POPSCREEN: U2 & Green Day, "The Saints are Coming"

U2 and Green Day

“The Saints Are Coming”

Dir. Chris Milk



When two bands as politically active as Green Day and U2 join forces, atomic bombs won’t be dismantled—they’ll be dropped as close to President Bush as possible. In the video for their new joint single, “The Saints Are Coming,” the venerated rock bands combine their political energies to reiterate their belief that the response to Hurricane Katrina was inadequate.

“The Saints Are Coming”—first performed in the Superdome at a Monday Night Football game to commemorate the tragedy—is packed with heavy-handed symbolism. The opening shots show a New Orleans digitally edited to emphasize the bands’ beliefs: a sign that reads “Humanity Street” floats in the shoulder-high flood waters as sad chords linger in the background; crowds of victims wait for assistance as Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong asks “How long now?” The digitized military enters next, flying back from Iraq to airlift the victims to safety. To the video’s credit, the effects are interspersed with actual footage of the tragedy fairly realistically. But why? Green Day and U2 go to the trouble of creating a full-blown alternate history to tell us something we already knew: the government blew it. In case the viewer hasn’t been convinced of the bands’ cleverness, the video closes with a sign that reads “Not as Seen on TV.”

While their political views meld seamlessly, the bands don’t succeed in blending musically. The superstars alternate verses without regard for cohesion, both sticking to their trademark, market-tested styles. It all sounds mailed-in; their goal is to convey their political beliefs, and they don’t seem to care if it sounds good or not. While the audience doesn’t gain much here, I’m sure playing the voice of humanity strokes Bono’s ego splendidly.

Releasing a mediocre song to push an already widely shared sentiment: whose minds the groups are trying to change?

—Alina Voronov