526. Pink Floyd - The Wall (1982)
For a movie that is older than I am to have so much relevance to the current political climate is astonishing. Everything it has to say about the authoritative structures in society that hold us back and torment us from the moment we're born, through school, government, police, religion, the military, and the economy, and how this pressure encourages and enables our own worst and most violent impulses, is as vital and relevant today as it was in 1982.
Recurring figures and archetypes in the movie simultaneously call upon current events and a evoke a vague historical timelessness. Scenes of crowded venues, filled with people waiting and ready to be urged into a violent frenzy, bring to mind the Trump rallies of the last American election (as of this writing) as readily as Hitler's rallies in Germany. The only black characters shown on screen are immediately brutalized by police. An early scene portraying the child protagonist ill in bed takes on new meaning in the modern era of the anti-vaccination movement, while also implying civilization's long history with the horror of disease. Later in his life, the protagonist's overwhelming fits of mental illness allow him to temporarily escape from the daily torture of performance as a fascist corporate icon, in exactly the same way that his childhood illness allowed him to escape from the daily torture of a school system that repressed creative expression and discouraged free thought.
In technical terms, the Wall is impressive, to say the least, employing a complex mix of cel animation and cartoonishly planned and styled live action sequences. While very little of the movie is actually animation, it gives the impression of a cartoon in a way that is both overwhelming and difficult to quantify. The animation itself is prominent and striking, with a certain evasive quality that leaves you perpetually repulsed and yet wishing for more, as grim and ugly as it is awe-inspiring and beautiful.
If you aren't a fan of psychedelic drugs, it may be bothersome that the movie lacks an ending, or anything like a coherent story with dialogue or named characters. The framework of the viewer's understanding rests on archetypes within their own life, reflected in the fleeting glimpses into the protagonist's memories, and the associative editing, which lends the impression of complex meaning not conveyed directly through dialogue.
I have many times on this blog struggled to write about movies that I feel are close to my heart, or close to the heart of consciousness and society, in some way that is essentially impossible to put to words. Though in my earliest reviews I had trouble explaining it, Fantasia was the first that stultified me in this way, and American Pop I avoided directly talking about almost entirely. The Wall is as clearly significant to the world as those movies - Fantasia portrays our basic childish joy and wonder at the world, nature, human culture and mythology; American Pop explores the way our history and culture carries through generations and inspires the way we define our lives and our creative endeavors; and perhaps more intense and introspective than either of those, Pink Floyd - The Wall is a deeply cynical and enlightening survey of the human heart, damaged and beaten thing that it is.