Music Video
The KOC video was shot over five days: three days in Romania; one day in London; and one day in Red Rock, California; it was made available on 11 July 2006. It was filmed and edited as a thematic smörgåsbord: a spaghetti western film with post-apocalyptic influence, complete with beginning and end credits, livened with the occasional kung-fu cowboy or metal-clad maiden astride a unicorn. The presence of futuristic elements such as robots and ray-guns may indicate that the town "Cydonia" is meant to be located on a terraformed Mars. At the end of the video one can see Roman numerals MCMLXXXI which translates as 1981. However, in the introduction of one version of the video, the numerals MCLMXXXI are seen, which despite claims that it could equal 2081 (MMLXXXI) or 1881 (MDCCCLXXXI), is not a valid roman numeral. However, other versions show MCMLXXXI in both places.
The video was directed by Joseph Kahn, and stars British actor Russ Bain as the protagonist (The Man With No Name), Richard Brake as the antagonist (Sheriff Baron Klaus Rottingham), and Cassandra Bell as the love interest (Princess Shane Kuriyami). Throughout the video, the actors mouth out the lyrics, such as Russ Bain pilloried in town square mouthing ‘No one's going to take me alive’, and Cassandra Bell at the gallows ‘You and I must fight for our rights’. In both instances, the mouthed words occur after the song lyrics and complete before the song moves on to the next line. The band appears in some scenes as holograms, and there are also some scenes featuring lead singer Matt Bellamy. Additionally, the population of the town Cydonia is 143, a common symbol for "I love you", although the actual meaning is unknown.
A very brief scene in which Bain has sex with his love interest was edited out of the video for presentation on television. The complete, uncensored version is available for viewing at the Director's website, and at YouTube.com. In the scene where Bain has sex, the camera crew can be intentionally seen in the mirror left of the bed.
In the first minute of the video, the words A Gustof von Musterhausen Production appear in a pink background for a few seconds. Von Musterhausen appears to be a fictional person, although there is a MySpace page for one Gustaf von Musterhausen (not Gustof), which seems to be solely dedicated to providing information about the video.
Read more about this topic: Knights Of Cydonia
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Or it hath drawn me rather.”
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