Laibach - Divided States Of America (2006) DVD9DVD9 | 160 Min | NTSC 720x480 | 29.97 fps | MPEG-2@9800 kbps | AC3@1536 kbps | 7.74 GB
Genre: Electronic, Avant-Garde, Music Video | Label: Mute At
one point near the middle of Laibach�s documentary concert film Divided
States of America, one of the many interviewed concert-goers finally
gets it right. You see, he has discerned that the overriding message in
Laibach�s music and performance can be summed up in a one-word
imperative: �Think�.
Laibach is not here to tell us what�s wrong with
the world, what�s right with the world, or what we should think of any
of it; rather, they provide us with information and allow us to come up
with our own conclusions. Call it cryptic, call it guarded if you must,
but Laibach traffics in informationdustrial; juxtaposing the rights and
wrongs of the world with their own vaguely totalitarian, satirically
neo-fascist spin, and then leaves it all to us to sort out.
It�s an
interesting goal, given that most artists would rather base their songs
around their own beliefs and absolutes, a goal that makes Laibach far
more interesting than most of the dark electronic artists they get
lumped in with. It�s also a goal that Divided States of America
accomplishes with varying degrees of success.
Divided States of
America is a concert film. If this film is about anything in a literal
sense, it is about Laibach and life on the road in the US. It�s about
fans and a tour bus and interviews with shady-looking sorts from college
radio shows and cups of soup in diners with American flags on the
walls, tablecloths, and hanging from the ceiling.
And, in a sort of
secondary way, it�s about music, as we see from the various clips of
live performances that we wish we were at. Laibach�s music is featured
in the background, too, especially when there�s one of those keen �life
on the road� montages, like you see on TV shows about fictional bands.
It�s also there when the cameraman tapes a flying plastic bag for two
minutes, American Beauty style, for no particular discernable reason
other than to try to get we, the viewers, to try and figure out why such
a blatant and obvious cinematic reference was appropriate just then.
Look
past the band-on-the-road focus, however, and Divided States of America
is a portrait of everything that�s right and wrong with America, as
told by anyone who agreed to be taped by Laibach�s cameras. Obviously,
most of those doing the telling are Laibach fans, most of them far more
hardcore than this writer could ever hope to be, but cab drivers and
political activists get in on the mix as well, whether they know who
Laibach is or not.
The views presented are unfailingly liberal, but
in viewing the mix of opinions presented, one doesn�t get the impression
that the Democratic viewpoint (or, at least, America�s translation of
what a Democratic viewpoint is) is the answer, either; the most striking
aspect of the interviews isn�t necessarily that everybody�s pissed off
that Bush won, it�s that every single person who has an opinion about
whether he should have won or not is absolutely, unequivocally sure that
they are right, and the �other� side is wrong. There is no room for
compromise, there is no room for discussion, it�s simply taken as a
matter of fact that the �other� side is the wrong side, because they do
not subscribe to the views of the speaker.
Of course, such a divide
invariably gives rise to a third side: the �America Sucks!� side. The
Laibach fans who don�t explicitly say that Kerry should have won tend to
gravitate toward this viewpoint, as exemplified by a rather well-spoken
representative of the Church of Satan who has decided that �America
Possesses no soul, so technically, killing this country would not be a
crime.�
It is in its exploration of this particular side that Laibach
stumbles a bit�the band�s trademarked bone-dry humor can sometimes get
the best of them, as it�s often difficult to discern where they�re being
serious, where they�re being funny, and where they�re just trying to
prod us to provoke a reaction (as I believe they are in the quote that
opens this review). They never break their facade of dead seriousness,
but then they present us with things like a screen of white-on-black
text that says �If you don�t like our music�turn around for 360 degrees
and go.� It�s this unexpected humor that tells us to beware of what we
take too seriously; subscribe too close to someone else�s views, and
you�re bound to be swallowed by those views.
Still, the anti-American
stench is palpable, often through cheap-shot, quick-hit images like a
flyer that features one of the iconic images of Abu Ghraib with the
words �MORAL VALUES� in block letters underneath, or a quick view of a
ticker that displays the cost of the Iraq war thus far. If Laibach truly
wishes for us to think for ourselves, they should be more careful about
the implications of such images.
Almost as an afterthought, a full
concert is provided on the DVD as well, though oddly, it is not one of
the shows in the American tour that is chronicled by the film. Rather,
it�s a show from later that year, filmed in Paris at La Locomotive.
Perhaps
Paris was a natural choice given the common impression that Frances
holds general disdain for American policies and values, though Laibach
wisely chose to avoid this topic altogether, perhaps to keep from
stereotyping an entire country�s views. What we get is Laibach being
Laibach, pure and simple, with no fancy editing, no quick camera cuts,
and no distracting lighting.
They do their songs, those songs sound
more or less the same as they do on the albums (though Milan Fras� voice
has notably deepened over the years), there�s some occasional fantastic
choreography, lots of people get sweaty, and that�s that. That said,
much of the power of live Laibach is doubtless lost in the translation
from stage to media, and as such, only the most devoted of Laibach fans
will have the time or patience to watch the whole concert beginning to
end.
Like it or not, what Divided States of America ultimately does
is give face to the beauty of America (and the rest of what is
considered the �free world�) via all of the ugly that it deigns to show.
When a National Socialist shows up to give his opinion of a Laibach
show, even going so far as to acknowledge that Laibach would probably
not approve of his politics, there�s something that�s actually a little
appealing about the way he feels so spurred on, so free to express his
views (while giving Laibach the requisite pats on the back). He becomes a
symbol of the way that anyone in that �free world� could do the same,
as long as those views are expressed within the laws of the nation in
which they are shared.
TrackList01. Divided States Of America (Documentary)
02. Laibach Live - La Locomotive 2004:
- B-Machina
- In The Army Now
- Dogs Of War
- Alle Gegen Alle
- Mars On River Drina
- God Is God
- Tanz Mit Laibach
- Du Bist Under
- Now You Will Pay
- Hell-Symmetry
- The Great Divide
- Wirtschaft Ist Tot
- Achtung
- Das Spiel Ist Aus
- WAT
- Mama Leone
- Sympathy For The Devil
- Geburt Einer Nation
- Opus Dei
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