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Best Michael Jackson music video (short film)?

Best one?

  • Thriller

    Votes: 48 51.6%

  • Beat It

    Votes: 1 1.1%

  • Billie Jean

    Votes: 2 2.2%

  • Bad

    Votes: 1 1.1%

  • Smooth Criminal

    Votes: 26 28.0%

  • The Way You Make Me Feel

    Votes: 1 1.1%

  • Remember the Time

    Votes: 3 3.2%

  • Black or White

    Votes: 6 6.5%

  • Ghosts

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • They Don't Care About Us

    Votes: 1 1.1%

  • You Rock My World

    Votes: 2 2.2%

  • Other

    Votes: 2 2.2%

  • Dirty Diana

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Give In To Me

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    93
VulcanRaven

VulcanRaven

Gold Member
He always called them short films. Which one is the best?

I would say Smooth Criminal. MJ's amazing tribute to Fred Astaire's The Band Wagon movie:


Edit: Had to add Dirty Diana and Give In To Me in the poll
 
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It's Thriller of course but my most distinct memory is black or white since I remember all the hype for it and coming home and waiting for it to air.
 
Madflavor said:
It'll always be between Thriller and Smooth Criminal.
Click to expand...

Add Billie Jean to this and I agree. Billie Jean might actually be my favorite MJ music video, with Smooth Criminal and Thriller fighting for second place.

Smooth Criminal was filmed for Michael Jackson's movie project:: Moonwalker, along with Speed Demon and Leave me Alone. So, there are multiple edits of the Smooth Criminal music video, including a shortened version that uses the radio edit cut of the track, and the version that was much closer to the theatrical version.

Thriller was always shot as a singular music video. Fit's right in with the 1980's zombie movie fad. I can't decide if I like it more than Smooth Criminal.

Other runners up is Scream. Which is a pretty slick video. The worst Michael Jackson music video that I watched was 'Ghosts" and I am talking about the full length version of Ghosts complete with story narrative. I think it was close to 40 minutes long? I remember watching it on Much Music back when it originally debuted. It was a bad haunted house style movie. Michael has a CG skeleton that dances. The 'plot' was stupid. The shortened version is OK though.
 
AJUMP23 said:
I voted BAD because of how much he copied from wired Al.
Click to expand...
732
 
I'd argue that this video is more essential to the song's feeling than all of the others:



Also featuring Chris Tucker during his peak Rush Hour days is a huge bonus

Edit: Shorter version:

 
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MrCunningham said:
Other runners up is Scream. Which is a pretty slick video. The worst Michael Jackson music video that I watched was 'Ghosts" and I am talking about the full length version of Ghosts complete with story narrative. I think it was close to 40 minutes long? I remember watching it on Much Music back when it originally debuted. It was a bad haunted house style movie. Michael has a CG skeleton that dances. The 'plot' was stupid. The shortened version is OK though.
Click to expand...
Ghosts was actually the first MJ music video I saw. The short version. I like the video but I have to admit that I have seen the full version only once.

Behind the scenes documentary is great:
 
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What kinf of question is that? Thrille is pretty much legendary status. They'll talk about that even 500 years in the future.
 
Thriller and it's not even close.

About 10 years here in Melbourne (Australia) John Landis was out here for a retrospective on his career. I went to The Astor theater to see The Blues Brothers with an introduction by the great man himself and later in the week he was doing some signings and some meet and greets at Fed Square.

Anyway, a friend of mine who was also there with me happened to get 2 tickets for a screening of Thriller from John Landis' own private collection! His girlfriend didn't want to go with him so I went along and boy oh boy, let me tell you I have yet to see Thriller ever look as glorious as it has! Plus Landis told a few juicy stories from behind the scenes which was fantastic!

So in short, Thriller by a fucking mile!
 
Though not my favorite song of his, I think Black or White has the best music video.
Mind you, it's a tough choice, because he had a lot of amazing music videos.

 
bitbydeath said:
Same as OP, Smooth Criminal. But, I recall enjoying this back in the day.

Click to expand...


I like that you can see The Noid make a cameo in the video. The claymation was done by Will Vinton Studios. The studio did California Rasin's, the original 'Noid' Dominoes commercials, and the CG M&M commercials. The entire video is pretty insane.
 
I mean, one of these music videos had a insanely anticipated Prime Time airing on regular TV at a time when that really meant something....was there any doubt what the result would be?
 
Risible said:
I mean, one of these music videos had a insanely anticipated Prime Time airing on regular TV at a time when that really meant something....was there any doubt what the result would be?
Click to expand...
Maybe the question should have been the best video that is not Thriller.
 
winjer said:
Though not my favorite song of his, I think Black or White has the best music video.
Mind you, it's a tough choice, because he had a lot of amazing music videos.

Click to expand...

I watched it live on TV, it premiered like a Superbowl halftime show. My mind was blown. My vote was for Thriller of course, Remember the Time is second for me, followed by BoW. Billy Jean was a bit before my time, but I'm sure that had a major pop. Shout out MJ, what a legend.
 
Stupid Thriller voting idiots!
Sure, Thriller is 10/10, BUT!
Smooth Criminal is 11/10.
Also, Dirty Diana and They don't care about us not having any votes is sad. :(
 
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You Rock My World because the song was good, it was peak alien living in a world with humans, Chris Tucker, Michael Madsen, Brando. The whole thing is Michael nodding to when he was huge and human alongside Brando, nodding to classic gangster films versus modern crime stories like Rush Hour 2.
 
Smooth Criminal for me. Every action is so coordinated. And the backup dancers are so amazing in it. Wonder if that's their claim to fame at parties. "I was the guy dancing next to Micheal in the music video"
I guess music videos are kind of dead now. But I remember for a while, they all ended up just being the band playing on a concert surrounded by extras instead of an actual video reel/story. Because I guess that would require effort and storywriting.
 
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TwiztidElf said:
Stupid Thriller voting idiots!
Sure, Thriller is 10/10, BUT!
Smooth Criminal is 11/10.
Also, Dirty Diana and They don't care about us not having any votes is sad. :(
Click to expand...
They dont care about us might actually be my favorite MJ song. Im pretty damn partial to blood on the dance floor too.
 
VulcanRaven said:
Ghosts was actually the first MJ music video I saw. The short version. I like the video but I have to admit that I have seen the full version only once.

Behind the scenes documentary is great:
Click to expand...


Ghosts has high quality production values, it well shot and technically well made. It had a high level of polish to it. But the 40 long mini movie really came off is overly pandering. It has a strange 'afternoon special' vibe to it, but from the view of Michael Jackson via 1998. I was 17 when I saw it on TV when it debuted. I hated it. I haven't seen it since then. The song Ghosts is actually pretty great and the shortened music video works much better overall. The 40 minute long version was just hard to sit through back then.

 
Thriller changed music videos forever but Smooth Criminal is my favorite. The whole gangster vibe fits and he was on top of his game.
 
Just wanna give a shout out to Janet Jackson because Rhythm Nation is another song that's just made better with the music video

 
winjer said:
Though not my favorite song of his, I think Black or White has the best music video.
Mind you, it's a tough choice, because he had a lot of amazing music videos.

Click to expand...


I said it on the movie's topic. This thing had a MASSIVE media hype back when it was release in 1991.
It's my favorite one too.
 
Speed Demon and Leave Me Alone were some of his most creative videos. There are many others, like Moonwalker felt like one huge video. Very well done movie and Joe Pesci is a big time asshole in that movie and his hair annoys the F out of me. Looking like a chihuahua shitting beads down the back of his head.
 
Smooth Criminal, by far.

If we had a DF video on music videos, you'd see the amount of details in this video, which is incredible. Like the whole atmosphere is moving around MJ and his moves.

+ of course the lean

And it's the only video when he actually does the moonwalk
 
I wish the official Man in the Mirror video was like this:


That is the opening of Moonwalker.
 
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