The Mid-Life Crisis Of Marilyn Manson
Now look, this post isn't a diss on Marilyn Manson. I *like* Marilyn Manson. So when I heard he had a new video out, I was really interested in watching it.
But really, I felt like vomiting on my keyboard after viewing "Heart Shaped Glasses." Since it's Manson, I suppose maybe that lends the video some "street cred." But.
Basically, the singer's real-life soap opera with his teenage (19) girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood is played out in this 8-minute video. "Heart Shaped Glasses" of course refers to the film "Lolita," about a man falling in love with a teenage girl.
We are first treated to a too-long introductory scene of Manson strangling Wood as they are having sex. Look, I have a healthy appetite for erotica as much as the next blogger, but this was damn near unbearable. Manson's playful androgeny that I found so appealling earlier in his career is now frozen in the standard middle-aged actress plastic-looking mask. But more than that, I can feel the unhappiness and exhaustion coming off him in waves. Most depressing sex scene EVER.
Then switch to Manson & Wood driving recklessly in his car. Wood steers the car with her bare foot from the passenger side. Manson says "I love you" but Wood doesn't hear. I lower the volume on my computer so the inevitable crash doesn't bust my eardrums.
But then, after a faux-concert sequence, we are again in Manson's bedroom. The pair are drenched in blood, and I kind of think Manson's killed her. Great. And I think Manson is still making love to her corpse, but I can't be sure.
What did Evan Rachel Wood think when given the script for this video?
At the end of "Heart Shaped Glasses," the two commit suicide by driving off a cliff.
I think Manson's got issues. Like, more issues than the original runs of "Amazing Spiderman," "The Mighty Thor," and Detective Comics" all put together. He's clearly torn about dating a girl half his age. He's clearly angry about something.
And maybe I'm getting soft, but the imagery of Wood lying in a pool of her own blood while Manson fondles her just didn't do it for me this afternoon. I think Alice Cooper kinda pulled off necrophilia better.
I've actually met the man, and having seen the video, I'd like to make a few comments.
ReplyDeleteOn the video: The strangling in the beginning looked to me to be one-handed - ie., erotic asphyx as opposed to murder. There ARE a lot of people into that (I'm not one of them), and it's generally a consensual BDSM thing. Some might see it as mysoginistic, but others would disagree. Generally, erotic asphyx is more enjoyable for the receiver than the doer, it should be added.
Later when they're covered in blood - she's still moving. Not dead (or playing dead, as he obviously didn't kill her) and as there is no sign of weapon or wound, it could be the blood of a Tibetan Yak for all we know. Again, no violence (overt, at least).
And this is where my having met the man comes in.
MM is a cutter, a self-mutilator. See any photos of him up close or meet him in person and it's clear in seconds - the guy cuts the shit out of himself regularly. He may or may not do it in the context of sex (I imagine he does) and he may or may not cut his partners. So the fact that we see them covered in blood does not suggest to me he's killed her, or that he's implying he did (again, she's moving visibly) so much as it suggests to me what I already figured: the guy likes bloodletting. It's a kink, a fetish.
Now, all that said, it's a craptacular video. SkineMax has better softcore on most nights - I'm sorry, but he wasn't sexy fucking Rose in Jawbreaker, and he's not sexy, here. She isn't all underage tarted up, thankfully, but she's not exactly a big prize, herself. It's two celebs engaging in bad fetish porn.
I don't see anything mysoginistic in it, though I can see how it can be viewed that way. I just wish he'd make music and videos as good as his Antichrist Superstar days again.
My two cents.
Marilyn Manson has never done anything even slightly as cool as eating a life-size licorice Ronald Reagan.
ReplyDeleteOn that note, my supervisor at work is obsessed with Marilyn Manson. Unsettling.