The Roots Release Insane New Video for “The Fire”

Posted by Nathan S. on 07/27/10 | Filed under Top Stories, Videos, The Roots, John Legend

For the past couple weeks there's been rumor that The Roots would be dropping a new, Ric Cordero-directed video for their single with John Legend, "The Fire", and now that I've actually watched it I have no idea what's going on. This one blew my mind a bit, even more so than that crazy, gingericide flick from M.I.A.

I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll leave my commentary below the video. I highly recommend you watch in full screen mode:

Download "The Fire" via MediaFire

It's going to take me several more views before I can provide some intelligent commentary, but here's the plot, as close as I can figure out. (Spoiler Alert) The Army, presumably the U.S. Army, lead by this dude who looks like a younger version of Sgt. Zim from Starship Troopers, has rounded up several young men and forces them to march through the wilderness; why we don't know. It's not until the very end that we learn it was a survival game of some sort, with the winner being the last one standing. As a reward, the winner gets an empty box.

Can we all agree that's an accurate plot synopsis?

Now what does it mean? I have no idea. My best guess is that it's a metaphor for the way the military forces young men to fight, young men who don't truly have any idea what they're fighting and dying for, and then attempts to somehow ameliorate the horror they've witnessed through ultimately empty concepts like valor. That might be way too direct, I'll have to mull it over.

I know a lot of RefinedHype nation is smarter than me (for your sake I hope you are). Anyone got a better breakdown?

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tdotraza

The box technically isn't empty. In fact, it's not even hollow.

Now, what's inside the box I'm not too sure about. It's either one of two things: a leaf, or an image of a fire.

Considering a leaf is just purely random, we're left to belief it must be fire, which is useless to the survivors, since they withstood all of the cruelty and ridiculous events. They already proved they have "The Fire". They did not break under the pressure, lose their sanity and become violent against their only support in that wilderness, and they just kept fighting.

That's what I saw.

Posted on Jul 27, 2010

undadog4eva	oh man! no clue! so lost! what was the girl doing randomly popping up? & why did the two dudes get shot coz of her?!
	Posted on Jul 27, 2010

tdotraza

The way he was running after her made it seem like they knew each other.

Since they strayed from the path that they were being forced to follow, they "lost". Which pulls it back to the theme of the song itself, to keep pulling that wagon down the path you've set, and to see that to its end. Shown in the video as staying with the soldiers and marching seemingly endlessly. Dramatically shown, but I'd wager they were aiming for a powerful effect like that.

I do have a complaint about the video, though. They should have toned down the song when there were people speaking.

Posted on Jul 27, 2010

tdotraza	Oh, and along with the image in the box, they were set free from being used for "labor and food" as stated in the description of the video (double click it and view it on Youtube). So yeah, there -is- a prize; freedom.
	Posted on Jul 27, 2010

Nathan S.	Dope discussion, and I have to admit that tdotraza's making a lot of sense. As for the girl, I thought the girl was a hallucination one of the dude's who was about to get shot was having. Like the last thing he saw before he died was his girl from back home. Anyone else think the same thing?
	Posted on Jul 27, 2010

kylewilliam

Nathan, I agree that the "people" (the girl, and the man with the brimmed hat) were hallucinations. We'll call them "The Fire," the inspirations of the captured people. Your interpretation of the video as a metaphor for the military is nice and could very well be accurate. That's what art is designed for, your own interpretation.

While I agree, I also think that these could have been ordinary people driven by the "fires" of their everyday lives. Some lost focus and lost their way, while the last man standing escaped the hands of his authorities and found what tdotraza explained, freedom.

No doubt Cordero pushed the everyday music video's boundaries. If you haven't seen Three/21's video for Jared Evan's "Frozen," watch it. I think a similar discussion could be made.

Posted on Jul 27, 2010

Bgirl Sly	When in doubt.... check out the comments on Youtube; "the box is empty and it means that "the key to survival" or success isn't something that can be given to you. It's your drive, will, and determination thats already inside you aka the fire."
	Posted on Jul 27, 2010