I loved Michael Jackson when I was a kid. Coming back to this music video for the first time in at least 30 years was a strange experience. I remember so much of it, but didn’t remember remembering until the point of remembrance. That’s Inception levels of complication. It’s a weird thing to have an external stimulus dislodge a brick in your mind and discover something has been lurking there the whole time.
“Beat It” is not my favorite Michael Jackson song.1 It’s not my favorite Michael Jackson music video.2 But “Beat It” is an unintentionally hilarious music video, and thus, is perfectly fit to purpose.
I didn’t do any research before writing this. I didn’t study in high school, why start now. A quick scan of Wikipedia unearthed this delightful nugget: The video was shot on Skid Row and cast Cribs and Bloods gang members. That in itself raises other questions—did they put the actual gang members on opposite fictional gangs?—but mostly it creates a fun game where you spend the entire video trying to figure out who was an actual gang member, and who’s a dancer cosplaying as one.
Here’s a link, in case you want to watch the video first.
0:00: We open in rundown diner hazy with cigarette smoke.
Even more than the style of clothing or the fact that Michael Jackson of all people is singing about gang violence and nobody laughed, it’s the smoking indoors that most clearly defines this as occurring in the early 80s.3
For some reason this scene always reminds me of the diner scene in Superman II, which comes after Clark gives up his powers because he wants to shag Lois Lane but is afraid the D will kill her.4 The diners look nothing alike. I saw these two scenes around the same time, and therefore they stuck in my still-developing brain as somehow linked.
0:10: Even though they’re sitting at opposite ends of the counter, the two Black guys apparently know each other. They peel out together. Why were they sitting apart? Are they more like coworkers than friends? Was the older guy trying to initiate some MMF action with the Asian couple?
0:12: The older guy is wearing an Indiana Jones fedora, red and black stripped pants, a teal shirt, and a yellow and black coat. It’s nice to see colorblind people getting representation.
The younger guy is using an actual chain as a belt. He’s also wearing a thick metal choker. A picture is coming into focus: these two are lovers who are into BDSM. Suddenly, them sitting apart makes sense—the distance is a different sort of denial.
