My Thought on the “Magnificent” Video
What’s with the sheets? Why are they looking up? Why’s everybody dancing and throwing shapes?
My thought, which is relative to another Fez-based music video you may have seen before: “Spirit moves in mysterious ways.”
I also think Beth’s thoughts are spot-on, too. Especially this part:
“I’m especially moved by the scene where a crowd of people outside the Fez medina are absorbed in their own activities and remain completely uninterested as this gorgeous, living, visualized wind passes right over them. Twas ever thus.”
Yep, even magnified, many people often miss the Spirit.
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“the scene where a crowd of people outside the Fez medina are absorbed in their own activities and remain completely uninterested”
They may not have noticed the passers-by, but the passers-by definitely noticed them!
Amazing song… what a bland safe boring video. You want to remain relevant? stop making generic Nickleback videos.
It’s not boring if you actually stop and *think* about what it means. I know thinking takes a lot of effort for some people, but it’s a worthwhile activity.
if you actually stop and *think* ? Cripes not so deep man? it’s a promo video with Mrs Murphys washing blowing away in the wind.. her whites are whiter than white
Coming from a Graphic design background the video is very very poor!!! reading the reviews from u2.com makes you wonder !!! cause the reviews are not honest !!!! bottom line they needed a really big video for a big song as there unit sales are too weak !!! remember Beautiful Day Great song plus a great video full of passion not CGI!!!
Horrible Video !!!, As soon as i saw The Sheets, it reminded me of the ones they put up when they are doing fumigation on houses, it also reminded me of the “Black Thing” in LOST, but white. I couldn’t get those images out of my mind througout the video. Ultimately, boring.
this is standard stuff for U2. They have but only a few GOOD videos over their career. The rest are like this one - meh. Who cares really, as long as the song is great.
I gave up on U2’s video’s years ago.
The video is really a much shorter, 10 second video that keeps repeating itself. sheets/cityscape, street scene, band performance, repeat…
I like the video and love the song. Why I keep reading @u2 is my problem. With all critical and negative comments and columns I can only hope not to be next to one of u at a concert! Really really good album with a video that is refreshing. I think it suits magnificent perfectly.
How can they have such groundbreaking visuals for their concerts and such mundane videos. Compare this video to Mysterious Ways done close to 15 years ago. Magnificent should have improved on the visuals and mystique of Fez and it simply didn’t. Ultimately, like Bouke mentioned, the majority of U2 videos are average — a fact the band even joked and mocked themselves for when they were given and MTV Video Lifetime Achievement Award. So give the imagery more credit than it deserves, but the truth is this song deserved a better video.
I agree, dave. This was just too run-of-the-mill. I hope they’ve had enough with Cortez, and get back to Corbijin perhaps? His style would suit the emotion of their new songs, I think.
Nice post. I love this video—I think it’s impossible not to be uplifted by it, and the song itself-of course
Song is the best from the album and will be awesome played live but this video clip is a typical 80’s style clip. BORING and offers nothing new, certainly not going to attract any new fans with this old fashioned type of music clip.
I did like the video despite the naysayers. Interestingly, the concept of the sheets seems clearly inspired by the works of Christo & Jeanne-Claude:
e.g.: http://christojeanneclaude.net/wr.shtml
There is a profound joy to this song - you can see it in Bono’s face. It’s a psalm really - and there is something intangibly yet genuinely infectious about the unveiling of Fez that is entirely consistent with that joy.
great music,dodgy lyrics and a big snooze of a video.u2 i fear ,are a stones throw away from becoming the rolling stones.This album is not bad ,but there is not 1 song as good as any of the first six on all that u can’t leave behind andits nowhere near joshua, achtung or even zooroopa for that matter.
Mother of God, what are you people watching? This video moved me to tears. The breath of God visualized by the white as snow sheets, blowing through people’s lives, covering them, uplifting them. Joyous dancing, looks of wonder from some of the people on the streets, total oblivion from others. It’s difficult to put the ecstacy of spirit into a visual image, but I think they managed it. Sorry to disappoint the naysayers, but I loved it!
IT’S TIME TO RETIRE.
lame album, lame single (is it a single?), shite video - afan of 29 yrs says “U2 Quit while your’e still a little ahead” - as for U2com pull the plug - atu2.com is streets ahead
Fantastic Song. I’m relieved that this is nothing like the Get On Your Boots Video. I can see the joy and inspiration in the images. We’re so inundated with complex, overthe top images in today’s media that something admittedly simple like this immediately gets panned as “boring”. I really did hope for something even more intimate and something that had a more detailed narrative. Rattle and Hum disappointed my hopes for an intimate look at the people of the U.S.A. I would have loved an intimate narrative about the people of Fez in this video. Why not have a contest on You Tube for independent film makers to present rough drafts for the next single? The winner gets funded to film their concept. That would be fun to follow and even participate in.
One more thing - please guys, never, never let them put you in slow-mo again!!!
Thank you for the great songs!
IMO Get On Your Boots is EASILY one of U2’s BEST VIDEO’S EVER….O.K. song but GREAT video with all the bells and whistles ie the visuals AWESOME… Now my favorite song from the disc Magnifcent video comes out and they go from one of their best ever videos to one of their WORST !!! Super song but basically a Mysterious Ways part 2 video..BUMMER….
I think the video suffered from being too general. wasn’t really about fez, or the band, or the sheets, or anything, it was just a kind of cool looking mishmash. And I think that’s Courtes’ style - I haven’t seen one of his videos that was able to build a consistent feeling or meaning. It can be a collage and a mishmash, but everything’s gotta pack a punch. It’s just kinda there. Huge, beautiful song, with a forgettable video. Also - U2, get a better computer graphics guy, because those sheets look stupidly fake.
also:
“Mother of God, what are you people watching? This video moved me to tears. The breath of God visualized by the white as snow sheets, blowing through people’s lives, covering them, uplifting them. Joyous dancing, looks of wonder from some of the people on the streets, total oblivion from others.” - Kathy
I am confused - I see the sheets are covering and being thrown off buildings, not people. I don’t get that this is the breath of god, either. And if what U2 is saying is that the power of their song will introduce the breath of god to one of the most spiritual places on earth, then that’s unbelievably narcissistic. I think the video is woefully unfocused, and you made connections that weren’t necessarily there. It’s a really interesting reading, but with Electrical Storm, there was a story and specificity and visual motifs that were fascinating and ambiguous, so an interesting theoretical conversation could be had. This video’s just kind of a mess that doesn’t know what it needs to be.
Jon, I think Kathy simply took the meaning of the song and tried to fit it into the video. The song is basically a worship song, like 40. If you think of that while watching the video, that’s how you come to the concltion that it was the breath of God.
I think the video is too general and vague.
Beautiful song, a U2 future classic, best song in years, you can feel the JOY here … and also in the video. Nice, decent video, not over-the-top. No visuals needed for the song, no extravaganza, just the band, emotion and their declaration of love for the city of Fez and its people. I like it a lot.
U are all 2 negative people. Just relax and enjoy good music from good ole’ rock an rollers…….or perhaps U think Lady Ga Ga or Britney r better ?
I love the song even the single edit is great! The video is okay though I’d prefer just the band playing in the grotto with a few random street scenes of Fez, rather than ‘where the sheets have no name’ (!)
I’m disappointed though that U2 for whatever reason decided not to issue a proper single release with only limited 7″, digital download and european CDS available. I don’t know what the thinking was behind that approach, as there was no UK chart positioning on Monday - which is unusal for a U2 new release. The ‘live’ b-sides of ‘Vertigo’ and ‘Breathe’ are fantastic!
What has happened to the release of “Magnificent” in Australia???
No CD single or no iTunes download here yet???
Looks like I have to shop around on ebay to buy something.
Sometimes I just can’t understand the marketing of U2 in Australia!
Here’s the deal. All U2 fans wanted a run of the mill U2 song. We all wanted to hear that U2 song that has defined how much we love this band. We got it and we got the video to go with it. Have some joy for this stuff, guys! One day you will wish you had a run-of-the-mill U2 song and then…..
i liked ANTON’S MAGNIFICENT video on LINEAR better…
Mark @ illustrationISM
illustration - I disagree, I thought the video Anton did on Linear was one of the absolute worst things he’s ever done. It was boring, it went nowhere, and most importantly, the band looked terrible.
Magnificent isn’t their best video, it certainly doesn’t compare to Boots which IMO is U2’s best video EVER, but it is still really good. The more I watch it the more I enjoy it. Now that I think about it the only U2 videos in the last ten years I would put above it are Boots and Vertigo. I’d rank it somewhere around Beautiful Day, a nice vibey piece that is cool to watch.