LemonMacPhisto said:
ooo, thank you
I didn't understand the Spanish housekeeper with the baby at the beginning, how Pink's mother was "overbearing" (she left him alone in a park while she shopped and usually wasn't around), why Child Pink was walking around the trenches of Anzio while Adult Pink was in a couch watching TV in the desert.
Also, the entire Pink-as-a-communist leader bit went over my head completely.
My pleasure.
Spanish housekeeper?
Are you referring to this scene?
If so, that's Pink's mother, with Pink sitting in the pram. As for her being not-overbearing in the movie, yeah, that's true. That park scene never happened, at least not to Roger Waters. He claims that his mother would have
never let him go to the park alone. It's just a scene that was added to sort of jerk on the heartstrings.
Young Pink in Anzio and Adult Pink in the desert...now, I don't really know the real answer to that. I think it's sort of symbolic. Here's my take on it: As a child, Young Pink AKA Rog felt haunted by the loss of his father. So to be walking amongst the dead bodies would be a good way to represent that. Adult Pink in the desert...well, the key is isolation, right? What better way to be isolated than to be sitting off in your own little world with your television set.
Ah, now Pink as a communist, that's
far easier to explain. It's not so much communist as fascist. This is one of the few things about Adult Pink that's specifically about Roger Waters and not Syd Barrett/other rock stars. I assume you're familiar with the story about how The Wall came into being? If not, here it is. Roger Waters spat on a rowdy fan in Montreal during the tour for the Animals album, called the In The Flesh tour (hence the fascist Wall song being called "In The Flesh"). I've got the bootleg of the show, it's quite astounding really, I could upload it for you. It happened during Pigs (Three Different Ones.)
Anyway, Roger felt terrible about it afterwards. He felt, and I think these are his correct words, like he was becoming a "fascist swine." Those stadium tours really got to him. He imagined there was a figurative wall being built between him and the audience. And that's where it all started. Something else to consider, though this is just personal speculation - Pink's dressed in a sort of Hitler/Nazi uniform, right? Nazi Germany = WWII = the death of the fathers of Roger Waters and Syd Barrett. It works, though I'm not sure if that could be considered one of the reasons.
Rambling.
And I apparently can't spell fascist.