Adrian Maben, you are a putz. What is added to this “director’s cut,” you ask? Extra interview footage (never the strongest segment of the original film) and lousy, awful, cheesy computer generated footage of outer space. I guess Maben thought the original looked dated. Duh! Of course it looks dated! That’s why we love it! That’s why the Beastie Boys parodied it! You can’t find that film stock any more! Something can be dated and awesome at the same time. Also, the cool Godard-like graphics for the song titles are gone. Sigh! However, the mix is awesome, as is the letterboxed print. And, thankfully, the original cut is on the DVD extras. So it all comes out in the wash. Here are my comments on this film from 2003, the year I watched 365 films and kept a record at www.LeisureSuit.net.: 219) Pink Floyd at Pompeii (1972), Adrian Maben, B+
Stanley Kubrick never tried his hand at the concert film, but if he did it might’ve looked like the choicer moments in this film. The “Echoes” sequence is absolutely stunning – graceful camera moves intercut with Vesuvian lava and ancient statues. The interview footage is like dialogue from “2001.” And, forgetting the formal stuff, it is great to see Floyd burying their free-form psychedelic past one number at a time and stapling together “Dark Side of the Moon,” which, remember, changed the world. This movie is from those old pre-MTV days when you really didn’t SEE rock stars that much. On a personal note, this was, in many ways, my introduction to European Art Cinema. (There is a lot more “Red Desert” here than “A Hard Day’s Night.”) The Beastie Boys parodied this film in their “Gratitude” video. With all that praise, there is, I admit, some considerable lag in the middle sequences.