The new production upgraded some visuals from the original shows and replaced many other sequences to broaden the story. “Everything has a meaning,” Mr. Evans said. “He’s not into pretty pictures just for the sake of pretty pictures.” An image of Mr. Waters’s father, Eric Fletcher Waters, becomes one among many memorial photographs projected on the wall, including soldiers who died in Iraq and a firefighter from Sept. 11.

Mr. Waters said, “I wanted it to be much less about the tortured, whiny pop star and much more about our general predicament and how the walls that are represented by that wall, and that that wall is a metaphor for, interfere more and more in our lives, not less and less.

“I know there are walls that we recognize. There are walls between different religions, walls between rich and poor, walls between north and south, walls between power blocs. But the really insidious walls are the walls of deception, the walls of propaganda. Eventually, they are the walls that control us and prevent us from being kind to one another, rather than bombing each other to smithereens as we do in a routine manner, all day every day.”

Mr. Waters has actively supported veterans. He performed at the Bob Woodruff Foundation’s annual “Stand Up for Heroes” concerts in 2012 and 2013, and this year, on Oct. 16, at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, he is headlining his own “Music Heals” benefit for MusiCorps, which helps wounded veterans play instruments.

After the final performance of “The Wall” in 2013, Mr. Waters made a decision. “I had an absolute need to go and visit my grandfather’s grave, because I’d never been,” he said. “And I knew I wanted my three children to be with me; I wanted them standing by that grave with me. And I knew I had to go and visit the memorial to my father, which was in Monte Cassino, because I’d never been to that garden, either. Here I was, 70 years old, and I had never done it, so I had to do it. And I thought, This is what the movie’s about, so we will film it.”

He added: “You have to have the road movie in there and the attachment to the absolute, real sacrifice of these men who I happen to be related to. Because that relates to all of the other characters who we see all the way through.”