Music Video
The music video for the song which was directed by Michael Moore with cinematography by Welles Hackett, features the band playing in front of the New York Stock Exchange, intercut with scenes from a satire of the popular television game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire which is named "Who Wants to Be Filthy F#&%ing Rich". Quoted at the end of the song is Republican politician Gary Bauer stating that, "a band called 'The Machine Rages On' - er - 'Rage Against the Machine', that band is anti-family and it's pro-terrorist", following an incident outside of fellow Republican Alan Keyes' 2000 primary campaign town hall event, where Keyes jumped into a mosh pit formed while Rage Against the Machine was playing. Actor Garrett Wang is briefly seen in the video enjoying the music.
The shoot for the music video on January 26, 1999, caused the doors of the New York Stock Exchange to be closed. In fact, the Stock Exchange locked its doors mid-day in response to fears of crowds gathering to watch the filming. This was not recorded as a closure as trading on the exchange floor continued uninterrupted.
"We decided to shoot this video in the belly of the beast", said Moore, who was detained by police for an hour and threatened with arrest during the shooting of the video, as Moore had a permit to film on the steps of City Hall but not in the surrounding street. The band was escorted from the site by security, after band members attempted to gain entry into the Exchange.
The video was nominated at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Rock Video but lost to Limp Bizkit's "Break Stuff", causing the infamous incident where bassist Tim Commerford climbed a large piece of the award show set in protest of losing to Limp Bizkit.
Read more about this topic: Sleep Now In The Fire
Famous quotes containing the words music and/or video:
“La la la, Oh music swims back to me
and I can feel the tune they played
the night they left me
in this private institution on a hill.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“These people figured video was the Lord’s preferred means of communicating, the screen itself a kind of perpetually burning bush. “He’s in the de-tails,” Sublett had said once. “You gotta watch for Him close.””
—William Gibson (b. 1948)