I was eight when this video came out. And it completely terrified me. But was also a truly life changing event. I got my sixth grade picture taken wearing the same shirt Lars had on in the video.
I actually watched the movie a couple weeks ago. It's an oddly made movie but it was good and the full story is even more disturbing than they were able to put in the video. It's definitely worth a watch.
For me, it's when the preacher says "He's a product of your profession. Not mine." as if God himself doesn't even want to intervene with the suffering of this man.
The first time I saw the music video, it left me speechless. And now after decades, I still feel it. Not as intense as the first time, but how can you not feel the despair!
Arguably the best metal song ever - the music, the lyrics, the song structure, the soft intro, building to the intense ending, James' singing, Kirk's solos, the double kick drum part, guitar harmony section, combined with the black white footage of them in a warehouse, the camera angles, the darkness and the footage from the movie, the video is the pinnacle of metal!
They won the Grammy several years after the album released fot "Best Metal Performance" as a bit of a consolidation prize. They were originally up for best metal album (1st time for the category) and it was given to the flute playing Jethro Tull. Probably the biggest snub in Grammy history. The Grammy's obviously had no idea what they were awarding in the new category.
The scenes in this video are from the 1970's movie, "Johnny Got His Gun" and the associated book, originally written in 1938. Johnny was a soldier in World War One. He is caught in an explosion that leaves him with no arms, no legs, no face, no ears. He cannot speak, hear, or see - has no sense of time or where he is, and is fed through a tube and breathing through a respirator. I have always interpreted the cut scenes within the song as what is happening to Johnny in the real world. The moments of the song where Johnny is "thinking out loud" are his conscious mind, and James Hetfields voice is his subconscious mind. This was triggered - for me - by Johnny's thought, "I don't know if I'm alive and dreaming, or dead and remembering?" From that point on, the music builds and builds, which - again, to me - signaled the growing conflict between the two sides of Johnny's mind as he dips further and further into insanity. By the time Kirk Hammett's guitar solo hits, (and hits hard), I've always pictured that as the final "battle" between Johnny's conscious and subconscious mind, with the final "S.O.S. Help me..." mantra at the conclusion signifying that Johnny's mind is the same as his body, reduced to "one" singular, autonomic thought. Nothing else of him remains from that point forward. Johnny has gone, and only the breathing corpse remains until he would die of old age. At the end, the crowd singing "Keep the Home Fires Burning" symbolizes how society went on and forgot about him, (and the veterans in general). If you listen to this song from that perspective, you will be bawling by the end.
After you watch the video, you can never listen to the song in the same way. I can't head bang too this song after seeing the video. I remember when this video premiered. It left everyone in the bar speechless.
"Holy sh!t"... Yes! Said by every single metalhead that watched it when it premiered.. Realize that when this came out, Metallica already had a massive following WITHOUT much radio play and no videos. They were pressured into making one. The popular videos at the time were Michael Jackson, Milli Vanilli, Inxs, Debbie Gibson, etc... Metallica said "Fine! Hold my beer!" Brilliant. It made them the dominance they are today..
This was Metallica's first ever promo video, they didn't originally want to make videos, but damn did they knock it out of the park with this one. I was 17 when this came out still hits me just as hard as it did back then. Powerful song about the horrors of war, love this band.🤘🤘
It's an awful reality unfortunately 😢. I was a senior in HS when this came out. Saw it live at Riverbend Cincy 89. Friends went to desert storm that year. This shit was real.
That actor Jason Robart Robards with the mustache talking to the kid is a famous actor . He was also in tv movie called " The Day After " in the 80's that nearly scared everyone watching it . That movie was such an impact , it even made the news .
The Day After scared the living shit out of me when I was a kid. I tried watching it with my older brothers when I was about 8. I barely slept for three days.
@@guitarman8462 I'm not sure if you're talking about The Day After, or Johnny Got His Gun, but I'd say both of them definitely do. Especially Johnny Got His Gun, because while The Day After is realistic, its speculative. Johnny Got His Gun is reality for some people.
Thank you so much for devoting so much focus and attention taking in the whole thing. So many reactors try to analyze while they listen, and they miss so much. This video in particular really demands your attention. I also really appreciate your thoughtful analysis. This was Metallica's first music video after avoiding them for 3 records. It really boosted their visibility among more of a mainstream audience setting them up for the huge release that was the self-titled Black Album. Thanks again, A New Fan
I'd put a few of Sabaton's more or less recent music videos at least near this one ("Christmas Truce" for example), but "One" definitely stands the test of time 🤘
It's called a DNR - Do not resuscitate order. You can get a bracelet or necklace with it on there. My aunt was on life support for a few weeks and my mom visited and stayed with her every day and after that experience, my mother got DNR tattooed on the inside of her wrist because she said she NEVER wanted to be hooked up like that.
I like how the music changes to a different feel when the nurse tries to help him die. Then when she’s caught, the music goes back to the despairing feel
im 20 almost 21 and i been jamming to this song since 7th grade. i love watching these reaction videos cause it reminds me of how i was when i first found this song. yall should look up white zombie-more human then human.
The lyrics are powerful but added to the video it speaks fior so many of our wounded men and wimen as consequences and sacrifices of War abd Conflict. . We always hear that every war is in the name of Democracy bit not so in many proxy wars being about power and profits for those who send our military into war. Sadly, innocent people get caught in the crossfire too. When Metallica breaks it down and Hartfield sings about his sight, his soul , his body and his mind just stripped from this casyalty of War it hots home on a very visceral and heartbreaking level. I'm not sure any song or vidro has ever been so blatantly honest about the realities of war and the inhumanity of it let alone the video and film clips.
War is terrible! Check out metilica live Seattle 89 considered the best heavy metal concert? Song is "for whom the bell tolls" better than the studio version which is very rare live. You won't be disappointed. Be cool stay safe.
During the days when MTV actually played music videos, because of the content of this particular song/video, MTV opted to play this only during the late night.
That’s not true. As someone who lived through this era, I’m positive this video was often played during the daytime hours. It was a massive hit on Dial MTV.
A couple of years ago I took my then 16 year old daughter to a Metallica show. We are both big fans, but Metallica had been part of my life for over 30 years. They started playing ‘One’ and I was suddenly overwhelmed that here I was, listening to the greatest heavy metal band in the world playing my favorite ever heavy metal song and that I was able to share this moment with my favorite human being. I felt so, so grateful. I cried like a baby. We are seeing them again next year on the M72 tour.
John - when you told Lulu that if you ever get to that point where you're comatose - to just go ahead and finish you off - i don't think you have to worry about her hesitating. Just kidding - thanks for your reactions.
This one will shock me? What? How? This is clearly footage of an old movie. I get the message. This is a song about the horrors of war and a story about a man who loses everything, limbs, his senses. But in the end of the day, it's just a song. A thought provoking story, sure, but I don't understand how it could shock anyone. When I heard the song as a teenager, all I thought was, that's a cool song, even though I understood the lyrics and the message. And this hasn't changed. And what do you mean the song wasn't as popular when it first came out? I remember that when it came out, this was the song that brought Metallica closer to mainstream, as people were starting to talk about the band, as opposed to previous records, where it was more like just the extremely devoted metalheads.
Sharing a post from another video just because I thought it was very informative. "The movie these clips are from is called "Johnny Got His Gun" which is an anti-war film based off of the novel of the same name written by Dalton Trumbo. The story follows the injured man Joe Bonham and his experience with being trapped inside his own head with no way of communicating with the outside world. The main moral conflict being whether to keep him alive, living in his own hell or to grant him the gift of death. He eventually communicates with the doctors using the Morse Code and asks for them to kill him, but they end up ignoring his requests and forced him to remain alive... It is truly some disturbing but very powerful stuff. Highly recommend both the film and the novel."
Watch it again and listen to the Music with out the video. Its really a amazing song they have! Metallica is the most talented Metal band on Earth. They can yank your heart right out of your body and go from tears to laughter in a few seconds. I was 60 yrs old before I really found out the had more than Enter Sandman and Seek and Destroy. I play electric guitar and its been good for my brain to learn these songs as they all have level of difficulties that can keep you work hard on it.
Everyone regularly talks as if our freedom is worth going to war over, but this song and video are meant to make you ask, Ultimately, is war worth it if you have to pay this type of price? To be trapped inside your own mind, not dead but not alive, disconnected completely from the world. Is it worth it for use to expect others to pay this type of price?
I've seen some reaction videos to this song, I've noticed that everyone is cheerful and happy and by the everybody is shocked and/or sad, it's like a concreet wall hit them.
The end of the music video, is exactly how the movie ends. It is 999999999 times worse when you're seeing it at the end of the movie. I pretty much tell everybody don't even bother watching the movie. It's one of the most can't unsee, haunt you for the rest of your life films I've ever seen.
A little bit of trivia....this was Metallica's first ever music video. They were hesitant at first to make any videos of their song as a hard core trash metal band and it wasn't cool.
I believe its about what many of the disabled veterans from world war I had to go through that war was much different than the one's prior because of the mass production of the automatic machine gun and unfortunately at the beginning of the war the tactics remained the same not learning the lesson from the civil war and the Gatlin gun and sending waves of men to get slaughtered until they started digging the trenches which with bomb and gas delivery methods improving had its own set of horrors to endure
I wish somebody would do their reaction to this without the video version and the movie playing in the background - they end up trying to hear that and missing how great the song is.
Everyone fails to see what the sticker on James' guitar says, which you can see in the very beginning clearly. It's one of his classics that says, "Eet Fuk." 😂
The movie was "Johnny got his gun" it was made about a soldier who lost his limbs and lower jaw in world war one, to show the devastation of war and the effects on people, and individuals in a plea to stop any future wars, kind of a movie varient of an anti war protest. James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich after finding out about the movie wrote the song because they could get behind the message of the movie, and wanted to get the message out there and wanted to get more attention to it. In the novel written during or just after world war one, it was banned in some countries and suppressed in others for several years because of World War II. It came back into print in the 1960s and became the anti-war narrative for the Vietnam War, which is when they made the movie
Not going to lie it's pretty cool scene Asians listen to some heavy metal hopefully you love it like we do remember it's just art get a little bit of everything with Metallica they are my number ones and rocking heavy metal I have a top 10 all-time favorites you should definitely check out any of them you will not be disappointed- Metallica Bone Thugs-Harmony Ozzy Osbourne Marshall Mathers the goat just sign the Filipino who is fire by the way back to the list Guns N Roses Lil Wayne AC DC Beastie Boys Pink Floyd Michael Jackson cannot go wrong with any of them
As a disabled Vet and someone that lost many friends while serving I feel this song very deeply. I would like to recommend another song for you. It is Wrong side of Heaven by Five Finger Death Punch. It is a very intense video that makes me cry every time I watch it.
If you want a similar impactful Music video you must watch Pearl Jams "Jeremy"(Suicide of the bullied) and "Evolution"(sad story of human history). They dont get easy on you, but beautiful songs.
After seein them in concert, several time's over the year's, even the video doesn't fully give them the justice they deserve, when they play it live, when they add another 10-15 minute's worth of that high level of playin, towards the end. And, they usually play this between 3/4th-to the end of the concert, and still sound's better then this video does! Now, about the novel/video, they literally bought the right's to the movie, so they could play it in the background, and most of the time's I seen them in concert, they had a huge screen behind them, or over the top of the stage, showin the part's of the movie, as they played the song! But, not every time they played, as it depended on where they were. And also, they were known back in the day, to be 1 of the hardest touring band's of all time, as they toured an average of 275-300 day's a year, from the time they started, with the exception's of the year's, that they wrote and practiced their new album's, which they cut it down a bit, but not completely, as they would also play some of the new song's, to get the crowd's vibe on them, to decide on if they wanted to put in the album, solo, or both. And, they are known to be 1 of the best metal band's of all time, because of the great song's, along with their complete dedication to their music, as they just loved to play and experiment with their instrument's, to see how the crowd reacted to the sound's, so they could figure out, if they wanted to use it in an actual song, or whatever. When I first started goin to their concert's, was for the "And...Justice For All" album promotional tour, back in 91'-92', and other's, until 03'...
What's great about this song other than the message is how it picks up as his injuries are listed then the guitar solo kicks in while he basically decends into madness before eventually having to accept his fate.
This video is a masterpiece . The music really expressed the futility of war the loss the anger the frightening reality and loss of young men the sadness .
It actually wasn't about the movie. They came up with the idea separately. Everyone kept telling them "wow, just like the movie, right?" And they said, "what movie?" Upon watching the movie, they quickly snatched up the rights
