GN'R's Classic Video Trilogy Analyzed in New Book

[Bona]

Film and music critic Saul Austerlitz recently published his book Money for Nothing (A History of the Music Video from the Beatles to the White Stripes) which tells the history of the music video, delving into it's origins, function, stars, motifs, genres, conventions, and masterpieces. Guns N' Roses' trilogy, ?Don?t Cry,? ?November Rain,? and ?Estranged?, tops the author's 'Top 100 Videos List'. Here are a few excerpts from text:


Of all of music video's epic productions, of all it's pretensions to glamour and glitz, none are quite so gloriously overblown as Guns N' Roses' magnificently melodramatic trilogy of videos from their 1991 double album Use Your Illusion. Even "Thriller" paled in comparison with Axl Rose and Co.'s megalomaniac trio of clips, which tells a discombobulated, symbolically fraught tale of lost love and shattered dreams. Having risen to take hold of the mythical "Biggest Band in the World" title after the enormous success of their debut album, Appetite for Destruction, Guns N' Roses attempted to make a series of videos that would match the band's outsized ambitions in their gigantitude.

Film critic Stuart Klawans coined the tem ?film folly? to refer to hugely ambitious films like D.W. Griffith?s Intolerance and Mikhail Kalatozov?s I Am Cuba?epic productions stemming from vast budgets and gargantuan egos. Film follies, by their very nature, are always doomed to fail at some level, but their ambitiousness also renders them uniquely fascinating, and anomalous, the white elephants of film history. Guns N? Roses? videos ?Don?t Cry,? ?November Rain,? and ?Estranged? meet the definition of film folly beyond a shadow of a doubt. Where the average video confined itself to a narrow band of locations, and a modest budget, the Guns N? Roses trilogy ballooned to epic size, with all the trappings of a Hollywood blockbuster; multiple locations, fancy helicopter and crane shots, oversized length and outsized emotion. Their enormousness made them ripe for parody (a 1994 Spin article poked fun at their tangled, near-incoherent symbolism), but they remain marvels of the video?s ambitions to cultural significance and emotional heft. And with the ever-shrinking promotional budgets for videos in the new century, it is unlikely that their equal will ever be seen again. If the early era of music video was a gathering of strength, moving toward ever-bigger, ever-grander productions, these Guns N? Roses videos were the form?s apex, the high point in a curve that swung downward in their aftermath toward the smaller, more economical, less heroically ambitious videos of today.

...

Axl emerges from the trilogy of videos older, sadder?and wiser. Having had and lost his love, he saves himself, and although no longer in possession of his illusions, he lives to see another day. Loss is the through-line of the trilogy?the loss of separation, of death, of illusions. For all their bombast, ?Don?t Cry,? ?November Rain,? and ?Estranged? are deeply adult in their evocation of wounded spirits, their summoning of the bittersweet and the tragic a far cry from the fantasy wish-fulfilment of the average music video. Guns N? Roses? grandiose ambitions, which led them to release two overstuffed albums on the same day, and Rose?s tendency toward outsized displays of emotion, culminated in this trio of clips, the biggest and brightest follies in music-video history. Easy to disdain, but hard to hate, ?Don?t Cry,? ?November Rain,? and ?Estranged? are the epitome of the music video?s crass magnificence.

Source: GnrDaily.com

[absolutelytrue]

Film and music critic Saul Austerlitz recently published his book Money for Nothing (A History of the Music Video from the Beatles to the White Stripes) which tells the history of the music video, delving into it's origins, function, stars, motifs, genres, conventions, and masterpieces. Guns N' Roses' trilogy, ?Don?t Cry,? ?November Rain,? and ?Estranged?, tops the author's 'Top 100 Videos List'. Here are a few excerpts from text:


Of all of music video's epic productions, of all it's pretensions to glamour and glitz, none are quite so gloriously overblown as Guns N' Roses' magnificently melodramatic trilogy of videos from their 1991 double album Use Your Illusion. Even "Thriller" paled in comparison with Axl Rose and Co.'s megalomaniac trio of clips, which tells a discombobulated, symbolically fraught tale of lost love and shattered dreams. Having risen to take hold of the mythical "Biggest Band in the World" title after the enormous success of their debut album, Appetite for Destruction, Guns N' Roses attempted to make a series of videos that would match the band's outsized ambitions in their gigantitude.

Film critic Stuart Klawans coined the tem ?film folly? to refer to hugely ambitious films like D.W. Griffith?s Intolerance and Mikhail Kalatozov?s I Am Cuba?epic productions stemming from vast budgets and gargantuan egos. Film follies, by their very nature, are always doomed to fail at some level, but their ambitiousness also renders them uniquely fascinating, and anomalous, the white elephants of film history. Guns N? Roses? videos ?Don?t Cry,? ?November Rain,? and ?Estranged? meet the definition of film folly beyond a shadow of a doubt. Where the average video confined itself to a narrow band of locations, and a modest budget, the Guns N? Roses trilogy ballooned to epic size, with all the trappings of a Hollywood blockbuster; multiple locations, fancy helicopter and crane shots, oversized length and outsized emotion. Their enormousness made them ripe for parody (a 1994 Spin article poked fun at their tangled, near-incoherent symbolism), but they remain marvels of the video?s ambitions to cultural significance and emotional heft. And with the ever-shrinking promotional budgets for videos in the new century, it is unlikely that their equal will ever be seen again. If the early era of music video was a gathering of strength, moving toward ever-bigger, ever-grander productions, these Guns N? Roses videos were the form?s apex, the high point in a curve that swung downward in their aftermath toward the smaller, more economical, less heroically ambitious videos of today.

...

Axl emerges from the trilogy of videos older, sadder?and wiser. Having had and lost his love, he saves himself, and although no longer in possession of his illusions, he lives to see another day. Loss is the through-line of the trilogy?the loss of separation, of death, of illusions. For all their bombast, ?Don?t Cry,? ?November Rain,? and ?Estranged? are deeply adult in their evocation of wounded spirits, their summoning of the bittersweet and the tragic a far cry from the fantasy wish-fulfilment of the average music video. Guns N? Roses? grandiose ambitions, which led them to release two overstuffed albums on the same day, and Rose?s tendency toward outsized displays of emotion, culminated in this trio of clips, the biggest and brightest follies in music-video history. Easy to disdain, but hard to hate, ?Don?t Cry,? ?November Rain,? and ?Estranged? are the epitome of the music video?s crass magnificence.

Source: GnrDaily.com

Wow!  "crass magnificence" 

[misterID]

That was excatly how I felt about them. Good article.

[CheapJon]

there were some very big words in that article, great to see

[Tommie]

jeeze I remember being in high school and going to stores trying to find the "making fuckin videos" movies...good tiimes.

[Axl Z]

i only just dusted my copies down the other day to put on to dvd then my psp.
why dont they release these officially again?

[stinson4ever]

i only just dusted my copies down the other day to put on to dvd then my psp.
why dont they release these officially again?

I know, i still have not seen them.

[JohnMorrison73]

i nkow they should release them on DVD

[bailyrose]

Axl probably put a stop to it.Telling the record company that the new album will be out shortly.And Axl dose'nt want the old stuff coming out around the same time.I think a few years down the road they will be re-released.

[Loaded NightraiN]

Axl probably put a stop to it.Telling the record company that the new album will be out shortly.And Axl dose'nt want the old stuff coming out around the same time.I think a few years down the road they will be re-released.

I dont think its even come up

[bailyrose]

It might not have come up but if I was Axl I would try to put all stops to old stuff coming out so fans and new fans can concentrate on this new Guns project.

[The Hinge]

'discombobulated'.....'gigantitude'...... 'anomalous'..... 'epitome of the music videos crass magnificance'

Fuck me dead who is this book pitched at........hardly your average music fan.

Overwritten.

[GeraldFord]

So....did he like, like them or not?

[sic.]

He saw them as bloated, interesting failures when considered by the standards of the medium, particularly during the time they were originally released. Yet he did seem to enjoy the story they unfold, signing them off as a guilty pleasures. The comparison to Intolerance was a good one, DW Griffith's epic ran at 3 hours (in 1915!) and cost him a great deal of his personal money. The film received a pretty lukewarm reception at the time, while today Griffith's legacy is primarily seen as a highly ambitious, often campy yet altogether fascinating. Watching Griffith's previous endeavour, The Birth of a Nation, where the Ku Klux Klan arrives in the end to say the day, one only wonder; "How in the Hell did he get away with that?"


"Film follies, by their very nature, are always doomed to fail at some level, but their ambitiousness also renders them uniquely fascinating, and anomalous, the white elephants of film history. Guns N? Roses? videos ?Don?t Cry,? ?November Rain,? and ?Estranged? meet the definition of film folly beyond a shadow of a doubt."

[GeraldFord]

I love it when pseudo-intellectual, ivory-tower egghead music critics rip on GN'R for being pretentious!

[sic.]

'Unassuming' is not the first thing that comes to mind when watching the November Rain video.

[gandra]

great to hear this

[King Axl]

Well, the vids for "Don't Cry" and "November Rain" still hold up today, in my opinion, but "Estranged" was a mess back in 1993, with the silly "AXL" Converse sneakers and the dolphin fiasco. Completely overblown, and that's unfortunate, because it is an epic song.

[mrlee]

Well, the vids for "Don't Cry" and "November Rain" still hold up today, in my opinion, but "Estranged" was a mess back in 1993, with the silly "AXL" Converse sneakers and the dolphin fiasco. Completely overblown, and that's unfortunate, because it is an epic song.

estranged starts off good (with the cool water lense effect etc), then becomes hilarious where gnr walk towards a plane and a giant dolphin shoots out lmaoooo and all of a sudden slash is soloing on an auto moving footpath, then axls diving off huge boats into the water with spandex shorts on lmao!

[Alpachiris]

Don?t Cry,? ?November Rain,? and ?Estranged? are the epitome of the music video?s crass magnificence.!!

yeahh!!