Analysis of 'Another Brick In The Wall part 2' by Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd’s album ‘The Wall’, released in 1980 on EMI records is a concept album telling the tale of a character named ‘Pink’ who traps himself inside a wall to protect himself from the pain of the outside world. The album is somewhat autobiographical of the life of the band’s bassist Roger Waters, who like Pink, lost his father to the Second World War and was bullied and oppressed by his school teachers. The album’s lead single, ‘Another Brick in the Wall part 2’, is a totally narrative and conceptual music video, directed by Alan Parker, and follows his experience at school, and the uprising of the children against the wicked control of the teachers in the context of a post-war world in the onslaught of the Cold War, where fear of totalitarianism was rife. The video uses micro elements to deal with themes such as oppression and restriction of individuality and freedom, and was made famous through the bands inclusion of a group of school children singing the song’s immortal chants of rebellion.
The video’s opening shot is a mid-shot of the main character standing in darkness standing up against the wall staring at the plastic faces of the school children under control, who can be seen in a low angled shot, suggesting that the young boy is in a position of great vulnerability. His position in the shot could also be seen as him ‘having his back against the wall’, as the oppressive teachers have him pinned and restrained in the darkness of their authoritarianism. As the lyrics describe how the teachers would “hurt the children in any way they could...” we see an establishing shot in the staff room featuring all of the teachers, all of whom are old, and so could represent old fashioned, more repressed values in contrast to the freedom and imagination of childhood, which the band empathise with more. Another way in which the lyrics drive the video is just after “exposing every weakness” when the teacher humiliates the boy for writing songs, suggesting that expression of feelings is seen as weakness in the eyes of the teacher’s regime. The teacher laughs at him and denounces his creativity and individuality, calling it “absolute rubbish”. The teacher goes on to order his pupils to repeat after him, which presents him as a dictator controlling his subjects, making them all the same as they speak in unison, another hint at the dangers of indoctrination and totalitarianism.
As the music builds up to a crescendo, we see flashes of the teacher beating the kids, until the main verse of “We don’t need no education...” comes in, shifting the video towards the children, who we see marching together, reflecting the unity of the lyrics. The camera then pans along to see them marching through a wall, which is symbolic of the restriction they are all facing, then they all emerge, all with plastic, emotionless faces, on a production line. This image of the assembly line of perfect, controllable children reflects the fear at the time of the idea of a master race and/or the spread of communism. The second verse starts with a long shot showing rows of children all singing along to the lyrics, presenting a strong, united front. This juxtaposed with the intercut clips of the teacher barking orders marks a progression in the video as the children are beginning to rebel and refuse to be controlled.
Another progression is shown when the kids are shown breaking free from their oppressors, as they rip off their plastic masks and start trashing the school. Their revolution begins just as the guitar solo comes in, which is symbolic, as the guitar solo can be seen as the part of the song where the guitarist can break free from the regularity of the song and express his own individuality. The shot shows the young boy waking up from his day dream, in a close up which shows him sadly realising that his vision of freedom in an uprising like that couldn’t actually happen, so he looks down, hiding his emotions from the camera, bottling up his feelings so nobody can see the real him, referring back to the concept of the entire album.
The director Alan Parker employs the micro elements and uses the song’s lyrics to drive the video, and present Pink Floyd’s ideas of revolution, breaking free from authoritarianism, and embracing the creativity and individuality of the imagination, particularly that of a child to fans.
James Hanman
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