No Surprises
Directed by Grant Gee |
 
 
 
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In this video thom is in some
sort of helmet which slowly fills with water until Thom is completely submersed for
a lengthy period of time. There is lighting which reflects off the helmet and the
lyrics of the song appear as in the OK Computer booklet but in reverse and back to
front.
The director, Grant Gee, who also directed the band's full-length documentary, Meeting
People is Easy, had this to say: "It's the perfect image of anxiety and helplessness
in the face of technology." On Meeting People is Easy, there's a nice little excerpt
of the making of the video (Thom nearly dies!), and a 'great' analysis from the Sky
news team....
Review by Karen Hands:
Originally called No Surprises Please, the accompanying video lives up to the Radiohead
tradition of being good but odd. This video features just Thom on his own, trapped
inside a 'fish tank' of sorts, while various lights go on and off and the words go
past him, but to us they're back to front. As the water level rises, Thom decides
to take a dive underneath and holds his breath for an extremely long period of time.
From "This is my final fit" until "Such a pretty house". Surely there must be camera
trickery involved, nobody could hold their breath that long. But maybe Yorke could,
when he sings he does seem to have an enormous lung capacity. Contains some good 'Thom
moments', but only if you like him stubbly. Good it maybe, but we almost lost the
great man himself. It seems that he did stay under all that time because during the
filming Thom nearly drowned. And that would be too great a tragedy to even discuss. |
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