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Eagle Vision presents
Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon (2003)

"Dark Side of the Moon was an expression of political, philosophical, humanitarian empathy, which was desperate to get out."
- Roger Waters

Review By: Jesse Shanks   
Published: January 15, 2004

Stars: Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Richard Wright
Other Stars: Alan Parsons
Director: Matthew Longfellow

MPAA Rating: Not Rated for (nothing objectionable)
Run Time: 01h:24m:00s
Release Date: August 26, 2003
UPC: 801213004294
Genre: documentary

Style Grade	Substance Grade	Image Transfer Grade	Audio Transfer Grade	Extras Grade
A-	B+	A	A	B+

DVD Review

Dark Side of the Moon is one of the most successful albums of all time. This very listenable documentary features interviews with all the members of Pink Floyd about the making of the album. Always a very misterioso band, the members of Pink Floyd reveal a very important thing in the documentary: they worked very hard to create the sound but did not hesitate to rely on luck. Perhaps the group will never re-unite again, but they do here to talk about their greatest success.

The story picks up with Pink Floyd struggling as a band to define themselves after their leader and inspiration force, Syd Barret, went insane. Pink Floyd added guitarist David Gilmour, and these kings of the progressive space-rock genre, exemplified by the album Meddle with its 20-minute Side B romp through Echoes, looked to create a more commercial sound that still capitalized on their special quality of "way out there".

As Waters says, the band was united in their desire to make it big. Using material that had been honed on the road as Eclipse in this pre-bootleg era, Pink Floyd entered Abbey Road Studios with engineer/producer Alan Parsons to make a new album.

The editing of the documentary is marvelous as the interviews are blended between thoughts, musical clips, photos, vintage footage, demo recordings, and other material to provide a seamless picture of the development of the album. The tracking of the documentary mirrors the tracking of the album. An excellent job has been done in making the film a good listen in its own right. At one point, I thought it would have been cool if you could turn to listening to the entire track that was being discussed.

Multi-track tapes are explored by Gilmour and Parsons to show how the sounds were blended to make the songs. Waters gives intriguing glimpses into the process that led to the writing of the lyrics. Piano player Richard Wright tells some interesting stories of the genesis of one of the songs, born from work on Michaelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point soundtrack.

The one editor on hand from Rolling Stone, who he refers to the band as "The Floyd," is a little pretentious. Otherwise, the commentary and quotes are quite enlightening. Also, there are several bits of trivia about Dark Side of the Moon that are great fun, such as the source of the voices, who the female singers are, and some of the ways they made the sounds in that pre-digital time.

This is a must-have for fans of "The Floyd" and fans of their seminal album.


Rating for Style: A-
Rating for Substance: B+

 

Image Transfer

	One
Aspect Ratio	1.85:1 - Widescreen
Original Aspect Ratio	yes
Anamorphic	yes

Image Transfer Review: The video transfer is completely solid and crisp. The original source looks to be high quality and the transfer follows suit. These guys should give lessons to the multitude of grainy, slipshod documentary makers out there. The technical work here is a tribute to the material.

Image Transfer Grade: A

 

Audio Transfer

	Language	Remote Access
DS 2.0		no

Audio Transfer Review: Once again, the technical quality is excellent. The stereo transfer makes for a very listenable DVD. The importance of how an album sounds just can't be over emphasized, and here, there is just not a fault to be found. Bravo.

Audio Transfer Grade: A

 

Disc Extras

Static menu with music
Scene Access with 11 cues and remote access
Packaging: Amaray
Picture Disc
1 Disc
1-Sided disc(s)
Layers: single

Extra Extras:

1. 12 Scenes of Additional Material

Extras Review: There's some extra interview footage and several extended performances. Just the kind of stuff that documentaries on DVD are made for including. The pacing of the film required the cutting of some of the performances and comments, but happily many extra insights and full tunes are found here.

Brain Damage
Money
Us and Them
Waters' World View
Breathe
Time
Waters on Rock 'n' Roll
Chris Thomas
Gilmour's Guitars: Breathe
Gilmour's Guitars: The Great Gig in the Sky
Gilmour's Guitars: Us and Them
Gerry Has the Last Word

Extras Grade: B+

 

Final Comments

One of the most successful albums of all time, Dark Side of the Moon, is examined and discussed by the members of Pink Floyd in this fascinating documentary.

 

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