Most campaign ads are rather boring and burdensome affairs for the viewer. Not Rick Perry’s opening salvo. If you’re liberal, you already think Perry is the spawn of Satan; but you still can’t help but watch while giving the devil his due. If you’re conservative, this will seem a national rallying cry, the first ray of hope and change against the grim times of today. In either event, if this production is a sign of what’s to come, the next 14 months will be entertaining, to say the least. [And don’t think for a minute the other side(s) aren’t above responding in kind!]
For optimal effect, change the settings to 720P HD and watch this in full-screen mode (via buttons at bottom right).
What I’m impressed with is its sheer quality. This production flings evocative cinematography at you around every turn, a semi-apocalyptic sci-fi masterpiece in the form of a campaign ad, offering staccato jolts of iconic scenes that include the evocatively metaphorical crumbling of Obama’s famous 2008 election poster. All of that is anchored around perhaps the most deeply penetrating campaign zinger (“President Zero”) since Democrat and Texan Lloyd Bentsen told Dan Quayle, “Sir…You’re no Jack Kennedy.”
Wow…
Forget partisan politics, even if just for a moment. Like the candidate or not, it’s hard to deny that this is an impressively made video, especially considering that the producer is a 23-year old–and Canadian, no less–Lucas Baiano. The kid has undeniable talent and a lucrative future in Hollywood, unless, of course, the dominant culture there blacklists him as a result of this high-tech cinematographic smackdown.
Whatever the future successes or failures of Rick Perry’s campaign, it already has delivered imagery for the ages. Perry could quit tomorrow and this ad still would be talked about decades from now as a potent period piece–in the annals of unforgettable productions such as “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing“, the crying Indian from Keep America Beautiful, or Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef“. In the political realm, it may become the most potent campaign ad since the incomparable hatchet job “Nuclear Daisy” from fellow Texan Lyndon Johnson.