Jo You: "The Trial" in Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' (Film Technique) (Movie Post #3)

Last class we watched a plethora of different films, each illustrating their ideas in different unique ways. However, for this brief post I will discuss the filming technique of just one of these clips, of which I found to be the most intriguing, and this is “The Trial”, as shown in Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'.

Being a art major, I feel like this was the most intriguing of all of them because of it's unique artistic quality. Yes, the 'Bunny' film was also artistic and animated, but I think The Trial was much more intriguing and deeper in philosophical terms, which peaks my interest more.
In The Trial, the fictional character, 'Pink', puts himself on trial. This trial is personified by the bricks, which unite to form a massive wall that caves him in, shutting him out of the outside world. The way this is draw makes it feel as if the wall has its own personality, and it is an artistic rendition of his reclusive-ness.

Though it is a animated film, there is a obvious dark and crude humor represented in the clip and song itself. The crudeness of the film can be found in many examples, though the most memorable to me was the personification of the judge in the trial. He is characteristically cruel and demeaning, and he is drawn as literally an ass.

While most trials are conducted for the purpose of deeming whether someone is guilty or not, Pink's trial does not determine whether he goes to jail or not. Rather, he stands on trial to determine whether or not he will remain within his self-constructed reclusive wall, or break it down and rejoin society. The judge, in a sense, is also a part of him – the part of him that is making the decisions and arguing against himself internally.

One of the most thought-provoking artistic renditions in the film segment was the depiction of the school-master. He is shown as a puppet, and he molds all his students with hard discipline similar to brain-washing. He is also a puppet, however, for his wife, which is characterized as a horrifying praying mantis. This makes a huge statement about everything in just the way it is personified. The praying mantis reminds me a lot of Salvador Dali's paintings, in it which Sigmund Freud explains in detail how the female praying mantis will decapitate her male fornication partner during climax, though I think this is more irrelevant to the topic.

In any case, I really enjoyed this clip, and I enjoyed thinking about the analysis and philosophy involved in it. I could write a essay on this, but I think I've already written too much!