Any move that U2 makes these days seems controversial! Giving away their last album was received like a terrorist threat, but wait for their next video! According to NME, the band was filming the upcoming clip in Belfast last Wednesday and Thursday, and the residents have already labeled it as ‘disruptive’ and in ‘poor taste’… The Belfast telegraph reports that the filming was causing a lot of trouble: social care workers could not park next to the home of an elderly couple, a business owner said the shooting was stopping people from parking at her premises! But isn’t it the case for any filming? I live in Los Angeles, and shooting in the street is happening all the time here, we are used to it and people are usually compensated for any inconvenience due to the shooting. I like to imagine it was the case here too? As much as I don’t want to defend U2, are we facing a real disruption here?
Also some residents said that ‘the re-creation of a bomb attack, including burning vehicles, actors dressed as soldiers and extras playing traumatized victims, brought back painful memories of the Troubles’… Again, I dislike U2 as much as everyone does, but aren’t these residents looking like a bunch of cry-babies?
‘U2 were apparently trying to stage something like a bomb that happened here in the Troubles and I couldn’t believe they would do that’, said a man. ‘They have done various plays and films about the Troubles anyway, and the Troubles did happen.’
War, terrorism happens but can you blame an artist for recreating a scene for a film or a video? Should Belfast residents be mad at U2 for reminding them about the ‘bad days of the Troubles’? Actor and director Dan Gordon took the defense of the band and told the Belfast Telegraph that ‘People rush to look at the negative’. ‘U2 aren’t setting out to paint us or themselves in a poor light, he added. ‘They are there to expose stuff and talk about it. Nobody even knows what the song is about and we are rushing to play the blame game’.
I agree, let’s see the final product! It’s easy to blame U2 and to say they are cashing in on the Troubles, but should we also blame Steven Spielberg for ‘Saving Private Ryan’, Stanley Kubrick for ‘Full Metal Jacket’ or Francis Ford Coppola for ‘Apocalypse Now’? They also have ‘exploited’ wars and the list of works of art about conflicts is endless… I find this reaction from Belfast residents very aggressive towards U2 and may be it is very revealing, it says a lot about the animosity people have against the Irish band these days! By the way, the band wasn’t even present (Bono is still recovering from his bike accident) and the video is said to be for the song ‘Every Breaking Wave’.
