From the album American V: A Hundred Highways

         

dir Tony Kaye

         

i kind of like it as a memento mori, but directed at all the famous folks featured - is that what kaye may have intended? it's certainly not what most people seem to be taking away from this... but what's with the tacky 80's shots/editing (pull-out-from-eye + still)?

         

Nice photography and all but it seems pretty gimmicky to throw all these celebs in the vid...were all of them really that affected by Cash? Why show them and not some joe blow in his trailer who worshiped Cash?

         

agree with boey..im not feeling that video at all. As if we dont see enough of selfimportant publicity whores like Timberlake, Moss,etc...Wow look at us were shot in moody black and white and we got Johnny Cash playing over it, i bet Amy whatsherface was loving being shot in a graveyard. Thinking shes a credible "artiste" now that shes in Cash video...

         

I hate this video. Ilike the song very much and I like Johnny Cash. But all this celebs are completely haphazardly. They have nothing to do with Cash. It seems that somebody tried to do something similar to the 99 problems video by Romanek. I agree with boey that any joe blow in his trailer who worshiped Cash would have been way better.

         

This video makes me want to puke.

What asshole directed this?

It begins with someone talking about how, "Johnny always wore black to identify with the poor and the detrodden" and then goes on to show images of a bunch ass-licked would-be-icons who horde wealth.

You know who God's Gonna Cut Down? Everyone in this video.

         

I stumbled across this vid on YouTube this early this morning & debated posting it. For some reason, I didn't. Maybe because I kind of hate it, too. It's sort of bittersweet then, isn't it? Like coady said, "You know who God's Gonna Cut Down? Everyone in this video." I mean, personally & philosophically, I think that statement's got a little more bark to it than its bite, but I definitely agree with the sentiment. Like, fucking Kanye West? Really? I mean, this guy got up on stage at the MTV Europe Awards & told everyone in the house & across the world that the award show would lose credibility if he didn't win while he was losing. And he still lost (the award & I'm sure if anyone lost credibility, it was him). And here he is. I think the song has a lot to do with people doing what they do, but somebody "knowing better" (i.e. cliches: the old to the young, the law-abiding citizen to the criminal, obviously the God to the people). And I think it brings up an interesting point in a way: the "civilian" to the celebrity. All we get is their shit: their advertisements; their products; their conveniently packaged, rehashed, pretty-pretty, marketable yet supposedly gut-wrenchingly, thought-provokingly honest souls & takes on the culture they will proceed to buy their way out of with all the cha-ching their soul-bearing rang of. They have the best souls of the year. The most inventive souls of the decade. The most soulful souls of a century. The most inovative souls of a people. It's ridiculous. And we're the ones that "need" to hear it all. This is just another example. And I think from the celebrity point-of-view of this as something they'll benefit from whether monetarily or reputation-wise, it's bullshit. But from the civilian point-of-view, it's sort of like, "Damn, moneymakers. You are really fucking stupid and I'm not buying it." I can appreciate that. Haha. Like, if the irony here is "oooooh that Johnny Cash. He knew best. He was a man of the people. Look at all these celebrities who aren't." ..well, putting them in this video (& most likely paying them to appear) makes them more of the celebrities they are if anything else. ... So... conceptually, it just doesn't really make sense, does it? But, uh, Patti Smith. Yeah, I'm gonna have to say "yes" to her.

         

here here amsterdam. Well said.

As for Patti Smith, I'd like to say yes but it sure drags her down here. Slide any futher and you're at the bottom of the cedibility hill with Iggy.

And what about the woman crying in the video like she's really touched? Who the hell was that?

         

i don't understand this video at all. i feel like it does a disservice to this awesome song. the whole thing just feels like name-dropping on kaye's part and hardly gets across the idea that any of these famous faces were deeply affected by cash and his music (which is what it is pretending to do). it's as if kaye said, "nobody's gonna say no to the opportunity to pay their respects to johnny cash," and so took the opportunity to fill his video with celebrities. stupid and pretentious.

         

kaye lost the plot. owen wilson in a johnny cash video is the proof.

         

what is this for? is this raising money for something? im confused.

         

hello to all to me this video seems totally free of intentional irony, so as a sometime lurker and first-time poster i would like to nominate it for worst of the year. it is not just bad, it is offensively bad, apparently serving the agendas of the guest "stars", however well meaning some of them may have been, and not the original artist and song. it is a triumph of ca$h over Cash, a bugle call for the final victory of the Empire of Dirt. if ever there were two opposiste ends of a spectrum they are this and Romanek's 'Hurt', a true memento mori, which i am literally going to rewatch now in an, i suspect futile, attempt to wash the bad taste from my mouth. and after that i'll try and find my copy of Inner City Unit's 'Bones of Elvis' as it somehow seems a harmonious accompaniment

         

i put the smarmyness entirely on kaye, and not on the stars. of course they would say yes to "honor" johnny cash.

         

"The concept for the video was created by Kaye, Justin Timberlake, Rick Rubin and Mark Romanek."

         

What a clumsy montage of pointlessness. Suprised Kaye didn't put himself in the video, his ego is bigger than all the others combined!

         

alternative version here.

         

this video means to me that you can run from the truth but you can never really hide from the consequences of your actions

         

I'm surprised how quickly it left MTV & VH1's playlists. You can spot it on CMT still.