Ron Pia

 

ON THIS DAY IN MICHAEL JACKSON HISTORY- March 31,1983 - Michael Jackson's "Beat It" short film premiered on MTV.

The music video for "Beat It" helped establish Michael an international pop icon.The video was Michael's first treatment of black youth and the streets. Both "Beat It" and "Thriller" are notable for their "mass choreography" of synchronized dancers, a Michael Jackson trademark.

The video, which cost Michael $150,000 to create after CBS refused to finance it. It was filmed on Los Angeles' Skid Row—mainly on locations on East 5th Street—around March 9, 1983. To add authenticity to the production but also to foster peace between them, Michael had the idea to cast members of rival Los Angeles street gangs Crips and Bloods.In addition to around 80 genuine gang members, the video, which is noted for opening up many job opportunities for dancers in the US, also featured 18 professional dancers and four breakdancers.Besides Michael Jackson, Michael Peters, and Vincent Paterson, the cast included Michael DeLorenzo, Stoney Jackson, Tracii Guns, Tony Fields, Peter Tram, Rick Stone and Cheryl Song. The bar location shown in the latter part of the first minute of the video was also featured 13 years earlier in the gatefold and on the back cover of the Doors 1970 album, Morrison Hotel. Coincidentally, the name of that skid row bar, the Hard Rock Café, was also the inspiration for the London original of the famous chain of restaurants begun in 1971.

The video was written and directed by Bob Giraldi, produced by Ralph Cohen, Antony Payne and Mary M. Ensign through the production company GASP. The second video released for the Thriller album, it was choreographed by Michael Peters who also performed, alongside Vincent Paterson, as one of the two lead dancers. Despite some sources claiming otherwise, Michael was involved in creating some parts of the choreography.Michael asked Bob Giraldi, at the time already an established commercial director but who had never directed a music video,to come up with a concept for the "Beat It" video because he really liked a commercial Giraldi had directed for WLS-TV in Chicago about a married couple of two elderly blind people who instead of running from a run-down neighborhood all the other white people had fled from, chose to stay and throw a block party for all the young children in the area. Contrary to popular belief, the concept of the video was not based on the Broadway musical West Side Story; in reality Giraldi drew inspiration from his growing up in Paterson, New Jersey.

The video had its world premiere on MTV during prime time on March 31, 1983. Soon after its premiere the video was also running on other video programs including BET's Video Soul, SuperStation WTBS's Night Tracks, and NBC's Friday Night Videos. In fact, "Beat It" was the first video shown on the latter's first ever telecast on July 29, 1983.

The video opens with the news of a fight circulating at a diner. This scene repeats itself at a pool hall, where gang members arrive and the song begins to play. The camera cuts to Michael lying on a bed as he contemplates the senseless violence. Michael notices rival gangs and leaves. Michael wears a red leather J. Parks brand jacket and dances his way towards the fight through the diner and pool hall. A knife fight is taking place between the two gang leaders in a warehouse. They dance battle for an interlude of music until Michael arrives; he breaks up the fight and launches into a dance routine. The video ends with the gang members joining him in the dance, agreeing that violence is not the solution to their problems.