14 DAY TRIAL // Jared Leto recently said he was striving to be an artist: the recently released video for 30 Seconds to Mars’ “Hurricane” single is clear proof that he’s on the right path. The 13-minute official video is so confusing and, at times, explicit that most networks have refused to play it at all.
MTV has started playing the video as of November 29 – but only after frontman Jared Leto agreed, in his capacity as director (under the moniker Bartholomew Cubbins) agreed to censor the most offensive bits.
Still, that wasn’t enough for most television networks, with the majority saying there’s absolutely no way they can air the clip even after 10 at night, AceShowbiz informs in a recent piece.
The 13-minute clip is divided into three chapters, “Birth,” “Life” and “Death,” and is envisioned as a dream-nightmare-fantasy which sees the three bandmembers facing and ultimately defeating their own demons.
Since this is fantasy we’re talking of (in fact, right at the beginning of the video, the viewer is warned that “This is not reality”), there are, understandably, scenes that can cause a more sensitive viewer offense.
The explicit images include a violent fist fight at the end, violence towards women and fetishistic imagery, the networks have said when asked to play the video: but none of them was included merely for the sake of shocking audiences, Leto explains.
“We always knew there would be some images that would have a tough time getting through. But we didn’t expect this kind of pushback that we’re getting now,” Leto says.
He (as Cubbins) wrote and directed the epic video, drawing for inspiration directly on his own and his bandmates’ experience. Thus, he clearly knew the kind of backlash he was about to get.
Still, not even after he censored the video, could he get it to play on TV, he says. “I had always planned on having an explicit version and then a version that was not so explicit,” he says.
“The version that we were trying to get on broadcast is not the explicit version, and that’s still having a really difficult time,” the rocker adds.
As of now, MTV seems to be the only network airing the edited version of the confusing video and, by the looks of things, the situation won’t change for the better any time soon.
Here is where you can see the official video for 30 Seconds to Mars’ “Hurricane” single, the edited version. *Be advised that discretion is highly recommended when watching it.