I Finally Figured Out What It Is About That Levi's Commercial
It's distinctly creepy, this ad about Braddock, Pennsylvania and how a long time ago, things got broken there and "people got sad and left…" And not just because of the quasi-spiritual, quasi-Soviet sloganeering, and not just because of the questionable politics behind a corporate giant turning a depressed town and its inhabitants into marketing mascots. (And that can cut both ways. Braddock seems to be honestly benefitting.) No, it's something else, it's about the voice-over.
It's just like the kid from the beginning to GZA's Liquid Swords!
Which is taken from the beginning of Robert Houston's Shogun Assassin.
Lastly, since we're on the subject of Wu-Tang and clothing, here's GZA's cousin and group leader, RZA, discussing his style—and more than that, his life philosophy, really—at his Los Angeles home with the fashion site StylelikeU. (It's long, eight minutes. But I find RZA so charming and likeable, the clip goes by in a blink. But I am a huge Wu-nerd.)
"I am a huge Wu-nerd."
Aren't we all?
Also creepy/sad but also kind of oddly exhilarating despite the creepy and sad: the use of Richard Wagner's intro to Das Rheingold (the first opera of the Ring), which is a very prescient piece of music for many reasons. In short, we are all pawns in the game of advertising.
These ads always remind me of Malick's Days of Heaven.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJHLHqsdEPs&feature=related
It is Malick, but it\'s not Days of Heaven, the commercial is very obviously inspired by The New World. The music that plays in the background is the prelude from Wagner\'s Das Rheingold, the first opera in the Ring cycle, and also used heavily in The New World.
Well, I was thinking more the young girl's VO and the theme of perfectly-shot unemployed people staring off into the distance.
Yes, definitely "Days of Heaven," and, explicitly, "The Searchers."
http://adsoftheworld.com/media/tv/levis_to_work
Fer chrissakes, people, it's not Days of Heaven, it's The New World. The ad is about people exploring frontiers, and that's not what Days of Heaven is about at all. But that's exactly what The New World is about. The ad literally references the pioneers that settled America (well, re-settled, I suppose, they weren't first), which is what the New World depicts. And the movie uses that specific piece of Wagner over and over again.
Absolutely, The Searchers is in there, but The New World is clearly the biggest influence. And not Days of Heaven.
Braddock, PA ain't nuthin' to fuck wit'?
I wouldn't say nothing… There is precious little to fuck with.
Please tell me the solution to our economy's problems is a knife-concealing carriage hurtling towards a villain with the voice of Sandra Bernhard.
Nothing about the Rheingold prelude used as the music?
Matthew Gallaway noted above!
My brain is too infected by devils and rap music (and, apparently, too addled by the lead in my tap water) to know much about classical music. Sorry. But I agree it is very affecting!
Also, nothing on how the pseudo-soviet sloganeering is kindof about gentrification and planned obsolescence?
People think there aren't frontiers anymore…but look, this one has some great pre-war architecture. And, and, maybe my car breaks down…so that I'll have to work to buy a new one! The system, like all wearers of Levis, works.
OskarS will not acknowledge the little-girl-voiceover factor!
You need to diversify your bonds.
Also, Dave Bry, check out David Gordon Green's GEORGE WASHINGTON, which was itself heavily heavily influenced by Malick, as well as a wonderful film called KILLER OF SHEEP by Charles Burnett. Rusted town, check. Person in mask reciting things on stage of abandoned theater, check. Child voice-over, check. Wall-to-wall Romantic scoring, check.
Along the lines of what OskarS said, this is a clear rip off of (or ode to?) the work of Terrence Malick in The New World … particularly the films closing sequence – one of the most magical scenes in recent memory, in my opinion. Here it is (SPOILER ALERT kind of, since its the ending of the film):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhj4b5CzyhU
Same score, editing style, and extremely similar voice over narration as used here and throughout the entire film.
"Shogun Assassin" is like a vortex of awesome in many ways. Let me count them.
1. The kid from "The Hills Have Eyes" and
2. one of Andy Warhol's protégés got their hands on
3. two jidaigeki movies directed by
4. the guy who played Zatoichi (in 26 movies!)
5. mashed them together into a single movie,
6. simplified the plot by having the English dubbed dialogue (delivered, in part, by Sandra Bernhard) leave out all the difficult stuff, and
7. got Roger Corman to distribute the final product.
If you really want to get into the weeds of grindhouse moviemaking, trying to figure out which Lone Wolf and Cub movies make up the many Shogun Assassin sequels is a lot of fun (hint: the first two LWaC movies + bunch of expository flashback narration = Shogun Assassin).