A quick review by Isaac Crawford
These are fairly recent videos from MCR's 2004 album "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge". "Helena" in particular was a fan favorite on M2 and the various countdowns that they have on music video channels. These songs are a great example of what a video can do for a song. On their own, I'm not very impressed with MCR, the songs seem to be a little too concerned with "rocking" and sound to me like they are trying too hard (which is always a cardinal sin in my book). The videos work well as short musicals, the songs themselves are little more than an excuse to dress up and take on characters roles. Good thing for the band that they do this very well. It's almost the reverse of David Bowie. I think his albums are (for the most part) great but the theatrics leave me cold. I would much rather listen to Bowie than watch him, and I'd much rather watch MCR than only listen. The bad news is that I am willing to bet that a lot of the success of the videos is due in no small part to good direction, camera work, and editing, all of which would be missing from a live performance. I would be amazed if Gerard Way could pull off the mannerisms and over the top delivery of the songs live like he does in the videos. Both "Helena" and "The Ghost of You" are very dramatic and emotional, so this style doesn't seem out of place but I really hope that his love songs don't have the same type of delivery...
UPDATE: Before I went overseas I saw the last part of a MCR concert on MTV. My original thoughts seem to hold true, they sounded dreadful in concert. Maybe it was just an "off" night for them, but I doubt that they would have put it out there if it really was a bad show. Oh well...
"The Ghost of You" is a classic narrative video where the members of the band become characters in the story. The video is set during WWII and all of the action seems to take place in three areas. An NSO dance (in which the band is playing), a bar (after the dance?), and on what looks like Normandy beach during D Day. The bassist plays a soldier that is near and dear to the Sgt. (G. Way) and a girl on the dance floor. He is later killed in action during the invasion while the Sgt. has to be restrained from going to get him. The battle footage is pretty good, looks like it was right out of "Saving Private Ryan", right down to similar looking actors for some of the other characters. If I didn't know better, I would almost think that the director of the video intended it to be seen as another part of that film... Way's over the top vocals actually fit pretty well with the battle scenes, the chorus of "Never coming home, never coming home," is pretty intense, but for me the most emotional intensity comes during a quiet part of the song. As the soldiers and the women part ways at the dance, the bassist looks back at his date while the vocal is:
"If I
fall
If I
fall (down)
At the end of the world
Or the last thing I see
You are
Never coming home
Never coming home
Never coming home
Never coming home
And all the things that you never ever told me
And all the smiles that are ever gonna haunt me
Never coming home
Never coming home "
The
volume pumps back up after the "If I fall (down)" part and
it's right into the battle. The appeal of this video lies
in the very high production values and decent acting of the
band. It really is a short film with a dominating
soundtrack...
"Helena" is
just as slick a production as "The Ghost..." but is a
different type of video. It's a subgenre of the regular
performance video. Usually, performance videos are used to
sell a band and little else. This video certainly does
that, but it appears that they are using it to try to
reinforce whatever it is that they are trying to get
across. The whole thing revolves around a funeral and
almost the entire video was shot in a Catholic church with
what we assume is Helena in a coffin front and center. The
band is playing at the funeral and Gerard Way (the lead
singer) is both the lead man of the band and impresario for
the funeral. He spends equal time fronting the band and
behind the pulpit in front of the congregation, singing all
the while. In addition to the band, there are dancers up by
the coffin. When Way and the rest of the congregation close
their eyes to pray, Helena awakens and dances. She falls
back into the coffin just as they open their eyes. It's
always creepy when a corpse open its eyes, but they added a
little touch that amplifies the effect. Not only does she
awaken with a start, inhaling as if she'd held her breath
the whole time, but she opens her mouth just slightly and
shows some teeth. It's reminiscent of how skull's teeth
appear, and just for a split second we are reminded of
death and life all at the same time. The dancer is some
football coach's daughter, I can imagine that those images
of his daughter are the things nightmares are made of.
Seeing your daughter as a dancing corpse, unseen and
unheard, is bad enough, but seeing her breath taken away as
quickly as it came and then dropping into a coffin would
cure me of sleep forever. After helena is back where she is
supposed to be, the band carries out their duties as pall
bearers in the rain out to the hearse. The video ends with
them closing the door of the hearse and Way looking into
the window for a moment before walking away.
OK, pretty standard stuff for
a music video, but this one is done quite a bit better than
most. There are several things that I like quite a bit. The
dancers are surprisingly effective, even if they don't make
very much sense when using logic. We instinctively revert
to the sense of reality that we use when watching musicals.
The choreography is very well done, all of them seem to do
something different, but they are definitely coordinated
for overall effect. There are two instances in particular
that stand out to me. During one part of the eulogy(?),
they cut form a frontal view of the pulpit to a top view
overlooking the coffin. The dancers are on the floor and on
the cuts to the top view, they change into various grief
induced positions. The other thing that caught my eye is
small but it really captured my attention. As the
pallbearers are walking out of the church, the dancers form
columns on either side. They put up their umbrellas and
point their fingers into the distance with a slight
elevation and then almost immediately put them back down.
Inexplicably, this means a lot to me. I have no idea why.
For me, the most interesting
thing about the video is how it deals with religion. Most
bands are quite ready to spit at and mock organized
religion whenever it can, but it seems as though this one
does not. The video is quite obviously in a church, but
there are no crosses, no religious symbols of any kind are
seen. There are no religious professionals attending the
service, it is a self serve church apparently. Gerard Way
is both the lead singer and the leader of the service. At a
certain point behind the pulpit, he raises his arms and the
entire congregation stands up and sings/prays with him:
"What's the worst that I could say?
Things are better if I stay
So long and goodnight
So long and goodnight"
Ambiguity
at critical moments has always been one of my favorite
techniques for making people think. On the one hand, it is
quite unlike any prayer you'd expect in a situation like
that. On the other hand a heartfelt sentiment at a time
like that is beautiful in its own way. Some might read this
as being deliberately provocative but I don't see it that
way at all. I have been to many church services where I
would have given anything to hear the priest/minister say
"What's the worst that I could say?" It wouldn't surprise
me in the slightest if members of the band consider
themselves sympathizers of religion. In both of these
videos, it is seen as a cathartic and communal thing, even
if it is ill defined. On board the boat approaching
Normandy beach in "The Ghost...", one man is seen kissing a
cross around his neck and another crosses himself. During
"Helena" one person crosses themselves at the coffin and
the bassist comes in swinging an incense burner. All of
those actions point towards either Catholicism or Eastern
Orthodoxy (but they cross themselves the Catholic way).
I'll go out on a limb and say that there are probably some
Catholic sympathizers in the band...
It is amazing to see video
productions that probably cost as much or more than the
album they are used to promote. My Chemical Romance has
certainly benefitted from the high productions values of
these things and it adds to their story telling. I'll admit
to not listening to anything else of theirs yet, but I'll
probably check them out before too long.