A Reader wrote in a comment:
“I live in hope of a large series of natural disasters to get things rolling.”
Maybe he will like this video. It is one of those songs that don’t seem to make sense for someone like me to like so much, but to me it’s all about the aesthetics and the aggressive tension that few can build like Michael Jackson. Add to this his phenomenal visuals crew, I mean, the very color and lighting makes no picture of dead de-tusked elephants as beautiful as they are in this video.
But there’s more. It’s also about timing and clipping. Take for example the moment when the picture switches to a white sale cup being slaughtered with a club to it’s head. That’s an awesome moment, you almost go ‘AWHH!!!’ and it doesn’t matter really if you react to how sad it is or how deeply satisfying in it’s merciless cruelty.
This is another masterpiece from the King of Pop. The only thing I find myself missing is a whip to Jackson’s back towards the end when he stands suspended between two trees, the wind tearing at his clothes. I would’ve had a blackish indistinguishable figure in the background with a long one-tail lashing at his back, Michael crying real tears and his white shirt going red. Now that would’e been the ultimate message, the message he wanted to tell us all along but couldn’t because, in spite of the playing of a Christ image had been obvious for years, adding a whip to his semi-crucifixion in (also) this video would’ve been too controversial.
The reversal sequences with the animals getting to life and the forests re-erecting the trees was somewhat corny in my opinion and I think the video could’ve successfully been without it, but it’s a small detail in comparison to the whole and I’ve become very avid in looking past imperfections like this, so it doesn’t manage to ruin the experience for me. It’s still a great video, and I love the extras and think they did an awesome job giving most of them clearly weren’t professionals.
On a side note: I really like the implementation of Native Americans, it’s something we rarely see especially from black artists who are themselves an ethnic minority and therefore easier (and probably understandably) tend to overlook the fact that they’re far from the only ones.
Let me also add that I really do like Michael Jackson, and I believe his complete honesty when he always claimed to wish the best for the world, piece and love for all. I’m a pretty good reader of people and can usually spot pedophiles and other sex “offenders” a mile a way (there’s something to the way they look at you that I can’t quite explain, but I learned how to recognize them somewhat early on during the period when I had my own brief encounter with being a rapist). When it comes to Michael Jackson there’s no doubt in my mind that there’s absolutely nothing to the pedophilia allegations whatsoever.
But to each their own, some of my readers will believe he was guilty, others will agree with me. But to me there was never any doubt, I didn’t believe it when the first rumors began, nor when he was charged and went to court, and I don’t believe it any more now.
So all in all, though I basically have been considering myself a Heavy Metal guy, I’m more musically versatile than most, and I’m a fan of Michael Jackson too, the man himself – he’s a rare and highly well trained talent, I love his incredible innocent belief in Good’ – and (a part of) his music both.
