Before I saw this one I always assumed that this would be a standard live performance film. Well, looking back on it, I guess the clue is in the title, as Pompeii is no longer a bustling metropolis so it seems kind of unlikely it was going to have a typical concert venue - mount Vesuvius put paid to all of this some time ago, I won't go into specifics as to why but trust me, it ended in tears.
So what we have instead is Pink Floyd and crew in concert without an audience, but in the middle of one of Pompeii's amphitheatres. The performance is intercut with shots of the famous old Roman ruins, the beautiful artwork and still active volcano. The camera pans and zooms slowly around and it is all rather wonderful actually. This film catches Pink Floyd on the brink of superstardom, just prior to the release of the Dark Side of the Moon album. It captures them in their early psychedelic era, which I find the most dynamic and interesting in the band's history personally. There are many fantastic performances here, of songs such as 'Echoes', 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' and 'Careful with that Axe, Eugene', the latter a song forever immortalised alongside the explosion to end all explosions in the finale of Michelangelo Antonioni's misunderstood counterculture classic Zabriskie Point (1970). Live in Pompeii remains one of the very best live concert films ever and is a very successful marriage of visual artistry and music; which is appropriate given Pink Floyd's ambitions.
So what we have instead is Pink Floyd and crew in concert without an audience, but in the middle of one of Pompeii's amphitheatres. The performance is intercut with shots of the famous old Roman ruins, the beautiful artwork and still active volcano. The camera pans and zooms slowly around and it is all rather wonderful actually. This film catches Pink Floyd on the brink of superstardom, just prior to the release of the Dark Side of the Moon album. It captures them in their early psychedelic era, which I find the most dynamic and interesting in the band's history personally. There are many fantastic performances here, of songs such as 'Echoes', 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' and 'Careful with that Axe, Eugene', the latter a song forever immortalised alongside the explosion to end all explosions in the finale of Michelangelo Antonioni's misunderstood counterculture classic Zabriskie Point (1970). Live in Pompeii remains one of the very best live concert films ever and is a very successful marriage of visual artistry and music; which is appropriate given Pink Floyd's ambitions.