The main footage in and around the amphitheatre was filmed over four days in October 1971, using the band's regular touring equipment, including a mobile 8-track recorder from Paris[2] (before being bumped up to 16-track in post-production).

The film has subsequently been released on video numerous times, and in 2002, a Director's cut DVD appeared which combined the original footage from 1971 with more contemporary shots of space and the area around Pompeii, assembled by Maben.

Filmmaker Adrian Maben, interested in combining art with Pink Floyd's music,[4] contacted David Gilmour and the band's manager, Steve O'Rourke, in 1971 to discuss the possibilities of making a film in which the band's music was played over images of paintings by René Magritte, Jean Tinguely, Giorgio de Chirico and others.

Pink Floyd had experience filming outside the context of a standard rock concert, including an hour-long performance in KQED TV studios in April 1970, [5] but Maben's idea was rejected.

[4] One of Maben's contacts at the University of Naples, Professor Carputi, who was a Pink Floyd fan, managed to persuade the local authorities to close the amphitheatre for six days that October for filming.

[8] O'Rourke delivered a demo to Maben in order for him to prepare for the various shots required, which he finally managed to do the night before filming started.

[6] This problem plagued filming for several days, and was finally resolved by running a lengthy cable of approximately 750 metres from the local town hall.

[7] The remaining songs were filmed in Studio Europasonor, Paris, from 13 to 20 December[4][9] and can be distinguished by the absence of Richard Wright's beard.

[11] In early 1973, Maben was fly fishing with Waters, and suggested the possibility of improving the film by watching them at work in a recording studio.

[3] Early test screenings in the US were held in April 1974[18] before premiering in other parts of the country, which happened later into the summer (accompanied in certain instances by a special quadraphonic mix).

[3] The film was not financially successful according to Mason,[19] though Maben disagrees,[7] and suffered particularly from being overshadowed by the release of The Dark Side of the Moon[4] not long after the original theatrical showing.

[22] A new restoration in 4K resolution was announced to be screened in cinemas in April 2025, under the new title Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII, with a soundtrack album set to be released in May.

"[26] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three stars out of four and wrote, "The interviews with Pink Floyd are too scattershot to achieve any significance; we are left with the music, which is extremely fine.

"[27] Meanwhile, Billboard was not enthusiastic about the 1974 release, thinking it looked dated, and stated that the film was "dull, unimaginative and hokey, and does not do justice to the Pink Floyd Vision".

[28] Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times dismissed the film as "a fan-magazine article dressed up as a movie, with lots of close-ups of its heroes and an off-screen interviewer who occasionally drops in a question or a comment—about their equipment or their compatibility—and is satisfied with whatever he is told.

Billboard reviewed a video release in 1984, and on this occasion, Faye Zuckerman, while not particularly keen on the footage in the Abbey Road canteen, stated it was "vastly superior to most other concert movies".

"[48] The Beastie Boys claimed in interviews that the song and the video came about from their desire to progress from being a straightforward hip-hop group and add vintage instruments and old sound equipment to their repertoire.

Colin, however, was critical of the direction, which he described as "Dave Gilmour sitting on his arse playing guitar and Roger Waters with long greasy hair, sandals and dusty flares, staggers over and picks up this big beater and whacks this gong.