I’m not a huge fan of Audioslave. But when it comes to the song Doesn’t Remind Me off their 2005 album Out Of Exile, I go humble and weak. It is one of my absolute favourite rock songs of all time and will so remain. I love everything about it from the catchy and up-building guitar-driven verses through the explosions of the breathtaking choruses and the climaxing insanely genius electric guitar solo, to the lyrics which not only feel sincere and touching, but also presents Chris Cornell’s voice in its very best element. It’s an unequalled rock experience of a lifetime to just listen to the song.
Yet it’s nothing compared to the brilliance of the song combined with the video. It’s probably the best music video ever made, it’s a masterpiece in which film art and story telling exceeds most full-length non-music films I’ve ever seen. Everytime I watch it, I have to fight the tiny tears coming through my little lemur eyes and a lump in my throat makes me speechless. That’s how good this video is.
SPOILER WARNING, I WILL NOW MAKE A COMPLETE SUMMARY OF THE CONTENT OF THE VIDEO
Uncle Sam points at us in the beginning and there’s no risk in believing we are in the USA. A boy of about 5-8 years plays with his model plane. “I walk the streets of Japan til I get lost, cause it doesn’t remind me of anything“. He seems very affected by it, fascinated almost as he takes it outside and runs like the wind with it in his hand. He skips stones by the river. He laughs while he merrily swings from a tree. “I like studying faces in parking lots” He gets acquainted with a bulldog. He energetically jumps around on the sofas in the livingroom at home while his little sister seems to be quietly wondering what is going on. His mother comes in obviously irritated and tells him to stop. You can tell by the interior of their home that they’re a low-middle class family. So far so good in the grey suburbia, an environment which the director Chris Milk has excellently introduced.
As the mother goes out of the living room she passes a small table on which a modest memorial in form of a picture of a US Air Force pilot and the video suddenly takes a dramatic twist. The boy is now shown being up to various harmless mischief in abandoned ruins and other areas. Kicking a water-filled can he also kicks off the chorus. He sneaks through an old fence into one of these abandoned decay areas, throws around rocks and crashes old window panes.
Then we are introduced to a whole new side of him. We see him boxing an old sack ferociously in the abandoned building, and boxing a speed bag at home. Briefly we see the mother slightly upset and crying while slicing up a carrot. It becomes obvious that the family has not yet passed the stage of mourning completely. The boy is seen drinking egg yolk and feistily training his boxing. “I don’t wanna know what I need to forget“. As the chorus ends the boy is seen with an emotionally marked face of anger punching the bag once again. By now we have connected the dots between the absent pilot in the picture, the sad mother, the boy’s fascination for planes and the intense boxing he spends his time on.
As the chorus goes towards the second verse, the camera follows the boy jogging through a backyard passage of slummy character. Then comes a brilliant and beautiful short scene which adds a little colour and sort of a sanctuary (mostly for the viewer) in the cold, grey world the boy lives in. “I like gypsy moths and radio talk, ’cause it doesn’t remind me of anything“. In the midst of the concrete a wild bush with perfectly purple flowers is granting moths and/or butterflies a natural meeting place, as the boy aim punches at them. He’s then seen testing an almost flying kind of a model plane.
Yet another beautiful scene comes as a contrast. “I like colourful clothing in the sun ’cause it doesn’t remind me of anything“. The noy and his sister runs through hang drying sheets. “I like hammering nails and speaking in tongues ’cause it doesn’t remind me of anything“. Continuing playing, the sister wears two huge Hulk hands and friendly knocks her brother down. As the verse builds up for the second chorus, the boy is seen praying on his knees by his bed.
As the second chorus bursts out, the scene switches to a boxing training session where the mother and sister watch their little boxer practise together with his equals. The boy also gets the chance to do the classic running-up-the-steps-scene from Rocky. Once at home again, the boy wears one of them red boxing suits as he gets mentally and physically prepared for the upcoming match.
As they sit in the car during Cornell’s calmer, almost hypnotizing, singing of the break, the raindrops on the window beside the boy take form of two boxers fighting. “Come and sleep and we won’t stir up the past, so discreetly we won’t look back“. Soon the jawbreaking guitar solo part kicks in as the little family rush in to the arena to make it in time to sign the boy up for the next match. Two huge grown up boxers have just finished a match and the watchers stay for the next game which will be between two little boys.
As bizarre as it may sound, these type of children matches actually do take place and the actor playing our protagonist is actually a boxer himself. His name is Vinny Intrieri a.k.a. Kid Vicious and some of the footage is actually real footage from one of his matches. This is where the video reaches its absolute emotional climax. Very authentic-feel pictures of the match are mixed with pictures of planes crashing and exploding, the old picture of Vinny’s deceased father, Vinny kicking stuff in the abandoned area, the crowd standing up cheering excitedly, fiery explosions in a city, Vinny’s mother receiving the devastating call and dropping the phone, Vinny tearing down the Uncle Sam poster, the funeral in which the American flag is folded and the little sister cries out trying to reach for the father a last time… All this as Tom Morello’s furious guitar frustatingly shrieks and the last chorus drains the listener of all the possible sympathy and empathy that a human can come up with. It’s heartbreaking, to say at least.
At last, Vinny wins the game, the yellow ribbon round the old oak tree is cut and in the ending scene Vinny throws his plane, leaving it to soar freely in the air, under the somewhat happy watch of his mother. “If it doesn’t remind me of anything…“
A masterpiece of a song. A music video of such emotional depth, brilliant technique and talented craftsmanship that an equal will probably never see the light of day.