Glen Morgan, Willard, and "Ben"

While working on prepping for our first interview with Glen Morgan, I had the pleasure of remembering, and rediscovering the promotional music video of Crispin Glover’s version of “Ben” for Glen Morgan's feature re-make of Willard. While Michael Jackson’s version was straight forward and sincere, but no less odd, being that it was a love song for a rodent, Glover’s interpretation focused on the creepy aspect of the idea, and his read is pitch perfect. I especially love his read in the "I used to say" bridge, a resigned trepidation.

Yet the video is one of the strangest, and more hysterical clips I have seen for a mass market release. It’s hard to say how much creative input Crispin Glover had in the concept, yet once one becomes familiar with Glover’s artistic work, his fascination with 'the other', outsiders, and fringe characters in the real world, then it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise if he had a lot of input.

This video is a hodgepodge of decadent German theater, Dada surrealism, and German expressionism, with women who have a rodent fetish, coupled with cameo male archetypes that look like Sigmund Freud, Adolph Hitler, and others. It’s fascinating to look at, decipher away.



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