Movies and music videos go together really well. If you have a song on your film soundtrack, why not make a music video and then put some clips in there of your movie? But allow me to take it a step further. What if your movie had an actor who is also a rapper, who could do a "rap" about your film and then make a music video with clips from the movie with himself as the artist AND as the character from your film? This is what we call a "synergy orgy".
In the 90s, if you wanted a synergy orgy, the man you called was Will Smith. He knew how to get it done so by the time you were done watching his video you had ticket to his movie in hand, and enough collectable fast food drink cups to hold... lots of soda.
So today we're looking at the crown jewel in Will Smith's music video film career, "Men in Black" from 1997, directed by Robert Caruso.
The video is pretty simple - Smith appears as his Agent J character from Men in Black in some approximation of the MiB offices, and performs in various sets that fit into the Men In Black world. Then, Mikey (an alien on the run in the film) comes in, tries to scare Will Smith, but ends up dancing with him and a large group of people in black suits, doing an alarmingly simple shuffle-like dance.
What I don't understand is what happens next. Mikey escapes in a car with two other female Men in Black agents. Were these women traitors? They seem to be helping him escape, which seems to be the opposite of what they should do. Will Smith doesn't seem that concerned. Instead, he decides we've seen too much and lays the neuralyzer on us. (By the way, if you're wondering how I'm remembering all these terms from a movie I saw when I was 12, please check out the Men in Black wiki that definitely exists.)
Tommy Lee Jones does not participate in this music video, and only appears in clips from the film which appear throughout as well as an intro that I believe was part of the film or a trailer and not filmed specifically for this video. Maybe Tommy Lee Jones was busy, or maybe he just doesn't do music videos. We'll never know.
I feel like this sort of song and video is something that has been lost to time, unfortunately. You can't go see The Avengers and then go pick up a CD of Captain America rapping about the Avengers and what they do. Are we too cynical as a nation to embrace that? I fear that we are.
Maybe since "Lose Yourself" won an Oscar we collectively decided that we had taken that as far as it can go. But, maybe we need to take a good look at ourselves in the mirror, collectively say "yes, I do want movies accompanied by very specific raps", and call our congresional representative. We don't just want song tie ins that are tangental to the film, we want songs that are expressly about the film - summarizing key plot points, and also adding some "rap whimsy" and perhaps a dance. We can dream.
