WE'RE ALL US: a review of "Roger Waters: Us + Them"

"ROGER WATERS: US + THEM"
Directed by Sean Evans and Roger Waters
**** (four stars)

RATED R

Life in the time of COVID-19 has hurled more than its share of obstacles and even so, it is our own human nature, congealed with the authoritarian and increasingly inhumane policies and actions of those with their hands upon the wheels,  that has only enhanced and extended this unprecedented time. In addition to the uncertainty, the fear and mounting anxiety, the rising numbers of the infected and the dead, the world we once knew just months ago feels to be a universe away.

The seemingly simple pleasures that we enjoyed to enrich our lives have all been placed upon elongated hiatuses, thus increasing our intense understanding that we are all living within a world forever changed. While the world of sports is trying to establish its return, live music performances and just going to the movies feels even more uncertain as one recent report proclaimed that concerts may not return in earnest until 2022 and movie release dates have either shifted to streaming services or have been pushed until a hopeful 2021.

As an antidote, what I have for you is an experience that superlatively speaks to the times in which we live plus allows and affords all of us who love live music and film to engage thoroughly with a performance that succeeds triumphantly an deeply emotional, enrapturing work of rock and roll theater and enthralling cinema. 

Sean Evans and Roger Waters' document, "Roger Waters: Us + Them," the follow-up concert film to "Roger Waters: The Wall" (2015), is another staggeringly well conceived, staged and executed performance by the singer/songwriter/bassist and former member of Pink Floyd with his stellar band, this time captured in Amsterdam during his 2017-2018 tour. 

It is an elegant film, that superbly builds from the previous movie, as it is fueled with a virulent anger against our societal walls and urgent hope for a greater humanity within a dark world during our dark times together. Through its enveloping visuals, which are constantly jaw dropping, and of course, the iconic music that has engaged and elevated listeners for over 40 years, Evans and Waters has delivered a most cathartic expression designed for all of the bleeding hearts and the artists to make their stand in these increasingly fascistic. If we ever needed an acknowledgment of our anxieties and a lifeline to our hopes and resistance, this film more than delivers the goods. 

"Roger Waters: Us + Them" begins with a grim vignette. Seated upon a beach, ocean waves lapping against the shoreline, a woman, whose back is to the camera, sits quietly, while overhead storm clouds approach, first, growing darker, soon to be over come with thunder and lightning. And finally, the skies turn dark red, with the sounds of bombs in the distance.

These ominous visual then phase themselves into the sounds of a heartbeat and the variety of dialogue enactments that opens Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" (released March 1, 1973) fully revealing itself into the concert's existential fanfare that is a beautifully performed "Speak To Me" and "Breathe." 

Over the course of two hours plus, Waters and his band soar through large sections of the aforementioned "Dark Side Of The Moon," "Wish You Were Here" (released September 12, 1975), "Animals" (released January 21, 1977), as well as detours into "The Wall" (released November 30, 1979) and Waters' most recent, and excellent, solo album "Is This The Life We Really Want?" (released June 2, 2017) plus even more. 

Accompanying the music, which is blissfully and energetically performed by Waters' ace band, are  indeed the stunning, downright awesome visual displays that occur, at first behind the band and later within and seemingly around the audience as the factory setting from the "Animals" album cover appears to rise upwards in the middle of the auditorium itself, thus revealing even larger screen upon each side showcasing an amass of psychedelic colors and seas of stars and space surrounding us all--even as we watch from home! 

Every song contains its own visual interpretation. "Time" is showered by a galaxy of clocks. A more aggressive "Welcome To The Machine" is accompanied by the vintage and still seriously disturbing animated film footage by Gerald Scarfe. The eternal "Wish You Were Here" features two outstretched hands reaching for each other before breaking apart in pieces. Yet, what has made this event extend exceedingly far from existing as a Pink Floyd "greatest hits" show is how Waters has re-contextualized the songs, both old and new, into an astounding sequence that begins with a sense of the universal ethereal and descends into 21st century human depravity, horror, war, and inhumane absolute power while finally combining messages of resistance and transcendence by the finale of "Brain Damage/Eclipse." 

"Another Brick In The Wall Parts 2 and 3" feature on stage political prisoners in black hoods and orange jumpsuits who free themselves as they all wear T-Shirts boldly proclaiming the single word, "RESIST. "Money" is shockingly interrupted by nuclear holocaust. The nearly 30 minute section starring the venomous "Dogs," which features the band adorned with pig masks downing wine as the world burns and Waters holding up one sign declaring "Pigs Rule The World" before discarding the mask and defiantly holding up a second sign reading "Fuck The Pigs" and the wrathful "Pigs (Three Different Ones), " a vicious take down of our world's current despots from Putin, to Kim Jong-un to America's current occupant of The White House contains the film darkest core. 

The newer material of "Deja Vu," "The Last Refugee" and "Picture That" provides the film with its narrative motifs and conceptual core as we are given non-linear depictions of a drone pilot (Lucas Kornacki), the aforementioned Last Refugee (Azzurra Caccetta) and her young daughter (Anais Dupay-Rahman) who is killed, most likely through a drone strike.

The mastery and majesty of "Roger Waters: Us + Them" firmly resides in the impassioned humanism of Waters as depicted through his formidable presence, which remains in prime voice and fighting form at the age of 75 at the time of this performance, and  hs equally formidable songwriting and conceptual vision. 

What cannot be over-stated with this film is how this time, Waters may have formulated his most formidable band since departing Pink Floyd in the 1980's, as he has surrounded himself with a younger, yet seasoned crew which includes, but is not limited to, songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Wilson (guitars, vocals), guitar wizard Dave Kilminsgter, My Morning Jacket's Bo Koster (keyboards), veteran session drummer Joey Waronker, and as the crucial, crystalline element that is the vocal duo known as Lucius (Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe), who elevate all of the songs with their glorious harmonies, choreography, occassional drumming and their striking appearances in bob cut, platinum haired wigs.

Waters' band is superlative as they have the mammoth job of somehow ensuring their own personas while filling the shoes of re-creating the parts originally devised by Waters' former Pink Floyd bandmates from the drumming musicality of Nick Mason, the transcendent keyboard soundscapes of the late Richard Wright and of course, it takes no less than three to four guitarists to even approach what David Gilmour achieved all by himself. This band's performance is a testament to the legacy created by Pink Floyd in its entirety and yet we marvel at what they are accomplishing on stage in this film. 

In some respects, "Roger Waters: Us + Them," in this fashion reminded me very much of Prince's "Sign O' The Times" (1987) concert film in which we always knew who the star of the show was, but he was a most generous host, happily showcasing the members of his extraordinary musical unit. Here, Waters performs the same feat and for a figure who has cut a legendary mercurial presence, he is clearly happy with his collaborators, often sharing smiles and more than willing to allow them the spotlight.

Even so, it is a film that also sees Waters claiming a greater ownership over his musical legacy, singing parts and lyrics that he wrote but never sang himself upon the original Pink Floyd recordings. Hearing h is own words arriving from his own natural voice did give the familiar material a greater weight, as if he was speaking to us more directly than ever.     

And that is indeed where the power of this film resides because through the songs, the performances and the dynamic visual spectacle, "Roger Waters: Us + Them" is a musical sermon from Waters' own pulpit. A space and place where we are all invited to commune and feel a sense of collective humanity with each other as we endure the tenuous, precarious nature of the world that exists around us through the songs, that with all lyrics completely unaltered, have continued to reflect our collective existence to ourselves to an even larger degree now in 2020 than perhaps they existed during the 1970's. In doing so, Waters' messages are more urgent than ever, his moral outrage more furious, his compassion more earnest and open-hearted. 

In fact, the greatest message in the film, quite possibly arrives upon the belly of the recognizable floating pig who does make a appearance during the concert and film. Yet, this time, written upon the animal is the message "STAY HUMAN." Roger Waters understand greatly of our own human capacity to project our worst impulses as targets upon others in means of self-preservation and holding power over the heads of others. This duality of our own individualistic existences is paramount to the humanist message of the film overall. 

For in the end, there is no "THEM," there is only "US" and through that symbiotic nature, we will rise or fall together, regardless of our prejudices, our fears, our stations in life. And in the case of what Sean Evans and Roger Waters have accomplished with this film, what better way to experience this sentiment than through the communion of song. 

SAVAGE POSTSCRIPT:
"Roger Waters: Us + Them" is available for on-line streaming and digital download and will be available on home video and CD formats later this year. For the streaming platforms, you will also be able to view a short documentary entitled "A Fleeting Glimpse," a behind-the-scenes look at the show and well as two deleted performances from the film, the classic "Comfortably Numb" and a sinister, incendiary more recent track "Smell The Roses."