Could the King of Pop have become the King of Cinema? Not, perhaps, on the evidence of 1988’s Moonwalker, a curious, personal but deeply overbudgeted melange of music videos, live performance, claymation and a bewildering plot-line where Jackson fights back against Joe Pesci’s not exactly Scorsese-worthy drug dealer by turning into a car. Critics at the time found it bizarre, self-indulgent and incoherent, and while that’s not exactly wrong, its frequent songs and dance routines do remind you what an extraordinary performer Jackson was.
This week on Pop Screen, lifelong MJ fan Archaeon joins us to discuss the album – Bad – that the film was designed to promote, argue that the Smooth Criminal video is a dark-horse candidate for Jackson’s best ever, and try to work out what the hell Pesci’s haircut is. Other topics of discussion include possible inspirations for Spike the Rabbit, the tragic history of the Noid, the very ’80s child performances and the status of Pesci’s character as a back-handed ‘tribute’ to Jackson’s then-manager Frank DiLeo.
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