quite marvellous. The way he uses the production design, the different timelines, the intermingling of memory, dream, things like that, it was very influential on me. And the cinema of Nicolas Roeg, in particular, the editing rhythms and the way he used things other than narrative and chronological progression, that all started to click with me.
** Christopher Nolan, as quoted in Christopher Nolan: a showman's odyssey, by James Bell, 14 February 2024, Sight and Sound magazine, British Film Institute.

## Taglines

* Pink Floyd The Wall. Now the film.
* The memories. The madness. The music... The movie.

## External links

* Pink Floyd The Wall quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Pink Floyd The Wall at Rotten Tomatoes