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VIDEOVIE\^/SDURAN DURANFeaturing Duran Duran.Directed by Russel Mulcahy,Perry Haines, Kevin Godleyand Lol Creme, and lan Emes.Thom EMI video cassette. 52minutes. $29.95$lnce Duran Duran is one ofthe top-selling music video-cassettes around, and sinceDuran Duran has alreadybeen labeled the first "MTVband," largely thanks to theextensive and expressive clipof "Hungry like the Wolf," thetime for a critical look at thisvideotape might seem to havepassed. Not so. For one thing,the price has just droppedfrom $49.95 to $29.95. Foranother, the rapid-fire rise ofthe band after "Hungry" hasleft all but a few key video-critics standing agape, likethe cartoon Coyote in theRoadrunner's dust.I'm not sure why. lt's truethat Duran Duran is the firstvideo-clip star and that firstsare hard to deal with: Notonly do they tend to definecertain boundries, but futureexamples almost inevitablyare compared againSt themand not the other way around.But otherwise, just what didDuran Duran - an unexcep-tional collection of pop pret-ties as vapid onstage as theyare on record - have thatdeserved all this attention?

Two things, perhaps. One,of course, as this videoshows off, is that the band isvery pretty. So are manyothers, but not, curiously,most of the conceptualmusic-video pioneers (Devoand Todd Rundgen, mostnotably). We're reliving thechange fiom silent movies totalkies, except in reverse, andlhe new stars many only bethose who can connect bothvisually and aurally. The otherthing, more tucked away, thatthis tape also demonstrates

amply, is a sense of story.The best of the 11 clips

here - which span f rom the198.t European hit, "PlanetEarth," to the band's 1982breakthrough LP, Rio - blendboth points effectively. Theclip for the song, "Rio,"filmed on and around theCaribbean island of Antigua,is a high-fashion portrait of asiren rvho makes fools of thebandmembers until she'sfinally won a place, if not intheir hearts, then on theirboat. The justly celebratedclip for "Hungry Like theWolf" is a pastiche ofCasablanca and its clones,with a little "Gunga Din" andCat People thrown in; it's alsoa tidy fable about the searchfor and the cost of passion.And "The Chauffeur" clip.- ablack-and-while, Tw i I ig htZone-ish tale of past andfuture personae meeting eachother in a scene not unlike aperverse Maidenform ad - be-gins as an interesting, albeitvoyeuristic, bit about apsychosexual reincarnationbefore it fizzles out.Director Russel Mulcahy(on all but the Haines-pro-duced "Careless Memories,"Godley-Creme's "Girls onFilm," and the Emes-produced "Chauffeur") andthe others make good use ofcompositional possibilities.While split screens, wipes,

and other effects are gettingstomped deeper and deeperinto our video-addled collec-tive consciousness, you haveto admire anyone who's will-ing to buck the squarishlimitations of the TV screenby using, and keeping intact,the widescreen effect (a 1:1.85"aspect ratio," if anybody'slistening).Yet the visual flair through-out, by both the band and thefilmmakers, and the strongnarrative lines in a handful ofthe clips only point out therest of the vignettes' limita-tions. "Girls on Film" is agood example of the clips' re-lentless sexlsm (aquatic im-agery is very big, too, forsome reason), displayingvulgar, vaguely Beaver-magazine sets - sexy, butnot the least bit erotic, unlessmud wrestling and/or B&Dget you off. The much-discussed frontal nudity cutfrom TV showings is nothingto write home to your idabout, either. These are fan-tasies most of us outgrow, forbetter or for worse, and theclip's smarminess is embar-rassing, not only in and ofitself, but also because it hasinf luenced so many subse-quent music videos.'l,f you'redeaf to the band's adven-turous, hook-laden music,you're probably blind to thesexist themes, anyway.

BILLY SOUIER:LIVE IN THE DARKFealuring Billy Squier.Directed by Keef. Thorn EMvideo cassette. Beta and Vmono. 60 minutes. $49.95The liner notes state that is Squier "in full f light at thSanta Monica Civic TheatreCalifornia, with a perfor-mance that was a high poiof his '1981 U.S. tour." lf thimerely competent concerta bar band gone big-time ishigh point, what are Billy athe boys like when the rockrolls to the bottom of the hDirector Keef does, how-ever, manage to turn in avideotape product that ringof brilliance simply becausmatches Squier so well: Boare technically accomplishe

without being aestheticallynovative. lndeed, Keef's hais much firmer here thaninthe Kate Bush concert hetaped a couple of yearsearlier, and while Squier'sconcert lighting probablydidn't hglp Keef to captureany expressiveness of soul

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. F'tmirrrtlnrlyou believe this was fouryears ago?)There are also brilliant con-ceptual videos - called"music illustration" back then- that are lar more adven-turous than most of what wesee today. One example: AlJarreau's version of EltonJohn and Bernie Taupin's"Your Song" is set to a mon-tage of Nazi Germany, shock-ing the viewer with fresh in-sight into the constantlyanalyzed (and ultimately in-human) vision with which theGerman people fell in love.Music-as-politics continueswith an (at the time) exclusivesegment of a 1967 lrish-TVprogram, The Doors AreOpen, which intercuts clips ofthe Doors in concert ("Whenthe Music's Over" and "Fiveto One")with clips ofJohnson, Nixon, Reagan,Wallace, and overzealousAmerican National Guards-men seemingly terrorizing ahelpless woman. (Ihe Doorsfootage has since beenshown on the excellent NrghfFlight on USA Cable, but sofar, that service reachesrelatively few homes.)There's also an exclusiveinterview with Devo - fright-eningly prop_hetic in light ofour mad march toward nu-

clear Armageddon - and amuch ligher conversation withold DJ Murray the K, whocalled himself "the fifthBeatle" for his part in Beatle-mania. And all this makes uponly about one-fifth of theprogram.Much more than a fascinat-ing time capsule of the earlydays of rock video, VldeoMusic is a time capsule of thevideo revolution - state-of-the-art, 1980. (Available onlythrough mail-order from: ln-stant Replay, 2980 McFarlaneRoad, Coconut Grove, Florida33133.)GIRL GROUPS:THE STORY OF ASOUNDFeaturing Leiber and Stroller,Martha Reeves, Ronnie Spec-lor, Mary Wilson, and manyothers. Directed by SteveAlperl. MGM/UA videocassette. Beta and VHSmono. $59.95 (Beta and VHS),$34.95 (laser disk), $29.95(CED).65 minutes.Guriously, this docu-vidshares many of the samestrengths and weaknesses asDelilah Films'earlierMGM/UA production, IheCompleat Beatles. What's thematter with these people?Don't they read reviews?ln any case, the strengthsare formidable: vintage musicclips, priceless interviews, theoccasional stab of real news.The weaknesses, however,are just as apparent.Poised against a back-ground of hits from the girlgroups' early- to mid-60s hey-day - when the Marvelettes,the Shangra-Las, theSupremes, and the rest sangin tight, doo-wop harmoniesabout lost-and-found love -are brief interviews withMartha Reeves (Martha andthe Vandellas), Darlene Love

(the Crystals and othergroups), Mary Wilson (theSupremes), and otherveierans - most extensively,Ronnie Spector (theRonettes). Producers SteveAlpert and Stephanie Bennettalso speak with Jerry Leiberand Mike Stoller (who seemedto write every song publishedback then) as well as withEllie Greenwich, Don Kirsch-ner, and other writers or pro-ducers.Missing, however, are morethan a few consequentialfigures from the times: GerryGoffin, Berry Gordy, CaroleKing, Diana Ross, and,perhaps most notably, PhilSpector. For that songsmithwho refined the girl-groupsound to its likely limits, thereis only a hilarious, CitizenKane-like series of shots onthe outskirts of Spector'sfortress.

As "the story of a sound,"then, Glrl Groups leavessignificant gaps in theperspective. The perlormersand songwriters tend to talkabout what a great time it was-gee, innocent and lovingand money-didn't-matter. Still,to the filmmakers credit, thetragic ostracization arl.d death(if not the.penniless finale andseemingly mismanaged royal-ties) of Supreme FlorenceBallard are given a good

chunk of time, with Wilsontactfully and hideously remoing any blame from herselfand everyone else. "lt wasagreed she would no longerwith the group," says Wilsonas if an oracle and nothumans made the decree. Tdark side of the prodigiousPhil Spector is also exploredRonnie Spector paints a chiing, albeit one-sided, picturebeing strapped into a careerchastity-belt upon hermarriage.Otherwise, there's little bthe most basic explorationhere into the minds andmotives that created andpackaged the girl-group souAs a time capsule, this pro-gram is extremely valuable,with TV footage that nowlooks as if it were shot onsome alien landscape. Buteven here, there is a majorproblem with the show's costruction: Delilah Films- athey're not alone in this - hno inkling they're working inthe video medium.lncredibly, they've craftedlinear program, as if VCRs avideo-disc players with scanand random accessing don'texist. Linear portions are fin- but it's incomprehensiblelhal complete music film clirather than misrepresentativsnippets, can't be put togethand cataloged on, say, the lathird of a tape or disc. Thenanyone wishing to see a particular, whole clip could sim-ply reach that point via a VCtape counter (which, thoughvarying from brand to brand,at least gets you into theneighborhood) or a video-discplayer's highly accuraterandom-access f unct ion.When producers such asthe ambitious and proficientDelilah learn that video isn'treally TV, programs like Girl

Groups will become not onlymore valuable, but also moreentertaining.- F rank Lovece

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that might have existed, itdoes make the closeups ofSquier's machinegun guitar-playing lively.The six-person cameraworkis fluid throughout, and eventhe editing is daring in theway we're so often treated tothe unglamorous drummerwhen his passages ask for at-tention. Keef likewise givesplenty of screen time to themesmerized fans, seen undersweeping spotlights and nearthe stage, reaching out as in'the Sistine Chapel's "Crea-tion" to Squier's cold, rock-star stance - ironic, in retro-spect, since it's doubtful heeven has an album still on theracks.The video quality itself issharp and clear. Productionvalues aside, the taping lookssimply like a job, with few at-tempts made at getting intothe light behind Squier's eyes.Then again, when you'reshooting a purveyor of hard-Muzak, maybe that's just aswell.MAKING MICHAELJACKSONISIsTHRILLERIIFeaturing Michael Jackson,John Landis, Rick Baker,Michael Peters. "MichaelJackson's Thriller" directedby Landis. "The Making olThriller" directed by JerryKramer. Vestron videocassette. Beta Hi.Fi stereo,VHS stereo.55 minutes.$29.9sThe extremely talentedMichael Jackson is quicklybecoming more of a celebritycommodity-ala, say, Mr. Tor Nastassia Kinski - than heis anything else. This in-teresting, if highly predict-able, behind-the-scenes lookat the creation of his land-mark, 14-mingte music-clipmovie-short is simply one

more packaging of that com-modity. (l expect to seeMichael Jackson dolls and aM ichael Jackson movie-and-comic-book deal any daynow.) There are a few mo-ments of insight here, and theshow moves briskly, butleaves you asking for thedessert when they just ain'tgot none."Thril ler" director JohnLandis and makeup mavenRick Baker come off ingenu-ously and unselfconsciously.Landis, behind his little-kidgrin, is a general. Baker veryclearly explains how he andhis 20-artist crew used con-tact lenses, dentures, and in-f latable, latex "bladders"beneath custom-moldedmasks ilnd glovs to turnJackson into a werewolf.Other principals, unfor-tunately, are less articulate.Ola Ray talks about her

"luck" in landing the co-starring role, but no one tellsus who she is or where shecame from, which you'd ex-pect when a whole section(titled, like a Penthousespread, simply "Ola") isdevoted to her.Jackson himself comesoff as one straaaange cat,though not so strange as tomisplace his programmedresponses to reporters' ques-tions. While the evolution ofthe "Thriller" storyline isn'tmuch discussed (though thatof the deal making is), it'seasy to understand why thismagically and disturbinglychildlike performer wanted toplay a monster. What a greattoy this video must've been tohim! Even so. Jackson re-mains a pro, enduring tortur-ous-looking makeup sessionsliterally without batting aneye.Short-subject f ilmmakersare understandably upsetabout the "Thriller" video'sbig-budget intrusion into theirlow-budget turf. And music-clip creators, who generallywork within the $40,000 to$65,000 range, are wonderingwhere on earth $1.'l millionwent. (l suspect quite a bitwent to Landis, wtio's prob-ably spent more than he everthought he could on legalfees over lhe Twilight Zonefiasco. Serves him right.)

Peer criticism aside, it'sunlikely there'll be manyemulators of such a relativelygargantuan project as the"Thriller" video for some time.What we can hope for in thefuture is that modestly bud-geted producers at leastemulate the craftsmanship in"Thriller" which is built onsuch simple things as nar-rative, point of view, anC -wow - a beginning, a niiddle,and an end. Even the mostfree-form beat poets knewabout that.

INSTANT REPLAY:VIDEO MUSICFeaturing Devo, the Doors,Les McCann, Murray the K,Billy Preston, and olhers.Various directors. lnstantReplay video casette. Betaand VHS mono. 111 minutes.$39.9s

Up front, let me admit to having had a hand in puttingdown some of the f inishingtouches to what's become anunderground classic amongthe very earliest rock-videofans, the ones who snatchedup quasi-bootlegs and theearly Devo and Kinks legittapes. Let me also assure thereader I've made my peacewith any resultant bias. Thisis, objectively, a rough-hewnclassic, not unlike an earlyrock'n' roll 78.The cassette is a productof a Miami company called lnstant Replay, which, in 1977,pioneered the f irst consumer"videozine," a magazine onvideo tape or disc rather thanon paper. Soon afterward, ln-stant Replay, the company,began producing /nstanfReplay, the videozine, on aregular basis, laying thegroundwork for today's P/ay-boy Video, Electric Blue,American Video Magazine,and other videozines. lnstantReplay is on hold for now,while lnstant Replay mostlyproduces clips for MTV,E nte rta i n m en t To n ig ht, andthe Playboy Channel, occa-sionally putting out originalmusic programming.This unpolished gem of amagazine contains raremusic-video bits and pieces.For example, in "VideoNews," one of the 12magazi ne-style departments,there's a behind{he-sceneslook at the creation of one ofthe first video jukeboxes. (Can

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