More First Impressions: The Avengers - Pulp Roots and a Balmy Future

Well folks, The Avengers (2012) is still rocking strong and is clearly the #1 thing in America right now. We should take a moment to mourn the loss of the Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch, though, who has clearly had a tremendous influence on this blogger. It's been a crazy couple of days for sure. But - back to the biggest film in the country.

Can anyone see The Dictator (2012) superseding The Avengers this weekend? I don't think so. Sacha Baron Cohen's latest is appearing more and more desperate as he's suddenly appearing everywhere as his character, Admiral General Aladeen. Note how this post is becoming more and more prescient - as the desperation boils over it's clear that the film hasn't yet integrated itself into the national consciousness the way the greatest of this year, The Avengers and The Hunger Games (2012) have. That is to say, once the hype machine gets rolling, there isn't a need for the blatant and jarring bits of self-promotion that irritate rather than buzz.

Where were we?

Comic Origins: Taking Inspiration by Piecemeal

The Avengers has a team have a somewhat ridiculous history after first forming in 1963. They originally formed not wholly unlike the film - Loki tricked the Hulk into a rampage and Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man, and Wasp united to fight him, eventually recognized Loki's mischief, took in the Hulk, and beat down the rogue god. Neat. So the Loki inspiration is certainly present in The Avengers, as is bits of controlling the Hulk (Loki's first main goal is to set loose the Hulk to destroy the rest of the Team on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellicarrier). Since then, The Avengers have taken on just about every major player in the Marvel Universe, including Spider-Man, Wolverine, and of course Iron Fist.

The important distinction is how S.H.I.E.L.D. comes in. It wasn't until many years later that the supersecret spy organization had anything to do with the Avengers - except for in the Ultimate storyline that Marvel pushed for at the turn of the century. The Ultimate Universe sought to re-boot many of their comic lines to make them more accessible to new readers who had no desire to wade through forty years of complex, contradictory history. Of course, as the A.V. Club points out, with titles like The Ultimates, Ultimate Comics: Avengers, Ultimate Comics: New Ultimates, and Ultimate Comics: Ultimates, this was still no easy task.


The Ultimates refers to a group of heroes that is more accurately reflected in the film. A Sam Jackson-looking Nick Fury recruits a bunch of ultimate heroes to come together in times of great crisis. This is really straight-up what the film is reproducing and within the context presented, is the only way for all these Alpha Males to work together. The Comic Tony Stark is a team player who recruits and defends and leads the charge (eventually becoming Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. no less). The Film Tony Stark would rather down some scotch and bang Gwyneth Paltrow. Wouldn't we all?

Anyone Else Had Enough of Massive City-decimating Alien Invasions?

This is an aside more than anything, but it seems like we've somehow emerged in a glut of big, crazy weird Alien Invasion films. And everyone is ripping off eachother's designs and no one seems to care. Remember that big chewy Snake Thing from Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) that munches through Chicago? Not all that different from the big squirmy Worm Thing from The Avengers that munches through NYC. From the looks of it, Battleship (2012) and Men in Black III (2012) will bring on more of the same crap.

It's that weird grotesque Alien Design that seems worlds away from more classic streamlined designs that we saw in Independence Day (1996) or to a lesser extent, War of the Worlds (2005). Instead now we have these intricate, squiggly looking things flying around, whether they be strictly machine as in Transformers, or actually organic as in The Avengers. In addition, the battles have become that much bigger - it's no longer outside the realm of possibility that an entire city (often somewhere on the Eastern Seaboard) will get wrecked.

We're in this age of mega-mega-budgeted blockbusters that have these new expectations of Box Office Returns. Cracking the billion-dollar worldwide is no longer a distinction reserved for anomalies like Titanic (1997) or long-awaited adaptations like Return of the King (2003). Just about anyone, from Alice in Wonderland (2010) to Dark of the Moon (2011) is game. With this in mind, filmmakers can set their sights a bit higher, and throw entire futuristic wars up on screen like never before. The results, hollow as they may be in a film like Transformers, look really rad, although they have quickly become repetitive in style.

Marvel's Future:

Ultimately this film is both an endpoint and a turning point for Marvel Studios. The Avengers was the culmination of many years of hard work, tie-ins, and massive crossover appeal. Its success, however, guarantees that not only will each Franchise continue on its own, but the central Avengers Series will also continue, single-handedly ushering in a new era of Blockbuster filmmaking, one where characters, when done properly, are not limited to any single film, which is liberating, frightening, and exciting to behold.

This film should be a landmark one for Marvel for introducing the Cosmic aspects of its Universe. Now, with Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) we got into this a bit, but that's something everyone would more rather forget. Instead, Josh Whedon filled this film with the Chitauri, a more obscure Interstellar Race than most casual fans are familiar with, but his reasoning is just that. The film also introduces Thanos. Nerd as I am, when Loki was talking to the Palpatine-looking motherfucker towards the beginning of the film with cryptic references to their Boss, I was secretly hoping that would turn out to be Thanos, but I didn't think the series had really gotten bold enough to go that far.

The introduction of Thanos and his love for Lady Death is a brilliant set-up for Avengers 2 (2015) or maybe even Thor 2 (2013). I have to think that a Galactic Threat of this magnitude would be in a film no smaller than the scope of The Avengers. It seems as if Marvel is fairly content with keeping its tie-in films a bit simpler while bringing together the big army battles for the core Avengers franchises. If that is the case, there's no way the mad Titan would appear in Thor 2. This also harkens the obvious - will the Silver Surfer return? Could Marvel finally get the rights to some of its other characters like Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four? Or someone analogous that hasn't been used, like Adam Warlock, Quasar, Nova, or the Sentry? Why are there so many of these guys? Are we stuck with Dr. Strange, Vision, and Moonknight?! CAN I GET A BETA RAY BILL?! Shit!

There are plenty of Easter Eggs already in place to give Thanos plenty to do. In addition to his quest for the Cosmuc Cube, Thanos is closely identified with the Infinity Gauntlet, also seen in Odin's Vault, which Marvel has already showed off. There are plenty of possibilities.

The short answer is that Marvel can do just about anything they want now. They can dig up some more villains and heroes from their massive library, throw 'em together and presto - you've made a cool billion shmagooligans. Now, if DC can get their asses moving on a Justice League film, we'd be all set...

Best of 2011: Music

Hello once again folks to this week's lookback at the best, biggest, and brightest bulbs of 2011. Today we're reminiscing about the Modal Nodes of the past year, the songs, the albums, the trends, music videos and everything else we can think of. This really was a big year for a handful of artists and it's difficult to talk in depth about all of them, so let's tear this apart piece by piece:

Song of the Year: "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele



Unfortunately I am so completely numb to this track because of its incessant overplaying, but it had both the critical success, longevity, and popularity to heartily secure a top spot for the year, even if LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem" beat it for Summer Jam. Now, there were certainly a ton of songs emblematic of 2011 but let's go through just a handful:

Runners Up:
"I Just Had Sex" by The Lonely Island
"Firework," "E.T." and "Last Friday Night" by Katy Perry
"Black and Yellow" by Wiz Khalifa
"Buzzin'" by Mann ft. 50 Cent
"Moment for Life" by Nicki Minaj ft. Drake
"Born this Way" by Lady GaGa
"Just Can't Get Enough" and "The Time" by The Black Eyed Peas
"Look at Me Now" by Chris Brown
"Down on Me" by Jeremih ft. 50 Cent
"Grenade," "The Lazy Song" and "It Will Rain" by Bruno Mars
"How to Love" by Lil Wayne
"Give Me Everything" by Pitbull
"Till The World Ends" by Britney Spears
 "Tonight I'm Lovin' You" by Enrique Iglesias
"On the Floor" by Jennifer Lopez
"Party Rock Anthem" and "Sexy and I Know It" by LMFAO
"Moves like Jagger" by Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera
"Superbass" by Nicki Minaj
"S&M" and "We Found Love" by Rihanna
"Someone Like You" by Rihanna

Now for The Best Singles of 2011:
"Fuck You" by Cee Lo Green
"Changing" by The Airborne Toxic Event
"The Dog Days are Over" by Florence + The Machine
"6 foot, 7 foot" by Lil Wayne
"The Show Goes On" by Lupe Fiasco
"Make Some Noise" by The Beastie Boys
"Pumped up Kicks" by Foster the People
"Paradise" by Coldplay
"Walk" by The Foo Fighters
"Yonkers" by Tyler the Creator
"Lonely Boy" by The Black Keys

Album of the Year: 21 by Adele

Adele gets the Number 1 Album of the year but there were certainly some other bright spots. The Red Hot Chili Peppers launched a very complete set of songs with I'm With You and the Beastie Boys set new white rapping heights and some incredible beats with Hot Sauce Committee, Part Two. Adding to an assault on the rap world was Kanye and Jay-Z's Watch the Throne collaboration, which would seem to defy almost every common way to release and promote an album, a truly charitable and humble gesture if not for the incessant lyrics about how awesome and rich they are. Lastly we have GaGa's Born this Way, which I believe is an album that will last longer than it appears, although upon first listen it doesn't appear to be anything worthy of its own hype. The songs are very wide-ranging in blending genres while also catered more and more to a very specific audience. Time will tell. Finally, to finish off the year Coldplay gave us Mylo Xyloto, possibly their last album and more than likely their greatest.

Artist of the Year: Adele

With the Top Track and Album of the year, Adele owns 2011. Katy Perry put up an extremely strong fight but essentially Adele was able to nab the title because her songs aren't terrible. There were plenty of other chick competitors from Dev and Nicki Minaj to GaGa who seems to be putting out a greater amount of niche hits rather than strong mainstream work like Katy Perry. There were also strong revivals for Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, and Jennifer Lopez. Yep, it was pretty wacky. Throw in a few decent hits by Kelly Clarkson and we might as well be traveling ten years backwards in musical pop culture. Towards the end of the year, Beyoncé and Rihanna also surged to push the Pop Queen Title of 2011 into blurry distances, but by that point "Someone Like You" simultaneously secured Adele as the Queen Bee.

Three of the hugest old-but-not-that-old rock groups in the world also all had great years. The Foo Fighters may have enjoyed the most success early on although Coldplay ended the year fantastically, while the Red Hot Chili Peppers delivered one of the most listenable albums of the year along with the mild hit "The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie." It's pretty notable that all three of these groups delivered some tunes as good as they've ever done. All of these guys are dwarfed commercially, tho certainly not critically, by Maroon 5 who had a banner year, halfway due to Adam Levine's presence on NBC's only hit that isn't Sunday Night Football, The Voice. Cake also put forth a new album, which has some great tracks but didn't make all that big of a splash.

New as a solo artist but certainly not the industry, Cee Lo Green had a tremendous year that he has mostly turned into a couple TV Gigs. We can also mention Cali Swag District coming through for Hip Hop as well as Flo Rida whose "Good Feeling" got huge at the end of the year, incredibly giving Rida a Winter Jam-worthy track. Lil Wayne and Drake seem to always be present, as are Kanye and Jay-Z who collaborated on one of the better albums of the year, Watch the Throne. Blink and you'd miss Dr. Dre this year.

There were some other artists who had had only small hits before 2011 but really landed on everyone's radar, including Cobra Starship, The Black Keys, Gym Class Heroes, and Cage the Elephant.

New Artist of the Year: Adele

Adele is sweeping everything, clearly. There were tons of these kinds of pop/rock chicks that seemed to rise out of no where like Christina Perry, Skylar Grey, Demi Lovato, and The Band Perry all vying for those Sara Bareilles-type music. Alongside Adele with quality far superior to any of these chicks though is Florence + The Machine, which seem to come straight out of Stevie Nicks' linen closet. We were also treated to Dragonette's fantastic voice on Martin Solveig's "Hello." With Solveig and David Guetta it seems as if we've somehow arrived in the DJ age, which is...terrible.

Concerning Hip-Hop DJ Khaled, Tinie Tempah, and New Boyz all had pretty big years, but I don't see any of these cats lasting all that long. Rather Wiz Khalifa seems to be this year's B.o.B., with enough talent to rap alongside the big boys. Big Sean is in about the same boat, and if these rappers need to do anything it's to try to differientiate themselves. Much less mainstream but Tyler the Creator is probably the best artist to come out of 2011, tho his variety of emotionally intense and verbally abusive metal-hop isn't likely to catch radios on fire.

This was actually also a great year for rock bands. The only success story better than Adele may be Foster the People, whose "Pumped up Kicks" should propel them into rock relevancy. Other quality rock artists include Young the Giant, The Joy Formidable, Hollywood Undead, and The Naked And Famous. There is a certain airiness to some of these cats and it's tough to say if any of them will be relevant in 10 years' time. Superheavy, a new band full of...very old people, is one of the funkier sounds to come out of the year, but I'm not going crazy over anything they've done. My favourite new band of 2011 by far is The Sheepdogs, if only because I also want to grow a thick beard, listen to nothing but Allman Brothers and live in Saskatchewan.

Music Video of the Year: "Make Some Noise" by the Beastie Boys

For any further proof you need, check this out. Some of the other great vids of the year are all very different, but equally awesome. "Lonely Boy" by The Black Keys is a bizarre single-take dance trip, far better than the similar-themed "Lotus Flower" by Radiohead. Tyler the Creator's "Yonkers" is one of those videos that really hits you the first time you see it and is a tremendous exclamation of this dude's arrival on the rap scene. The last really great vid this year is Beyoncé's "Countdown," which is crazy in every sort of good Beyoncé-type way.


We also got Rebecca Black this year. Irreplaceable.

The History and Symbolism of Fight for Your Right Revisited, Part II

Here we are, Part II of more coverage than you ever wanted to see of the Beastie Boys' longform music video, Fight for Your Right Revisited. Check out Part I of NMW's review here then dive in:

PART 4: THE ACID TRIP



The group falls out of the Limo clearly in a drug-induced state, the camera wobbles and distorts the image and the colour palette has this overexposed green hue, drastically different from either their sober adventures or their drunken adventures. They've just survived the Metal Girls but are tripping their brains out on acid. This part is really interesting, I believe it is all about finding identity. They encounter three different characters here, all of which point to this idea.

Their first encounter is one of the more curious castings in the entire short, Clint Caluory (whoever the hell that is) is officially billed as "Clint as Zach Galifianakis as George Drakoulias." Actually my first impression of seeing him was that he was Galifanakis but something was definitely off. George Drakoulias was the protege of Rick Rubin, co-founder of Def Jam Records and was instrumental in discovering and signing the Boys. He also looks like this. Naturally when lining up the finest working comedians in the video, Galifianakis is an inspired choice to play him, my first thought at Caluory's involvement is that they couldn't secure Galifianakis and so went with a look-alike then kept the billing as a joke.

We can go deeper though. The Acid Trip is about discovering identity and the fuddled Clint/Zach/George blur certainly aligns with that. The boys aren't quite sure if they're buying a hot dog from one of their oldest producers, a modern-day superstar or some random dude. It's a confusing effect that actually has many respected people confused. Drakoulias is also mentioned in the Beastie Boys track "Stop That Train" off Paul's Boutique. Nothing is quite real in this world and the shaky identity here affirms that.

During this encounter MCA raps very slurred "Pass me the scalpel, I’ll make an incision / I’ll cut off the part of your brain that does the bitching / Put it in formaldehyde and put it in the shelf / And you can show it to your friends and say 'that’s my old self.'" This is very directly a foreshadow of what's to come later in the short film regarding the clash between present and future versions of the Boys. The young versions are bitching, fighting against the world but one day that part of them will be relegated to their "old self," and they'll move on from the anarchy of "Fight for Your Right."

The identity crisis doesn't stop there though! Immediately after leaving Clint/Zach/George Ad-Rock has a close encounter with Nathanial Hörnblowér played by David Cross. Nathanial Hörnblowér is a pseudonym of Adam Yauch (the second alternate MCA to appear in the film, the first being Sir Stewart Wallace) that he commonly uses for music videos he directs. He also fictionally directed their concert film Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That! and in the DVD appeared in a special extra played by...David Cross. See? It's all coming together. Hörnblowér here is again part of their splintering identity. He represent's Yauch's foray into film and as such appears just as inebriated as the Boys themselves. In a world of alternate realities Hörnblowér is just as real and Ad-Rock looks at him as if he can almost recognize him, as he does to Ad-Rock.

Finally Mike D encounters Orlando Bloom playing Johnny Ryall washing the window of a station wagon. As he approaches he says the lines "Parlay romancing into the financing / Opened up a restaurant with Ted Danson," a backwards reference to The Restaurant shown earlier, which makes sense as Johnny Ryall is a reference to a character in his eponymous song off Paul's Boutique, making him the third character from that album (after Vincent Van Gogh and George Drakoulias to appear live in Revisited). "Johnny Ryall" was about a New York City homeless man, and Bloom's appearance fits that description. The casting of Bloom is likely a callback to his appearance with Elijah Wood in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Anyway, the interaction between Ryall and Mike D is interesting. They both run up to each other as if they know each other then upon closer examination find that they are unfamiliar. They both stagger away confused. It's part of their inability to fully recognize each other and accept their identity. By this point the Boys' fight for their right to party has taken them farther than they wanted to go but they are unable to recognize that. They must encounter more than Drakoulias and Ryall to curb the error of their joyously destructive ways.

They travel on as the colour fades, possibly indicating the Acid is wearing off (tho MCA later admits that they are still "tripping their balls off") and a tumbleweed blows by, indicating they are about to face a showdown.

PART 5: THE CHALLENGE



The Boys stop and stare at a DeLorean DMC-12, a clear reference to both the 80s and a Time Machine à la Back to the Future (1985), indicating that whoever is inside is likely from a different time period. A wolf howls in the distance, which seems strange for a city, I take it as another indicator that this isn't exactly the correct universe and it's more for setting tone through juxtaposition than anything.

From the distincitve DeLorean doors emerge what appears to be older versions of Ad-Rock (Will Ferrell), Mike D (John C. Reilly) and MCA (Jack Black). Let's take a minute and talk about the casting choices for everyone now. The younger Beastie Boys feature two comedians, Seth Rogen and Danny McBride and Elijah Wood, a (mostly) dramatic actor (tho he does appear in some genre-bending films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [2004]). I think Elijah is in there because he really fits the body type of the factual Beastie Boys. He's small, white, goofy and skinny. Danny and Seth are both pretty big and their future versions, Jack Black and John C. Reilly reflect that. Small skinny young white comedians are kind of hard to come by these days. The best I could think of would be Jason Schwartzman, Andy Samberg or Jay Baruchel to fit in with Revisited's casting. I don't think Schwartzman nor Baruchel are really expressive enough, nor are they as big as Danny or Seth. We could have easily had a Pineapple Express (2008) reunion with James Franco but like Samberg I think he comes off as more smug than the innocent joy that Elijah displays very well here. This is key for Ad-Rock, we've already established that MCA is the most destructive member, Mike D is probably the closest to a confident leader and that leaves Ad-Rock full of this wonder exploring the world (leading the first verse very expressively, kissing Chloë, encountering Hörnblowér, etc). Elijah's casting is probably the best of the lot.

It's probably important to note that for a video staring six of the most popular Comedian Movie Stars of the day (maybe five - we'll see if Wilfred catches on), they don't do a whole lot of comedy. Their dialogue during The Challenge is about the only showcase and it works on nonsensical sentences, angry character jokes without punchlines and a bizarre knot-undoing scene that lasts a little too long. It's two distinct generations of Comedians but only separated by about ten years.

Seventeen minutes in Mike D pinpoints the overall meaning of the entire film. The Future Boys are only a possible future. They aren't really what the Beastie Boys in reality will turn into, they're what the characters the Boys played in the Original "Fight for Your Right" video will eventually turn into. Those characters from the Original Video are now played in time by Seth, Danny and Elijah. Still with me? Will, Jack and John are not playing Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D as they appear today but rather the culmination of the kind of kids that were in that original video. Seth, Danny and Elijah receive the gift of looking into this future and can then decide if they will become like these guys or like the Beastie Boys from our reality. Again - still with me? Good. Note how they admit that "The Future us-es are complete idiots." Sometimes it isn't fun to meet yourself and realise how much of dick you are. For these reckless kids, meeting themselves is awful.

They hammer the point that this Dance Contest is critical and how much it will affect their lives and the world. The Boys don't like what they see in the mirror. They say this is important because they need to learn to not become like these dumbass old men. Ad-Rock lends his future self a knife to help undo the knots Future MCA tied, further establishing Ad-Rock as the most empathetic and innocent of the three boys. His future self also graciously accepts while Future Mike D and Future MCA chastise their past selves.

Then it's on.

PART 6: THE CONTEST



The two groups announce themselves, both claiming to be the "Real Beastie Boys." By this point they are clearly antagonistic towards each other, both defiantly claiming to be the genuine article because they despise their alternate versions. Instead of accepting and changing themselves they quarrel. The battle for identity and acknowledgement continues.

The Wide-Angle Lens returns, signaling a sign of intoxication, perhaps this time intoxicated on power or anger. It's also to help the focus, the dancer is in the center of the bubble, holding all attention during their time to dance. Finally, it adds to the surreality of it all and really serves to lift The Contest to the high point in bent reality here. Things that were slowly leading askew and the battle for identity finally breaks as the freshest dance-off in history gets under sway. Also there is some precedent to the Boys' use of this technique as we can see in the video for "Shake Your Rump" off Paul's Boutique. Man, do they love Paul's Boutique or what? I'm worried I'm not catching enough Hello Nasty references because the Paul's Boutique references just outweigh everything else.**

Regarding the dancing itself, there isn't a whole lot of history that I can tell here and the Comedians probably put their best stamps on the characters here. The Dance Order is interestingly symmetrical: Future Ad-Rock, Young MCA, Future Mike D, Young Mike D (my favourite moves...tho Jack Black's head shake is Legendary), Future MCA, Young Ad-Rock. There is nothing to really connect the dance moves except that they're all pretty awful. I think each past and future version does have a connection, both MCAs use a lot of quick, violent hand movements, both Mike Ds involve a lot of full body movement with unique arm gestures and both Ad-Rocks use classic corny moves. The whole thing is orchestrated to a largely instrumental version of "Say It" off Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011) which provides a great intense yet danceable beat.

Once all the participants bust their best moves it clearly appears an awful tie between the feuding teams. Recognizing this, Future Mike D initiates a piss-fight. Now the best I can think of is that this is really the lowest they can get. They've all drank enough beer to have unlimited piss streams and a three-on-three piss fight is just about the nastiest, childish fight they could come up with while retaining some humour. This is where "Fight for Your Right" has led them. They've gone too far in their joyous destruction and it's gotten to the point where they're literally pissing on themselves. No more cameos, the destruction as turned inward, instead of offending the world they're destroying themselves.

Naturally it must be stopped.

PART 7: THE ARREST



I'm not sure if this is consciously a reference to the ending of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) but the only logical conclusion to the Piss-Off is arresting all the participants. Very naturally the officers are Adam Horowitz, Michael Diamond and Adam Yauch - the Factual Beastie Boys. Note how they emerge in that order, the same as the Future versions emerge but slightly different than we see the Young Versions (We see first Elijah as Ad-Rock, then Danny as MCA and Seth as Mike D). The real real Beastie Boys are finally ultimately rejecting the "Fight for Your Right" ideology, although of course they have managed to honour the song and their history good or ill (communication) throughout the entire preceding twenty minutes.

The arrest clarifies that neither the Danny, Seth and Elijah versions nor the Jack, John and Will versions can stand in for the real thing. The Beastie Boys have matured greatly since their Piss-Fight days and the entire video is an example of something that the randomly destructive kid versions could not have pulled off. Martin Starr drives the Paddy Wagon full of the imposters away into the sunset and the credits roll as "Say It" picks up.

PART 8: THE CREDITS



"Say It" plays over the first part of the credits, later blending into "Too Many Rappers (New Reactionaries Version)" ft. Nas, the original single that was supposed to come off Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 1 before its delay. This may very directly be commentating on their various identities and how they had to sort them out - thinning the Wannabe Rappers in the video until only the genuine article remained.

The credits are very long (around five minutes) and serve to both showcase these two songs as well as dutifully acknowledge the entire cast and allowing analysis like me to feed off conveniently placed information. This way I can tell you that the number played in The Restaurant is Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 4, Opus 7, performed by Paul Hsu and produced by the Beastie Boys. That's right - they're producing Beethoven. They also give a ton of Special Thanks, notably to Ben Stiller and Jonah Hill who very well may have been involved at some point but dropped out for whatever reason. Really it seems as though this would be right up both of their alleys.

This isn't the first Beastie Vid to have credits like this, "Ch-Check it Out" off To the 5 Boroughs (2004) also had some extremely long credits for a music video. In fact the multiple roles played in "Ch-Check it Out" and "Sabotage" reflect the crises of identity that seems to take hold of Revisited. The Beastie Boys are stuck between rock and hip-hop, between 80s Punk and Def Jam, between 70s Cop Serials, Giant Sci-Fi Robots and Pie Fights. They're so idiosyncratic that they needed something like Revisited to sort out what they can be, what we perceive them to be and who they are.

Anyway, I mentioned earlier that they make throwing beer cans around into an art form. These five minutes walking down the street are strangely hypnotic and beautiful - the splashing foam, merciless abandon of judgment and the immense fun of the characters make the scene the most iconic in the short film and the best for this scene. You'll note that it starts once again after a rewind and presents possibly a third Reality for the Elijah/Danny/Seth Boys, one of a less destructive path (tho not perfect) but perhaps one of less confusion, drugs and crisis of Identity. Maybe that's the path that will lead them to become the Beastie Boys we know today.

So that's that. I attempted to make this as exhausting as possible, I'm sure I left out some great key points, definitely let me know in the Comments section.

Go Fight for your Right!

**After reading a bit about Paul's Boutique from very authenticated sources I think I can figure how why it's so heavily referenced in Revisited. Immediately after "Fight for Your Right" blew up huge many critics and producers in the Music Industry wrote off the Beastie Boys as a One-Hit Wonder. No one thought "Fight for Your Right" had much substance and like I mentioned earlier, no one really got MCA's claim that it was satire. Paul's Boutique was their second album, which is vitally important after a track blows up on a Rookie Album - the band needed to prove that they had something more than just this party tune.

Paul's Boutique did not sell well and many critics dismissed it upon its arrival. In the twenty years since then though its lyrical complexity has been acknowledged and it's now considered a landmark Hip-Hop Album in many circles. By now Paul's Boutique is considered to be one of the Beastie Boys' best albums but by this time period it may very well be their least known - I mean, look at the Track Listing, what was their biggest hit, "Hey Ladies?" The Album however, was instrumental in solidifying the Boys as a truly great Hip-Hop group and distanced themselves from "Fight for Your Right." This is exactly what Revisited is also trying to do, tho with the competing goal of also honouring their Party Anthem. The Boys are able to do both - overtly and obviously callback "Fight for Your Right" while pumping the subtext full of inside jokes and references to Boutique. See, no one would care if they honoured their unpopular Sophomore album so they had to do it subtly. This film rules.

The History and Symbolism of Fight for Your Right Revisited, Part I

A few weeks ago we all saw the Greatest Moment of 2011 - The Beastie Boys' Epic Ode to A Song They Hate, Fight for Your Right Revisited. In all its 29-minute glory, the video is a surreal meta-look at the band itself, its history, our perceptions of them as well as more celebrity cameos than the next three weeks of The Office. As a big Beastie Fan there is a lot to go through here and so in natural NMW fashion we're diving in to assuredly misplace much of the symbolism and meaning of this Revisited Party vid. Firstly, a History Lesson:

A HISTORY LESSON

25 years ago three knuckleheads from Brooklyn morphed their growing punk band into a hip-hop group, signed with Def Jam and blew up over the Summer of 1986 on tour with Run-DMC, LL Cool J, among others. Their initial album, License to Ill (1986) debuted later that year as did the huge track "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)." That track would later become their most popular hit (it remains their only track to chart in the Top 10 of the Hot 100, peaking at #7 on 03 March 1987) and become a party anthem for angry Frat Boys everywhere.

It's understandable then that the group would disown the song even though it was by far their most popular. Their later records really bear no resemblance to the song, nor do half of the other tracks on License to Ill. According to unauthenticated Wikipedia sources, Mike D has explained that the song was meant to parody and be goofy but people tended to take it straight. It's really the kind of song whose gimmick seems like One-Hit Wonder material but the Beasties were clearly much more than that. Distance was necessary to continue pushing the Rock/Hip-Hop envelope with tracks like "Sabotage" off Ill Communication (1994), experimental tracks like "Intergalactic" off Hello Nasty (1998) and hell, let's just call the entire album The Mix-Up (2007), composed of no vocal tracks, an impossibility from a group that placed its focus on a song like "Fight for Your Right."

It's a youthful song for sure (all three were in their early 20s when it blew up) that really provides the boundary between their punk band roots and their assault on Hip-Hop. The course vocals (especially for 20-yr olds) over the defiant guitar riffs do lean towards a more punk-oriented crowd. I'm not sure if I really buy Mike D's interpretation of the song as purely parody - this song formulated their image and they're having a hell of a good time here, almost as much as they did during the Raising Hell Tour of '86 as well as their early concerts. I would suggest though that the "No Sleep till Brooklyn" video does a much better job parodying terrible 80s Rock Bands. Either way, the band would eventually evolve fully away from their punk routes but never into anything that sounds like mainstream Hip-Hop. They're really a genre of their own.

The video is all about this anarchist, apathetic youthful attitude. It's wanton destruction but hella fun. It's the kind of song made by kids without problems for other kids without problems. A violent disregard for authority, personal property and remorse. It's this directionless anger that actually makes more sense if it's parody. It's only natural that we get to witness the sequel 25 Years Later...

BREAKDOWN OF REVISITED - PART 1: THE AFTERMATH



I have broken down the entire video into eight total sections for analysis. Yep. The first six and a half minutes deal directly with the Boys' actions immediately following the "Fight for Your Right" music video released in 1986. Playing the parts of the Youthful '86 boys are Seth Rogen as Mike D, Elijah Wood as Ad-Rock and Danny McBride as MCA.

The film opens with the Oscilloscope Laboratories logo. Oscilloscope Laboratories is a recording studio founded by Adam Yauch (MCA) that more recently has served as an independent film distribution company. They produced The Messenger (2009), which garnered Woody Harrelson his second Academy Award nomination as well as provided the USA DVD distribution of Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010), which is cool.

After that the camera pans up a dingy stairwell while "Fight for Your Right" blares through the only lit apartment. As the smoke rolls through the boys emerge in almost a dreamlike stance, exhilarated from the thrill of the party encapsulated in the original video. They are in a great mood and recount the events of the party as they rush down the stairs, obviously attempting to escape the responsibility of their actions while relishing in them. The mood of the mise-en-scène notably contrasts with the dialogue, implying some doom that the characters do not foresee.

At the bottom of the stairs the group encounters the parents from the beginning of the original video, this time played by Susan Sarandon and Stanley Tucci. They are very stiff, but understandably so - pie is tough to get out of carpets. And expensive. The tone is very different from the Original Fight here. They aren't just asshole kids throwing a party. They're causing some damage and lie very badly to cover it up. There are some great lines here ("I think we can agree that we're all on the same team here and that's the No Pie, No Sledgehammer Team.") and this is for nostalgia's effect more than anything else. What's cool is that this actually takes place before the end of the Original Video, at the end of the '86 Fight Mommy gets a face full of pie. So we can rest knowing that Susan Sarandon will receive that shortly.

There is an ominous tone as they walk out the door. Ad-Rock tries to ask out Rashida Jones (she rejects them) and Mike D suggests a wind-down breakfast while they wait for the bodega to open so they can buy some more beer (remember this is likely 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning). MCA has the anarchist's solution though - break into the bodega in the most blatant way possible - completely destroying the front window with no regard to consequence. Notice how it surprises the other two but they do not find fault in it. They grab some beer, destroy the case, foreshadowing less angry destruction but more of the joyous destruction that is to come. Five minutes into the video the song "Make Some Noise" starts up.

I will comment more on this later but they make opening and spilling beer into an art form. The flying foam, the recklessness, the anarchy not out of hate or boredom but out of a willing and joyful disregard for society, it's one of the video's most iconic moments. Will Arnett across the street is a prime victim. He gives us his best GOB "C'MON!!" Cabbie Adam Scott gets the same beer thrown treatment but reacts a bit more hostile, actually confronting the Boys but they ignore him. Their actions are without consequence, once you are offended your existence in their eyes is complete.

Here we have an alter-ego of MCA, Sir Stewart Wallace who emerges out of the cab, played by Mike Mills. You may remember Sir Stewart Wallace from the "Sabotage" video where he guest-starred as himself (played by MCA). You probably don't remember Mike Mills as graphic artist/director who designed the cover to The Beastie Boys' live album Root Down (1995). He doesn't have a line and Adam Scott immediately screams at him to get back in the cab.

Anyway the Boys walk a little further then the rewind.

PART 2: THE RESTAURANT



The events rewind back to the destruction of the Beer Case, this time from a more fixed obscure Wide-Angle Lens which implies a less personal viewpoint as well as hints that things are not quite right. We are becoming more distant from the relatively innocent pie fights of the Original Video and that's the signal. The Do-Over is also a sign that the Boys are playing with reality. Nothing on this city block is quite real and its possible for alternate realities to exist, as we'll see later.

Seven minutes into the video Ad-Rock (mouthed by Elijah Wood) gives the first rap in "Make Some Noise." They each take their turns rapping then MCA runs atop a cop car and opens his beer near his groin as if to piss on Rainn Wilson and Arabella Field, officially credited as "Church Goers." This is part of the Boys violently disrupting the social order and embracing the profane, again led by MCA as the perpetrator of the first serious destruction and first very lude moment (perhaps a callback to this Sledging in the Original Video. After all, Mike D only brought the pies. And Spanish Fly). This also naturally foreshadows the piss battle and subsequent arrest to come later.

The beat slows down as the cast gets drunker (both on the beer and on their own rebellion and power). The camera switches to a disorienting wide-angle lens and the music rapidly becomes more distraught. The boys stumble into a fancy restaurant and immediately begin fighting over a bottle of wine, ignoring Maitre D' Ted Danson and Waiter Steve Buscemi's attempts to find them a table then control their behaviour. The cafe is full of cameos that I couldn't even see upon first viewing. The most prominent are Mary Steenburgen, Amy Poehler and Laura Dern but in the background are Shannyn Sossamon, Alicia Silverstone, Milo Ventimiglia and Jody Hill. Also we see Alfredo Ortiz, who has toured with the Beastie Boys as a drummer and appeared in their concert film Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That! (2006) and Roman Coppola, who co-founded the production company The Director's Bureau in 1996 with Mike Mills. We see some other minor actors and cameramen that don't appear to be linked to the Group (I will take your suggestions here on any connections). You'll notice how the camera is only wide-angle lensed when concentrating on the Boys, the looks of patron disgust are very flat and centered. The Boys are here to rock your stiff world, spicen up the doldrum of existence.

Ad-Rock and Mike D eventually catapult MCA out the window, getting themselves out of a situation the same way MCA got them into the situation - intoxication from drinking the stolen beer. MCA lands on Jason Schwartzman playing Vincent Van Gogh (I'll give a shoutout to the IMDB Full Cast List here for helping me out a ton by the way). The only Van Gogh connection to the Beastie Boys I could find was a mention in the track "Hey Ladies," off their second album Paul's Boutique lyrics here. They are literally crashing through their own history and rewriting it (both the rewind and future versions suggest this, which also mirrors their troubled relationship with "Fight for Your Right" itself - they need to honour the song that put them on the map, even though they may want to rewrite history and never have done it). All of this is part of what makes this short film fucking awesome.

After crashing through their own history Mike D sobers up enough and brings back the beat. MCA quickly steals a skateboard from Losel Yauch, the real MCA's daughter, then gets hit by a stretched Cadillac Limousine. His quick survival again indicates the invincibility of the band in this universe. Naturally, all three hop in the Limo.

PART 3: THE LIMO



The girls in the Limo are played by Chloë Sevigny, Maya Rudolph and Kristen Dunst and symbolise both the quintessential 80s chicks, the groupies the band used to hook up with and unabated drug use. In general, they represent the glamour, fame and riches the band received after the anarchist message of joyous destruction from "Fight for Your Right" made them a hit. Not accepted by High Society (The Restaurant) nor really seeking its acceptance, the Band plotted its own path with the people in the video most like them - the chicks.

At this point in the video you can also hear the hook "We got a party on the left / a party on the right / We gonna party for the motherfucking right to fight." This obviously a careful rewording of the phrase "fight for your right to party." It's interesting, the original phrase is this anarchist anthem, the end result is to simply party and be at bliss. Reworked the end result is the right to fight - the right to stand-up and continue the struggle. This was actually originally a song by fellow Def Jam artist Public Enemy, the final track off their second album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) which samples "Fight for Your Right" among others. Public Enemy was standing with their fellow rappers against some of the really awful 80s Rock Music that was everywhere. It's only natural then that the Beastie Boys honour them at the point in the short film that is most critical of the 80s Music Scene.

Ad-Rock unsuccessfully tries to hit on Chloë Sevigny who gives him some Champagne then hits him on the head with it after he steals a smooch. The video freezes for a second and Elijah almost whips out a little Frodo voice as he describes out the girls were coming from a Van Halen concert and how Chloë's boyfriend Derek put acid in her breath drops as a goof. We learn a few things from this - Chloë is referred to by her real name, the only character in Revisited this happens to, she has a boyfriend which hints at the Boys apathy towards that sort of morality and the Boys' angst towards big metal bands like Van Halen is affirmed. The girls representing the fame and selling-out required in the 80s music scene leads to great pain towards the Boys (Ad-Rock is stabbed, all the Boys trip on acid and plummet down the wrong path). My guess is Yauch included Chloë and named her because of her strong Independent Film credentials, which is the major focus of Oscilloscope Laboratories.

Indeed, almost similar to the premise of the "No Sleep till Brooklyn" video in order to gain acceptance in their society the Boys have to pretend to be a "Band" in the more formal sense, here they claim to be a back-up band for Bon Jovi. Of course, the girls as representative of 80s Society LOVE Bon Jovi and accept the Boys immediately. MCA does a whippit and they all really start tripping out. The driver of the Limo turns out to be Will Ferrell who plays Cowbell along to "Make Some Noise," the only non-Seth/Danny/Elijah in the video to do so. It is obviously a callback to his own "More Cowbell" SNL sketch. As for the shots of the Mexican Will atop the car...I'm stumped. An oblique reference to Will's upcoming Spanish film? Who knows, I'll take some help here.

Chloë apologizes for stabbing Ad-Rock and they stumble out of the Limo into a new world affected by their drug usage.

Wow, this has become incredibly long. We're barely halfway through the video. I'll pick this up sometime  later this week!

06 May 2011 Addendum: Thanks to Reader Tim for pointing out a couple references to the "Hey Ladies" music video, which features a Cowbell-Playing Mexican, clearly providing the Will Ferrell connection here as well as a live action appearance by Vincent Van Gogh. He has also noted the name of The Restaurant, which we can see through the window around the 8:54 mark, "Château de Ted et Michel Dée." This is French for Ted and Mike D's Castle, which actually opens up a lot of knowledge.

Later on in The Acid Trip Mike D will rap about opening a Restaurant with Ted Danson, we now know that this isn't only a reference to Ted Danson's appearance earlier, it's something this Mike D actually pulled off with this universe's Ted. Thus we have further explored the crisis of Identity, expectation and responsibility as well as a good reason for Mike D to enter - it's his restaurant. He bursts in boorishly and causes a ruckus, upsetting the stiff customers here (a reworked Beethoven sonata plays over the scene, which is about as stuffy as you can get versus a bunch of Rappers) but the Boys are just as rich and probably more famous - what's to stop them? They don't know where they should go in society with their new found fame - should they class it up with the rest of the celebrities in here and act like they do? Hell no, they're still Beastie, time to bust some windows. You can also see why Ted was actually going to quickly offer them a table and why he looks shocked and hurt when Mike D basically ignores him and the gang starts brawling. They have problems recognizing each other as we'll see develop a ton more in my next installment, actually published like 14 hours ago.