"Saints" full video

[schnumi]

It seems it's a very touchy subject still for many americans.

Good thing U2 and green day provoke, U2 needs to do that more like in the Zoo and POPmart days.

 

[corianderstem]

I am also in agreement that the Katrina disaster response was a failure on pretty much every level of government.

So no, the video isn't Bush-bashing. It's every-level-of-government bashing.

 

[caragriff]

they oversimplified the message in the video, but to me it is a simple statement they are making: governments can choose to use resources to kill people or to help people.

in the aftermath of hurricane katrina, the u.s. government did not effectively use its resources to help those in need. at the same time, the government had no problem making sure that u.s. resources were being used in full force to kill people in iraq. the video makes that point effectively.

 

[Regina O'Numb]

Zoitician, from U2.com made a good work, capturing some great gifs from he full video. This is posted at General, as:

Santly 'Gifs' & 'Banners' (Updated)
http://www.u2.com/bbs/showflat.php?...920322&Words=&topic=1&Search=true#Post2920322

My signature was made by Zootician.

 

[angelordevil]

Well, countless Americans died in Katrina from government incompetence. If we could have saved them as efficiently as we wage war, lives would have been saved. That's the point the video makes.

What's interesting about this video is it tells the truth... i remember watching all this horror on tv (fox, cnn, all the networks) and my father and I commented to each other about how much better the response would have been had national guard troops (who usually help out in local crises) not been in iraq. how cool would it have been if our military did the things in the video.

The video is addressing the "what if" factor: What if a fraction of the precision, power and might used in a war was used to help your very own people in their time of great need.

It's a sobering thought.

 

[U2Man]

do we have any numbers?

how many national guard troups were in iraq?

and how many were left at home?

 

[BVS]

they oversimplified the message in the video, but to me it is a simple statement they are making:

Using art as a political message is tough, especially in a short 4 min or whatever timespan. Sometimes it calls for oversimplified statements to get people to notice and think for themselves. The role of any political piece of art is not to solve the problem just bring attention.

If anyone thinks Green Day or U2 thought they were telling the whole story or solving anything is left in the dark.

 

[shaun vox]

WOW THAT SUCKED!!

ps fuck politics!!

 

[Chizip]

do we have any numbers?

how many national guard troups were in iraq?

and how many were left at home?

exactly. we had plenty of national guard at home to help the recovery process, they just weren't organized and prepared to go in there immediately, which was bad management. also, which is a BIG also, the governor of Louisiana REFUSED the federal aid at first.

"Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans," the Washington Post reported in Sunday editions.

Gov. Blanco's office rejected the request, the paper said - concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law.

once again, this was not a resource problem, this was a terrible management problem. sure you can say if there was no war in Iraq there would have been more resources available to help New Orleans, but you can say that to EVERY single problem in the United States. It's a loose connection, and I firmly believe the fallout would have been exactly the same whether there was a war or not.

and for U2 and Green Day to throw that in the video seems a little silly and draws attention to Iraq and away from New Orleans, which is sad.

Hey if you want to make a video to bash the war, fine go ahead, I'm sure it deserves it. But to do it in a charity video that's supposed to be about helping New Orleans, that's a little weak.

 

[U2girl]

Nah, I love U2 or I wouldn't be on a message board full of U2 fans. It just amazes me again and again that when fans express an opinion that doesn't gush all over Bono and co, they are asked why on earth they're on a U2 message board

If everyone had a positive opinion about everything the band members do, then why would there even be a need for a message board?

Yet on the other hand, the freak out mode by the thought police is in full force once people get tired of 24/7 anti-current U2 propaganda.

Because 99% people didn't come here to read the umpteenth installment of the neverending saga that is "U2 post 2000 sucks", "Bono is fat/bald/small", "Larry should shut up" "Edge's guitar playing is boring now" yada yada yada. Nor did 99% people come to post bashfest ad nauseum. There are more appropriate places to to that than a U2 fan forum.

Only 2 people (hint: "it's clear my friends" and "Bano can't sing") were seriously confronted on their posts by members of this forum. Jick too, I guess, but that was a long time ago.

Oh please. No one is expecting happy sunshine all the time in posts, but there is a way to say things. And what would be left of a messsage board if, on the other hand, everyone went full throttle and ranted about any/everything that they dislike about U2?

 

[ntalwar]

Wow - the video seems to have more support on youtube than it does around here. It has 4.5/5 stars with over 5000 ratings.

Iraq is obviously a theme, but so is the propganda that was spun by the media and the Bush administration. Hence the "Not As Seen on TV", BBN, and disappearing vehicles. All were an illusion as far as a lot of the residents are concenrned. Basically, a negative was spun into a positive through media/PR smoke and mirrors. Heck, it even has some people here convinced that the Katrinia response and reconstruction has been a success or "not a big deal".

 

[KUEFC09U2]

this place has now officially "lost the plot",

ever since i joined these boards, i have seen everything U2 have done post 2000 being torn to shreads by the same people time after time, and when people try to defend it we get the "if the board was full of happy shiny people it would be boring" argument, well, at the minute this forum is the opposite and is in fact boring because it's litreally full of the "oh U2 are crap now, they need to do what i want them to do bla bla"

its becoming very tedious coming to these, boards, specially when you know certain people litreally do not like you.

 

[U2Man]

 

[norsehorse23]

Yeah, I agree with chizip, in terms of numbers I am sure that the amount of national guard troops from louisiana and mississippi that were in iraq still allowed for a sound response on their part. but i am also thinking that the more specialized units that handle air rescue and whatnot were not as readily available. and yes, that mayor of new orleans seems like a bit of an idiot for not doing more on his part (like using those schoolbuses to evactuate more people), as does the governor for not calling for help sooner, but the fact remains that (and i think this is the point of the video) if we could use a fraction of our military might and resources for the helping of our own people in need, then maybe there wouldn't have been so much of an uproar over the response. for many americans, not necessarily myself, they feel that had we have focused too much on iraq and that has hindered our ability to help our own people. they also use it to fuel their fires of anti-Bush feelings. everyone agrees that the situation was not handled correctly, and it is a black mark on our government's reputation.

 

[ramblin rose]

Although there were many screwups in the aftermath (and pre-hurricane planning) of Katrina, I don't think that the national guard troops stationed in Iraq and Afganistan did not contribute to the problem.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-08-31-guard-katrina_x.htm

On a side note, a lot of you really entertain me.

 

[ELEVATEUTOO]

I love this song. Thanks for the vid!

 

[Jeffo17]

Has Anyone actually seen this video on TV?

 

[Bonochick]

This is my first time hearing the song. I like it!

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

the video does over-simplifty the solutions to the problems that happened with katrina. that's obvious... but i like it anyway. ironic and sarcastic, which are my favorite ic's.


as for the fuck ups... the first fuck up was obviously with that complete fucking moronic douchebag scum sucking piece of shit of a mayor, ray nagin. he fucked up first (yet was re-elected post-katrina... yayyyy for idocy). next on the fuck up list came the governor of louisiana, whatever the heck her name is. these two morons fucked up first, on the local level, and that fuck up seems to be ignored by the media and those who criticize the response to new orleans, which is a shame. their fuck ups in the days leading up to the hurricaine cost lifes, yet those two seem to get a pass. whatever...

but then, in the aftermath of the hurricaine... when it's become perfectly clear to anyone with a fucking television set that the situation is out of control and only getting worse, and that the people on the ground in the local government are incompetint buffoons who are in way over their heads, it's the job of the federal government to step in and get things under control. this, they did not do. they had the chance to save hundreds of lives with a quicker and more effecient response, and they failed on an epic scale.

what is shown in this video should have happened. there should have been a massive federal response immediately after it became perfectly clear that the local government could not handle the situation... which was perfectly clear on day 1, let alone day 4. if the troops weren't in iraq could it have been quicker? yes, probably. was there enough still in america for a better, quicker response if the management was better? yea, probably that, too.

 

[corianderstem]

Has Anyone actually seen this video on TV?

Yes, I saw it on VH1 this past weekend as a "premiere" right before their weekly countdown.

The video is indeed an oversimplification, as caragriff said, but as someone else pointed out, it would have been hard to be more subtle, considering the very short length of the song.

 

[AngelofHarlem01]

Just saw the video on VH1's video countdown and thought it was really cool! I actually really miss the horns from when they played the Super Dome though, it added a lot of momentum to the song I thought. But I'm impressed with the video, pretty visually powerful.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I saw it on either VH1 or MTV, I think Friday morning. I assume that's how it got on YouTube if that's when it was posted there.

I don't think it's a matter of nitpicking over how many National Guard troops were here or elsewhere, it's just a question of overall priorities of a government and what happens when resources are skewed because of those priorities. Not to mention the fact that the majority of those who were left there needing help were poor minorities.

This video might make people think about these issues, and that's a good thing. Katrina can't just be put up on a shelf in a history book, we (especially the govt) have to learn lessons from it or we are condemned to repeat it. What would have happened if we had a major hurricane this year? I wonder.

 

[scottyT]

Headache, good post.

I still stick to my guns that if the video is to raise money for a cause, then it should maybe focus a little on the cause, or maybe on the thousands of people who have gone to the gulf to try to help out on their own or as groups of volunteers. These are the true Saints. Forget the idiots on all levels of government (especially that re-elected disgrace in the mayor's office), and focus on the Americans and non-Americans who did go to N.O. or made aid packs, or donated time and money.

I rarely if ever am upset by anything U2 has done, but this really pissed me off. I still love the boys, and I love the Bomb, and I love all the albums and their causes, but I guess you can't agree with everything. That would be pretty boring. I think this forum has been good on this issue, because it seems people have kept their cool, more than they usually do, about an issue that's a lot more important than whether or not Pop was a Flop, or if Lovetown was better than ZooTV or if Miracle Drug is or isn't the greatest song ever.


I saw the video on MTV on Friday night, and I've seen it on You Tube a billion times. I actually do love the studio/performance bits, especially with both drummers pounding away, and how crisp and strong Bono's voice sounds.

 

[ramblin rose]

Headache, good post.

I still stick to my guns that if the video is to raise money for a cause, then it should maybe focus a little on the cause, or maybe on the thousands of people who have gone to the gulf to try to help out on their own or as groups of volunteers. These are the true Saints. Forget the idiots on all levels of government (especially that re-elected disgrace in the mayor's office), and focus on the Americans and non-Americans who did go to N.O. or made aid packs, or donated time and money.

This video was to raise money? I didn't know that. I thought only the song was being sold on Rhapsody. I'll have to go out and buy the video, I like it.

 

[scottyT]

ramblin, I meant the song, not the video, but they do kinda go hand in hand, right? Wasn't the the whole point of this song in the first place?

And it's not a horrible video, i just think that parts of it really are craptacular.

But Larry does kick ass, and hey, it's still U2.

 

[zoopop]

I thought the video was on point and I give U2 /GreenDay credit for sticking up for New Orleans. The whole Katrina rescue effort was a complete FAILURE. From the Mayor of New Orleans to the US Government. And alot of people don't realize (doing a video/song helps) that New Orleans hasn't even come close to recovering from Katrina. Cool video for a great cause.

Larry rocks too

 

[angelordevil]

what is shown in this video should have happened. there should have been a massive federal response immediately after it became perfectly clear that the local government could not handle the situation... which was perfectly clear on day 1, let alone day 4.

YES!!!!

You can be for the war in Iraq, against it, or indifferent. It doesn't matter.

If you check the records, I'm willing to bet the US government issued more new releases on Iraq than on Katrina during those critical first days. Whether you approve of US actions overseas, or not, that kind of attitude and neglect is indefensible. It's murder by complancency.

 

[dietcokeofevil]

I DUG IT. It actually made me a bit nostalgic for politically pissed Bono as opposed to "I like to hug Oprah" Bono

And as for the oversimplification. One hour CNN broadcasts could not wrap itself around the subject. A 3 minute punk music video's oversimplification is forgivable.

 

[ramblin rose]

U2.com posted a little story about the video.

'Not As Seen on TV'

In the week since it was first broadcast on You Tube, 1.2 million people have so far watched the video for U2/Green Day's version of 'The Saints Are Coming' making it one of the most watched videos on You Tube.

Chris Milk shot the video at Abbey Road studios in London and at the reopening of the New Orleans Super dome in September.

The live and in-studio scenes are spliced with images of American military aircraft bringing supplies to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Milk used actual news footage from Hurricane Katrina combined with CGI fighter jets, helicopters and tanks. The video is overlayed with fake cable news headlines 'US Iraq Troops Redeployed to New Orleans'

Edge spoke to U2.com today about the response, 'We thought we might get people's attention but we never thought it would be this big'.

If you haven't seen the video­ watch it here

The track was released for download earlier this week and is currently No.1 on iTunes in the UK, the commercial single is in stores on Monday, with proceeds going to Music Rising.

 

[U2FanPeter]

Caught the video on MuchMoreMusic in Canada.

On thing I noticed is that I don't think any performance footage was used from the actual NFL pre-game mini-concert(save a couple crowd inserts). All the Super-8 footage was from the rehearsals in an empty stadium. This means greater camera control and repeated takes. Bono is also seen wearing more than 1 of his Vertigo tour jackets which are not featured on the televised NFL performance.

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