Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

I'm one of those types that just enjoys music, whatever the type. In my media library, you'll find everything from Led Zeppelin to Frank Sinatra, from Konkhra to Bob Marley. You might even come across indie bands like Harry and the Potters or Asian Kung-Fu Generation. And you know, bands break up all the time, and musicians die, and life goes on. But, Michael Jackson's death...his bothered me. There are so many bands or musicians out there that are clones, and when one breaks up or retires, it's easy to move on to another. And then there are those that can't be replaced. The Beatles. Led Zeppelin. Elvis. Hank Williams Sr. Jim Morrison. All people who weren't just talented, but who had a presence, and the world felt it. That's how I view Michael Jackson. Anyway, so I've been revisiting his videos, starting with my favorite: History on Film Volume 2.

Michael Jackson's History on Film Volume II is available on DVD at several music shops, places like Amazon (dot com), and it may even be found at mass merchandiser stores. It has a retail price of around $15, but it can be found much cheaper if you do price comparisons. It runs for 1 hour, 46 minutes, and 24 seconds. So, it contains almost 2 hours of his "short films" and even has a few "never before released films" . When you pop the DVD into the player, it will start up and go to the menu. There you can choose between chapter selections, the audio mix, and a feature to turn lyrics off or on. With the lyrics (subtitles), they are set to "On" automatically, so if you don't want words flashing across the bottom of the screen, you'll need to visit that section to turn them OFF before viewing the movie. I think the lyrics are perfect for those who don't know the words to his songs, in case they want to sing along. But, I don't like how they cover his feet in certain parts, and well...I mostly enjoy Michael Jackson as a dancer, and I don't want that obstruction.

This is a 2 sided DVD, meaning that half of the content plays on one side of the disc, and then the DVD needs to be flipped over and played on the other side for the other half. The programs are as follows:

Program Start (or, "Teaser") - This is the part of the movie that gets us in the mood for the videos about to be viewed. It shows MJ marching with scores of soldiers while other men are constructing the giant metal MJ statue. Fans are screaming, fans are fainting, and then the soldiers entertain us with military moves. And finally, the unveiling and the celebrating. It's really a very cool start to this DVD.

Billie Jean - This is the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, and Forever performance of Billie Jean. It has wonderful clarity, outstanding audio, and is one of the main reasons any fan should buy this DVD. Michael Jackson wasn't the first to do the Moonwalk, but he was the first to introduce it to the world, and this is that performance. Just listen to the screams when he does that, and any other "cool" move. I think this performance blows away the music video's version of the same song.

Beat It: This song is from Thriller, the biggest selling album of all time. It's said that Michael Jackson employed real-life gang members to play a few parts in this video. I'm looking at them all and they look so 1980's-cheesy that it's hard to guess which ones they might be. But, this is a kind of anti-violence song, and the audio and video clarity is perfection. Not my favorite on the DVD, because it has the generic MJ dance moves on it (those we've seen before). But, there is a lot of energy in this video, and he's even wearing the red jacket that I've seen people on the streets wearing back in the day.

Liberian Girl- This one is considered "rare" because it was never released and I like it despite the fact that it only shows Michael Jackson at the end. The song "Liberian Girl" is played in the background and the video consists of a great amount of actors and singers famous at that time all in a studio, waiting on MJ to show up so they can do the performance with him of the song. They're sitting around talking to one another, standing around practicing a few lines, and just goofing off until they can get to work. But, at the end, we see MJ...who had been filming their interactions the entire time. It has a score of guests including Carl Weathers, Whoopi Goldberg, Richard Dreyfuss (and his daughter), Olivia Newton John, Paula Abdul, John Travolta, David Copperfield, Debbie Gibson, Steven Spielberg, Quincy Jones, Rosanna Arquette, Steve Guttenberg, Corey Feldman, Jasmine Guy, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Suzanne Sommers, Don King, Mayim Bialik, Lou Diamond Phillips, Danny Glover, Weird Al Yankovic, Beverly Johnson, Sherman Hemsley, Brigitte Nielson, Jackie Collins, Amy Irving, Billy Dee Williams, Rick Schroeder, Blair Underwood, Lou Ferrigno, Virginia Madsen, Olivia Hussey, Dan Aykroyd, and even Bubbles.

Smooth Criminal- This is the full version of the video (although NOT the entire short film as seen on Moonwalker, this is the "video" taken from that), and not the fast-forward train-wreck that mostly got air-time. This is my absolute favorite short on the entire DVD (from Moonwalker)...and probably of all the music videos/short films ever shown (minus feature length stuff like "The Wall", and I love MJ's Ghosts). The dancing is my favorite of any video of his; it has the Moonwalk, the "Lean", and he just doesn't stop. It even shows a kid on the streets who says "I taught him everything he knows", and then he proceeds to do MJ's moves. (It's too adorable!) The music itself is timed perfectly for the moves and actions in the video, whether he's flipping someone over and taking their loot while he sings of "You've been Hit by...you've been hit by...a Smooth Criminal", or jumping on the stage popping and doing the moonwalk when the vocals get really high for the chorus of "Annie are you okay, will you tell us that you're okay...etc". I just love this video, the song is great, the scenes are outstanding, and it plays much like a short movie.

1995 MTV Video Music Awards Performance- This is one I remember and it blew me away. It was a live performance, so there is an audience present. It's not a single song that he performs, but rather a compilation. He starts out with a bit of his Off the Wall hits (I'm talking, seconds of) before singing a line or two of The Way You Make Me Feel, Scream, Beat It, and then Black or White. Then, Slash comes out and plays a few riffs....and just won't leave. (It's funny). But, then he starts to sing a few lines from Billie Jean, shows us he can still Moonwalk like no other, and then does this one move that makes him look like a wind-up toy (I'm guessing it's a variation on the robot but mixed in with popping, he did it in a few concerts). It looked as cool today as it did all those years ago. He then breaks out into Dangerous with several back up dancers (and also does a few moves from "You Rock My World"). The final piece is You Are Not Alone. In all, it was a great performance.

Thriller- I'm sure we've all seen Thriller at least once in our lives. This is the full length short film that has the movie theatre scene and the ending credits. Thriller has never been my favorite song, but the short was one of the coolest videos of the time. MTV was laden with junk 80's music and videos to match. This video was "something different". The song also features the voice of Vincent Price, one of my absolute favorite cult horror/thriller icons.

Side Deuce

Scream - This is one of his most expensive videos, costing 7 million dollars to make. It features him and his sister Janet Jackson singing, is shot in black and white, and looks a bit futuristic (being that is shows them on some type of space aircraft). It's a great video, to me, because of their interaction, watching them dance together, and Janet was gorgeous.

Childhood- this video doesn't really go so well with the others on the DVD. It's a slow song, (ballad-like), and is about not judging him because of his interests and the way he lives his life, and trying to understand him. Basically, that it's a result of the childhood he had, and the one he wishes he could have had. It shows him sitting solitary in a forest while he is singing, and there are floating sailboats in the air with children within. It's a bit like a fairy-tale, a bit "Peter Pan-ish", and really it just comes off as "sad". I mean, I wanted to give him a hug at the end.

You Are not Alone - This video features a barely covered Michael Jackson and a nude Lisa Marie Presley. The song is really pretty and the majority of the video shows Michael on an empty stage with no audience, singing. There are clips of he and Lisa interacting as well, but one thing in this video that is cut from what we see on TV are clips of an "Angel Michael". It shows him naked in water near a waterfall, and wearing fully functional gorgeous wings.

Earth Song- this is a beautiful video/short. Beautiful, to me, because it is so true and should have had an impact on people. It starts off with a beautiful rain forest that then gets cut and burned down with nothing but destruction left. Then, it shows a few elephants lying dead, stripped of only their tusks. It shows the natives who call the rain forest "home" crying and watching their beloved forest getting destroyed. It shows African tribal people remembering what their home once looked like and the rape of land (poachers mostly) they see before them. It shows a war torn country with a family walking down the road, coming across a mangled bike which must have belonged to a relative child because they sit and remember the lush green fields before and the child running up to the bike. All the while Michael is standing in the burnt forest, singing about "What have we done to this earth..." Finally, everyone drops to their knees, praying, hoping, digging into the earth with their hands. We see starving African children, netted dolphins, baby seal clubbing... And suddenly, the tempo of the song picks up with Michael screaming about the dying earth, and then suddenly the time seems to go backwards, the wind picks up, there's an electrical charge, and the Earth starts to go back to the way it was before our greed caused all of that destruction. It's an amazing video, and was done for Michael's Heal the World Foundation. It was shot in four continents: The Amazon Rain forest (a large part of the forest seen in the video no longer exists. It was scheduled to be destroyed within a week of the video shoot. The natives shown in the video are real natives who lived there, and not actors.), Croatia (the film was shot in the war zone of Croatia with residents of the area), Tanzania (the natives in this video are true Masai and not actors. While filming this video, an African elephant (not the one in the video) was killed by poachers within miles of the shoot), and New York (the fire scene was set up in a cornfield, but was at the same week that thousands of acres of forest were burned in the surrounding area due to arson). An amazing video.

They Don't Care About Us- This video is shot in Brazil and shows Michael dancing in the streets with many people of the area. It's a song about oppression, but one thing you might notice is that there was a word that was dubbed from the song (an offensive "k" word. Google it because I won't go there), and so it is not in this video either. (Note: this is NOT the prison scene video....which is a shame because it ties into the song so much better)

Stranger In Moscow- This isn't a bouncy, upbeat Michael Jackson song. It's a song about loneliness. But, it's shown with the surrounding people in slow motion with Michael proceeding normally. Shot in black and white, he walks down the road while singing. It's a really pretty song, and is a bit artsy with the slow motion insects, cup pouring over, glass breaking, and the shots with the raindrops were simply beautiful. Not "the" reason to buy this DVD, but a great addition nonetheless.

Blood on the Dance Floor - (Refugee Camp Remix) I never was a huge fan of either version of Blood on the Dance Floor, but this is the remix and was done by Wyclef. It features Michael in a red suit in club scenes dancing as if he were in a club. There's a bit too much going on in this video, and the version on Number Ones is much better.

Brace Yourself- this is just the ending and shows different concert scenes, different fans screaming, Michael walking to and from concerts and the masses that surrounded him, and just the craziness that he had to go through just to get around. You'll see many different countries in this montage...his fans from all over the world.

 For the Michael Jackson fan, or even the people that say "Yeah, he was okay" but have never seen his videos, then this is a must-have and I would recommend giving it a try. He had a lot of great songs, sure, but...his dancing, that's what always draws me in, every time.



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Other Films You May Enjoy:

Michael Jackson Video Greatest Hits History
Michael Jackson's Dangerous: The Short Films
Michael Jackson Number Ones
Michael Jackson Live in Bucharest (Concert) 
Michael Jackson Live in Japan (Concert)
Michael Jackson Moonwalker (VHS) 
Making Michael Jackson's Thriller (VHS)
Michael Jackson's This Is It

CDs:
Michael Jackson Number Ones
Michael Jackson This Is It

Books:

The Michael Jackson Tapes: A Tragic Icon Reveals His Soul in Intimate Conversation 
Moonwalk by Michael Jackson

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older