Pink Floyd - Live at Pompeii [DVD] [1972]

But that's damning with REALLY faint praise. The "Director's Cut" of the movie is horrendous. Whatever possessed Maben to do it, he's plastered dumb computer graphics of the solar system all over the movie, completely botching up the famous slow-zoom beginning. For much of the time you have to pay attention to catch a glimpse of the original Pompeii amphitheatre footage. And then -- disbelievingly -- he throws in absurd lapses in judgement. For example, during the first part of "Echoes", the scene suddenly shifts to a tube train entering an empty station, complete with train noise which swamps what the Floyd are playing. I almost switched off at this point. The music is now overlayed by sound effects. Read it and weep.

If this travesty was all the DVD contained, it would be a no-star loser. I love the original 1972 "Live In Pompeii", it's a fabulous concert movie, slow, solemn, stately, exactly befitting the music. It's also the best toker's movie ever. To have lost all that for this pop-video new "Director's Cut" would have been a tragedy. But happily that original 1972 version is there, hidden away in the extras menu alongside all kinds of worthless "Odds and Sods" like the lyrics too small to read and pictures of the film's VHS covers. Trust me: you may play the third cut once, but from then on you'll stick with the original, and you'll curse the menu system you have to negotiate to get there. Incidentally, all sound is in stereo, and it looks to me like the 16:9 of the new cut is simply the old 4:3 picture with the top and bottom chopped off. You do, however, get the lengthy original "2001"-style settle-down introduction with sound effects over a blank screen.

What is not on this DVD -- and therefore does not officially exist anymore -- is the expanded 1973 cut, in which Maben added to the concert footage some interviews, chatter in the EMI canteen, and fake shots of them recording DSOTM in the studio. (Fake because they'd finished the album when Maben came in to shoot them, so they pretended to work on it for the cameras.) I'm pleased to have the original lay-back-and-drift-off film without all that frippery, but if that was the version you liked best (it was the only version available on VHS) you might just feel cheated.

HISTORICAL NOTE FOR FLOYD VIRGINS: "Live In Pompeii" was recorded in October 1971 just after the release of "Meddle" and was an attempt (like "Ummagumma" two years before) to play all their old material one final time. Sadly, they didn't get time to record "Fat Old Sun" and "Embryo", two concert favourites of the time, but at least they never got around to "Atom Heart Mother". For many fans, 1969-71 was the true golden age for Floyd, just before DSOTM lost them their dope-smoking student audience, replaced by kids screaming "Money!" They would never again sound this relaxed and DSOTM's girlie chorus, saxophone and film clips signalled the end of live improvisation. So this is a precious movie, recorded at exactly the right time. Curiously for Floyd, it shows them playing without any of their normal stage lights or effects. Classic moments abound, including Nick Mason losing his drumstick during "One Of These Days", and the movie itself, with its slow zooms and pans past stacks of black speakers, is now a much-imitated icon. At only an hour in length, director Adrian Maben thought more could be done with it and returned to the movie in 1973 to add inter-song snippets of interviews and pretend studio work. The film is very much of its age, with some horrendous camera tricks. Not everything was recorded in the amphitheatre -- some were recorded on a Paris soundstage later -- and there are a couple of glaring segues, most notably during the first half of "Echoes" (which is itself split in two to bookend the movie). On the whole, though, the Floyd give a truly great performance and this is, after all, the only official live document (video or audio) of the band from this entire period.

Very much recommended!!!!