Death Valley '69 serves as the music video for the metal band Sonic Youth's popular song, and there's probably no better force of nature to bring the song to visual life than underground, New York-based director and photographer Richard Kern. Kern specializes in the depraved and the sick-minded, and Death Valley '69, with its home-video aesthetic, unsteady camera-work, and scuzzy presentation, exude all of that quite fittingly. The music video, despite only being five minutes long, hits hard and remains relentless in its grittiness. It gets by almost entirely on the humid, sun-soaked atmosphere it presents, showing a group of young people vacationing in a grassy field, soaking up rays and engaging in bloody brutality. The video is gory and ruthless, but also quite artistic, mind you, with Kern's style seeping through like the mass amounts of fake blood he uses on set. Kern's strength is portraying the sick and the unkempt in a way that's artistic and beautiful, thanks to shots wildly experimental ideas, quirky camera angles, or a combination of all those plus downright unique and twisted ideas. Death Valley '69 is a beautiful introduction to his principles that only exceed as one continues to peruse his filmography.
Directed by: Richard Kern.
Directed by: Richard Kern.