After two weeks of wrangling, protesting and explaining, 30 Seconds to Mars finally unveiled the "full-length explicit director's cut" (as frontman Jared Leto put it) of their epic "Hurricane" video, which, oddly enough, ended up being two seconds shorter than the version that premiered on MTV a month ago. The original uncensored video was banned by MTV and several other TV channels, due to heavy censorship. The new, 13-minute clip for "Hurricane" aims to be more like a blockbuster movie than a music video, an arty, provocative sci-fi epic, with cinematic-style titles, subtitles, and chapters, and the Los Angeles based rock band's one-note, anthemic rock acting as its score."Hurricane" is one of tracks from 30 Seconds to Mars's newest third studio album "This Is War." Leto wrote this piano driven ballad in Berlin in the winter in 2007. He said. "It was winter, it was getting dark at like 3:30 in the afternoon, and it could go either way. It could be incredibly comforting or incredibly depressing. Thankfully, it was a little bit of both. It was inspiring nonetheless." Lead guitarist Tomo commented on this song: "It's dark and there's not much guitar on it, other than some acoustic in the beginning and a little bit in the chorus. Other than that, it's all keyboards. But that's cool. We're not some egotistical rock band that has to dazzle everybody with our shred skills. We just want to do what's right for the song."
The Leto-directed video was shot in New York. Leto described its concept to MTV News: "It's a surrealistic nightmare dream-fantasy through the desolate empty streets of New York City at night," he said. "There's no people, there's no cars and you see the band as we encounter some fears and some fetishes, a series of challenges. It's a really ambitious, really cinematic short film." Leto never goes halfway. That's why the epic video sometimes feels like a summer blockbuster squished down into a 13-minute box. Part "Eyes Wide Shut" fetish flick, part action movie and all a bit confusing, the video that director Leto himself has been promising will be "very sexual," violent and a "surrealistic nightmare dream-fantasy" is all those things and more. Plus a lot of things we can't even really get into here.
Over 13 minutes, the censored version of mini-movie is broken into three chapters: Birth, Life, and Death, It follows the three members of 30 Seconds to Mars through a dark and twisted thriller set in a nearly empty New York City. Full of haunting, surreal images of men in masks and woman in bondage gear, the video was dark enough to warrant a warning during the intro that some of the scenes may be offensive to some viewers. All disturbing psychoanalysis aside, 'Hurricane' is one of the most impressive videos in years.
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