Michael Jackson made the video star

James Montgomery of MTV News was just on the network talking Michael Jackson’s legacy and it struck me as particularly applicable for a film site, so I thought I’d pass along his sentiments:

The interesting thing is MTV started at the same time Michael Jackson starting going supernova…If you look at him then becoming huge, “Thriller,” Michael Jackson stopped making videos, started making movies at that point.  These were big budget, big special effects, dance sequences, 10, 12, 13 minute things.  “Bad” is 18 minutes long, Martin Scorsese directs it, Wesley Snipes is in it.  “Black or White,” stuff with the morphing technology he used, he always appreciated the showmanship of like P.T. Barnum and the silver screen era of Hollywood.  That’s what all his videos were.  When Michael Jackson premiered a video, that was an event.  You stayed home to watch that.

“Scream,” as far as I understand, is still, to this day, the most expensive music video ever made.  I think it was budgeted at something like $7 million which today is unheard of and back then was doubly unheard of.  The special effects he laid in, huge event with his sister.  He really got it.  He knew that videos were a way to promote himself and make this brand and make him this international superstar.  We were just lucky to be along for the ride.  It’s pretty amazing.

Unfortunately, the moment is sullied if you go over to MTV’s Movies Blog and see that the folks over there are mixing “Twilight,” of all things, into the Jackson mix, presumably for hit spiking.  Terrible.

Anyway, I believe Montgomery is correct.  According to this list, anyway, the Mark Romanek-directed video for “Scream” is still the most expensive video ever made.  “Bad” (Martin Scorsese, $2.2 million), “Black or White” (John Landis, $1.5 million), “Remember the Time” (John Singleton, $1.2 million) and “Thriller” (John Landis, disputed figures) are also on the list.  Blast from the past:

Roger Ebert, meanwhile, has penned a beautiful dedication like only he can do. In part:

The scene everyone remembers from “The Wiz” is Dorothy and the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion dancing and singing down the Yellow Brick Road. They were off to see the Wizard, and a wonderful Wizard he was, because of the wonderful things he does.

In the story, the Wizard is a lonely little man hiding behind a curtain, using his power to create a wonderland. Now Michael Jackson will never be able to tell us what he was hiding behind his curtain. But because of his music, we danced and sang.

And finally, Drew McWeeny has offered a compelling personal account that I’ve never heard him detail in person. It’s apparently the first time he’s ever written about it. Do yourself a favor and read the entire piece, but his closer is a great way to whet your appetite:

I’m sure we’re going to be hearing more reactions to this over the next few days and weeks, and that this is going to be one of the larger stories in pop culture for the year.

But for me, I’ll always remember the quiet, soft-spoken movie fan who used to ask for recommendations while he browsed the aisles, doing his best to ignore any fans at the window of the store, always interested in any cartoon collections or any golden-era musicals.  No matter what I think of any other aspect of his life, in those long strange nights, he was just another geek, and that’s the image of him I’ll hold onto.