Jamie Hewlett
English artist Jamie Hewlett directs animated music videos
specifically for his co-created (with Damon Albarn) British virtual band
Gorillaz. The videos heavily contain intertexual references to a wide variety
of pop culture, mostly films. All the videos additionally contain an continual
storyline which is linked to the canonical universe of Gorillaz.
The animated music
video was directed by Jamie Hewlett and Pete Candeland. It starts with the
Gorillaz logo in red against a black screen, and the following quote from the
1978 film Dawn of the Dead: "Every dead body that is not
exterminated, gets up and kills. The people it kills, get up and kill" in
Japanese then in English. This phrase was deemed offensive in some countries
and a censored version was produced that omits this intro. The video and song
name is a reference to the famous western starring actor Clint Eastwood, The
Good, the Bad and the Ugly. An interpolation of the yell from the film's
theme song can be heard at the beginning of the video, followed by sinister
laughter from Murdoc. The notes that the melodica plays are also based on the
yell. The band is seen playing their music against a completely white backdrop.
2-D is seen wearing a T-Virus shirt most likely referencing Resident Evil.
Russel's cap then begins to mysteriously rise on its own, and the ghost of Del
appears to be emerging from under it. He begins to rap, leaving the other band
members dumbfounded, and the backdrop at this point is that of a cemetery. Del
then begins to summon enormous tombstones to burst out of the ground, as a
heavy shower of rain and thunderstorm begins. Shortly afterwards, zombie
gorilla hands rise up from the ground. Murdoc is grabbed by the crotch and
pulled to the ground, a reference to the Peter Jackson zombie film Braindead.
Seconds later, the zombie gorillas themselves rise up. Murdoc immediately flees
at the sight of them, with a number of them pursuing him. He then turns and
glares at them out of frustration at his inability to escape, and the zombie
apes engage in a bizarre dance routine before Murdoc is finally struck by lightning,
this dance routine is similar to the choreography of Michael Jackson's music
video "Thriller". Noodle is then shown joyfully skipping
along, almost as if she is completely unaware of her surroundings, and in her
playful skipping, she delivers a hard kick to one of the zombie gorillas in the
face. Immediately afterwards, Del is then sucked back into Russel's head as the
gorillas all disintegrate, and the band members are left standing in the
cemetery, now bright with sunlight. The video then concludes with a split
screen showing each of the four band members and their names. The video has a
running time of 4:32, which is significantly different from the album version,
which runs for approximately 5:44, however, the album version features about
1:30 of the backing track playing with no vocals over the top. The video for
"Clint Eastwood" won an award at the Rushes Soho Short Film Festival
Awards in 2001, defeating entries by Blur, Fatboy Slim, Radiohead and Robbie
Williams.*
*Source - Wikipedia
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