A Sneak Peek...
And this time, a band that bought the rights to an entire movie in order to avoid paying royalties for a video clip they released.
On January 20, 1989, the video clip for the song "One" by "Metallica", was premiered.
This is the first video the band has made during it's career and it was filmed in Long Beach California. The video, which is mostly in black and white, features dialogues and scenes from the 1971 cult film "Johnny Got His Gun," based on a 1939 book of the same name. This is an anti-war film with poignant pacifist messages.
"Metallica" hired two filmmakers who created the video clip, based on the film. The clip created an "earthquake" in the music world at the time and conquered the MTV screen becaming one of the popular clips in those days. The intensities that pass through the song were shakily interwoven with the terrifying sights from the film and just could not be ignored.
This is the first song that nominated Metallica for the Grammy Award, not least thanks to this video clip. It even brought them to perform at the 31st Grammy Awards in 1989, where they eventually lost the prise. Read more about it here:"Metallica Vs. Jethro Tull".
But what's more interesting is that in order to continue showing the clip without having to pay royalties to the creators of the original "Johnny Got His Gun" film, the members of "Metallica" simply acquired all the rights to the film.