November 30th 2010 Posted in
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Yesterday it was reported that the new 30 Seconds to Mars music video for their new single Hurricane had been banned from being broadcast on TV … but, that band has no bearing on the video being shown online so today we get to see the full, 13 minute music video in its full and uncensored form. Leto gave an interview to Entertainment Weekly about the banning of Hurricane and revealed that he was surprised the video didn’t pass muster with the network censors, particularly because the version they submitted was not as explicit as the original version they created:
Jared Leto wasn’t completely surprised when TV networks refused to air his band’s racy “Hurricane” video. “We always knew there would be some images that would have a tough time getting through,” says the Thirty Seconds to Mars singer, who called the Music Mix while driving to the band’s next gig in Brighton, England today. “But we didn’t expect this kind of pushback that we’re getting now.” In fact, the “Hurricane” clip that 30STM submitted for TV had already been edited down from the original. “I had always planned on having an explicit version and then a version that was not so explicit,” Leto says. “The version that we were trying to get on broadcast is not the explicit version, and that’s still having a really difficult time.” Leto wonders just why the networks were so offended by the video’s sexual images. “I’m not interested in provocation for provocation’s sake,” he says. “I just think it’s interesting that when you turn on the news or whatever else catches your interest, how much violence and negativity is available out there. As soon as it comes time for sexuality, it’s a big shock that people are sexual beings. It’s an interesting double standard to me.” Now he is debating how whether to edit “Hurricane” further to meet TV standards. “You know, at another time I would say, ‘Absolutely not.’ I would refuse 1,000 percent to change what I felt was important. But with this film, I’m not so sure I would cut off the nose to spite its face, so to speak…There are creative solutions to every problem. Certainly it would be difficult for people to air a 13-minute-long music video slash short film, regardless of the content. I think people have dealt with this in different ways in the past. People have made cuts.
Yes, people do make cuts … in fact, 30 Seconds to Mars made cuts to Hurricane so that it could be broadcast on MTV. The video, clocking in at 13 minutes long, has already aired on MTV in its censored version a few times. After the jump, check out the video in its UNCENSORED NSFW form. While the video isn’t all that explicit, there is female nudity and there are many scenes that are deffo not suitable for watching at work …
Hurricane – Uncensored:
Hurricane – Censored:
For those of you who cannot watch the film, here is a fairly detailed description of what takes place in the censored version of the music video:
the mini-movie is broken into chapters, beginning with movie-style titles announcing “Hurricane,” then the subtitles “this is not reality” and “this is a dream.” As Chapter 1, “Birth,” unfolds, ominous lighting flashes over New York City at night as drummer Shannon Leto speeds through its streets on a motorcycle.
A shirtless Jared Leto is awakened in his apartment by a knock on the door only to find nobody there and a stack of Polaroid surveillance photos of him lying in bed (shirtless, of course). A creepy gimp wearing a black suit and leather mask and toting a sledgehammer bursts into the room, sending Leto flying out of a 40-story window to the street below.
The gimp is right behind him and danger lurks all around as guitarist Tomo Milicevic encounters a woman in black leather bunny fetish gear being led around a subway station by another leather-masked baddie. Milicevic dispatches the dude with a gut punch and makes out with the fetish queen, yanking a key on a red rope out of his mouth after their hookup.
Chapter 2, “Life,” begins with Shannon crashing his bike to avoid running over a woman lying prone in the street, even as his brother dresses up a lingerie-wearing beauty in a leather eye-mask and horse’s bit. The beautiful stranger stabs Shannon in the gut unexpectedly, yet he’s fine enough to toss the key in slow motion into the street.
And then, believe it or not, that’s when things get really weird. A rabbi, a priest and an imam show up and toss their respective holy books into a bonfire in an alley (also in slow motion, natch), and Leto jogs by a building where he finds the key hanging out of a door.
Cue quick-cut scenes of a silver knife, a cockroach, a woman spitting into another woman’s mouth, a buxom beauty in a steampunk gas mask, some back licking, booty smacking and handcuff play, not to mention yet another black-barred image with the words “Censored Sisyphus Corporation” over them, and you have the perfect setup for Leto walking through rows of caskets draped in the American flag as the sledgehammer dude clocks him in the face.
Leto falls into his own coffin and is nailed in it before the camera cuts to a pair of topless women in fishnet stockings guarding a door and striking provocative poses as an unseen hand takes the lid off a plate containing, yes, a silver vibrator. Ominous music begins to play while a procession of death-mask-wearing marchers bearing torches make their way through Central Park, where Shannon meets up with his assailant, kisses her and is promptly shackled to a park bench. Dude, how could you fall for that again?
Surrounded by guys in creepy bunny and bird masks, he uses the key to unshackle himself and beat them up, while brother Jared is freaking out inside the casket and uses his red key to set himself free. He drops down into the street amid a stream of other unmentionable fetish clips while Tomo uses his red key to unlock a book with a secret message in it that we never get to see.
Which brings us to Chapter 3, “Death,” opening with children scrawling in an alley with sidewalk chalk and Jared realizing his torso is covered with cryptic tattoos. He doesn’t seem to mind, as he’s busy hooking up with a beauty in lingerie.
Censored scene, more fetish play, Shannon making out with his girl again, Jared taking the masked gimp to the cleaners in a slo-mo fistfight, a strobe-light recap of the whole thing, and somehow 13 minutes have passed by in a daze.
Surprisingly, Kanye West does not appear in the video … and it remains to be seen if those rumors of the video being 20 minutes long are correct since both the uncensored and censored videos are 13 minutes long. Either 30StM are planning to release a third version of the film or …. this is in. I personally like the video but it’s not really all that revolutionary. Some of the scenes are cool but it seems a bit artsy just for the sake of being artsy. What do y’all think? Is this Hurricane music video the epic wonder you were expecting? Are you impressed?
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Source: Trent
