mj's vision

A review of the video anthology MICHAEL JACKSON'S VISION...omitting the redundant or obvious. If any of this seems harsh, it's because there's no shortage of well-deserved adulation out there. Nor have i forgotten michael's lyrical plea - "before you judge me, try hard to love me". I do...and it wasn't hard at all.
BAD
Can we all admit that our cultural reaction to post-THRILLER michael was immutably shaped by the awesomeness of the aforementioned? And "awe" is the correct word...as in so overwhelmed that one is not thinking clearly. Michael was still michael, and would go on to create much that was worthy of his seminal album. But certain songs became hits not because they were great, but because we wanted them to be. BAD is a great album...but the title track is an embarrassment to anyone with a grain of awareness or integrity. The lyrics and video images are the kind of trite braggadocio that should be kept far from any impressionable mind. Preening, posturing, and adulation of the most brutal stereotypes of male behavior. The words "compensation" and "napoleon complex" are probably applicable - after THRILLER, it seems pretty clear that he all too often had no one willing to speak truth to power, and ask him hard questions. Do i overreact? Ask yourself this - have you ever heard anyone sing this #1 hit in any way other than ironic?
THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL
A fantastic song, with a video that should be troubling to anyone paying attention. All the more so because the premise involves an aged sage telling michael to stop aping thugs, and just be himself. But michael grew up in a world in which the depths of male brutality were so misunderstood and normative, that "being himself" amounts to little more than stylized sexual harassment and stalking. At one point, the object of his affection has to wonder whether she's about to be gang raped.
SMOOTH CRIMINAL
Another song in the "Bad" mode...released by any other artist, this would barely have scratched the charts. A rehashing of the theme "physical intimidation and brute force are neat-o", plus a little "might makes right", or "two wrongs make a right"...take your pick. Did michael succeed in making us care whether annie is okay? No. But that touches upon a recurring flaw in his videos - creating a motion picture with a tenuous (or non-existent) connection to the song's subject. This is song about drug addiction with a video about...nothing, really.
LIBERIAN GIRL
The legitimate protestations of "Leave Me Alone", "Scream", and "Speed Demon" would ring a bit truer without this vomitous bit of celebrity worship. In what may be the most noxious spew of tourette's name-dropping in pop culture history, the action consists entirely of michael's famous friends waiting on set for him to show up. This one gets the nod as "worst mj video of all time", as the audio track is almost entirely subsumed by banal chit-chat. Hello? Can anyone hear one of michael's more beautiful ballads under this dreck?
BLACK OR WHITE
A brilliant song, with a video that occasionally leaves "childlike" for "childish". I'm speaking of the non-musical or extended parts...sticking solely to the elements of the original song, this is one of mj's best videos. And it pains me to come down on the side of prigs, prudes, or "morals police", even a little. So for the record, i have NO problem with the crotch-grabbing. Humanity needs to start grabbing our own (and our neighbor's) crotch a whole lot more, if we're to return to specieal sanity. But the violence...and okay, i can almost understand how a violent response is appropriate to living in a society this repressed...but these images cross the line into violence-glorification.
REMEMBER THE TIME
Worth it, of course, if for nothing else than magic johnson's hysterically bad acting.
SCREAM
The only time michael employed violent images that feel measured and appropriate?
WILL YOU BE THERE
The spoken recitation unique to the video is one of mj's more moving moments...and it's hard to think that it wasn't sourced from the growing backlash against, and suspicion of, his life.
CHILDHOOD
One of the more moving artistic responses to persecution ever...and one that feels painfully, absolutely true. Michael's most naked song, emotionally. Which brings us to...
YOU ARE NOT ALONE
One of michael's best videos, and by far his bravest. To conjecture that he was as beset by body-image issues as any of us (and probably a whole lot more) is no stretch. He had to be acutely aware that, even though he was in great shape, his slight build was the subject of mockery. To swallow that and come back with this video, which openly celebrated his physical nakedness more than anything he ever did, shows humbling courage and artistic integrity.
THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT US
A chant song with a video that falls flat. Something missing, some chemistry absent...until you see the prison version. Infinitely superior (although one is tantalized by the thought of how much more socially powerful it might have been had he applied not his regular white makeup, but returned to his natural brown instead).
GHOSTS
A brilliant effort, michael's last big-budget blowout, that falls flat in the shortened version. Is the full version just a bit too long? Perhaps...but the slash job presented in VISION runs too far the other way. Michael's possible overfascination with horror, is sharp and artistically beautiful here.
YOU ROCK MY WORLD
The first mj video that feels viscerally, unintentionally disturbing, simply because of his appearance. He's flown past unique, into inhuman. And i've got no shortage of sympathy...in a painful way, he manifested physically the scars and mutilations inside each of us. The fact that this wasn't a conscious artistic choice, makes it all the more poignant. And forget the self-inflicted facial mutilations. In his reaction to the skin disease vitiligo, he had an opportunity to make the correct artistic response - openness and lack of shame. Instead he slapped makeup all over himself and ran to the arms of self-loathing and vanity. Just as it took me a few listenings of INVINCIBLE to appreciate the loveliness of some of the music, it takes a few viewings of this to get past the startle factor, and appreciate the playfulness. Plus more childish violence...
CRY
This perhaps should have been the template for all mj videos once he could no longer resist cutting and covering up himself. A beautiful song with amazing vocals, moving visuals...and no sign of the man himself. Harsh? I'm just thinking about the message being delivered to the children - as i've gotta believe michael would have wanted me to. Or maybe that's the wrong answer. By hiding the truth from the children, we ill-prepare them for the horrors of the grownup world. But at what point were michael's artistic messages consumed by the turmoil of his personal life? And most of those messages, were ones the world needed very dearly.
Okay, enough critiquing. Now go cue up "Thriller", "Billie Jean", "Say Say Say", "Man in the Mirror", "Leave Me Alone", "Black or White", "In the Closet", "Scream", "Earth Song", "They Don't Care About Us (prison version)", and "Ghosts". You'll be happy you did...as this brilliant man would have very much wanted.