This video has been making the rounds ever since famous film critic Roger Ebert hailed it as "the greatest music video ever made." His point is a valid one - the video features what appears to be the entire town of Grand Rapids, MI in a 10-minute, one-take lip dub of Don McLean's "American Pie". The video is in response to Newsweek calling Grand Rapids a "dying city," but it's pretty apparent from this video that the city is filled with people who love and take care of one another. Appropriate, then, that this is the song that's chosen because the song is about death and dying, and the video is easily a call to life and living.
As for the video itself, this is no simple feat. The steadiness of the man behind the handheld camera throughout the entire one-take is impeccable, and it rides and moves with fluidity riding backwards down a street, turning to see a wedding and a concert and eventually landing on a scooter and into a helicopter. It feels like the build-up to something grand (hence Grand Rapids?) and then goes even further by the video's end. It's a fine moment in music for sure, but an even finer one in choreography and direction.
-DJ
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