Michael Jackson – Beat It
1983 · Directed by Bob Giraldi
11M Likes
Best comments
1.“Michael Jackson is the only man who can make an anti-crime song with guys living in the sewers like Ninja Turtles, falling into Beyoncé-like formation, pulling pocket knives on each other... and then settling the score with a West Side Story-style dance number.”
More comments
- 2.“Never had an appreciation for this video because I thought they were all actors. Later I found out they were real-life gang members – from rival gangs. How bloody amazing...”
- 3.“Eddie Van Halen did this for free... just popped into the studio for 20 minutes and laid it down.”
The story
CBS Records wouldn't pay for this video, so Michael Jackson paid for it himself. Director Bob Giraldi had never made a music video before; Jackson hired him after seeing a TV commercial he'd shot. They filmed around March 1983, mostly on East 5th Street on Los Angeles' Skid Row, and Jackson insisted on casting real members of the rival Crips and Bloods, about 80 of them, next to 18 pro dancers and four breakdancers. The first day got tense enough that Giraldi shot every gang scene that day. He also swapped a real switchblade for a rubber one.
The plot is simple. Word of a fight spreads through a diner and a pool hall. Two gang leaders square off in a warehouse knife fight. Jackson, in the red leather jacket, dances his way across town, breaks it up and turns the whole crowd into one big synchronized routine. Michael Peters, fresh off a Tony for Dreamgirls, choreographed it and danced one of the two lead roles. Giraldi says the knife fight wasn't borrowed from West Side Story, it came from fights he'd heard about growing up in New Jersey.
The song, with Eddie Van Halen's solo played as a favor, spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and won two Grammys, including Record of the Year. The video won seven Billboard Video Awards, helped make Thriller the best-selling album ever, and passed a billion YouTube views in 2023. Gangs, knives, a red jacket, and the answer was dancing. Hard to argue.
