Foo Fighters – The Pretender (2007)
Directed by Sam Brown
This video sends off a strong political message. It shows the Foo Fighters performing the song in an ice hockey rink, evenly lit by strong strip lights on the ceiling. The ice rink is the only location in the whole video, and it is very interestingly laid out. It is a very simple set, featuring the band on one end of it, with a very large solid glossy red screen above and behind them throughout the video. Also, opposite the band on the other side of the set is stood what appears to be a riot police officer standing behind a black line on the floor. Due to the set’s simplicity and general emptiness, we are made to wonder what the massive red screen is doing there, and if it has a purpose. As the video progresses, other similar officers who again stand in line along the black line on the floor facing the band, looking intimidating, join the single police officer. The video seems to build up to a bridge just before their last chorus, where there is a very quiet and light music part, and the officers then start running and charge at the band in slow motion, and just as they get closer, the massive screen behind the band suddenly erupts a red water-like liquid jets shoot past and through the band and appears to overwhelm and throw the officers off guard. This of course coincides exactly as the band plays their last chorus, this time louder and angrier than before. It is clear that the guards were defeated as the song ends, and the front man slams his guitar on the floor and falls to his knees to what I assume is to represent the exhaustion after the battle.
The video is composed of mainly pans, zooms and tracking shots, and close ups of the front man since he is the best-known member of the band (having belonged to Nirvana). The fact that the director isolated them in an empty ice rink makes the political lyrics stand out, as the singer shouts “What if I say I will never surrender” and “What if I say I’m...