{"id":72,"date":"2011-03-20T13:57:08","date_gmt":"2011-03-20T21:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/?p=72"},"modified":"2023-03-09T12:46:42","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T20:46:42","slug":"duranalysis-night-boat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/duranalysis-night-boat\/","title":{"rendered":"Duranalysis: Night Boat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s the great Duran Duran-versus-zombies showdown!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with so many of Duran Duran\u2019s best videos, \u201cNight Boat\u201d was directed by Russell Mulcahy. The video, inspired at least in part by Lucio Fulci’s 1979 horror film Zombi 2<\/em>, was shot in Antigua simultaneously with their much-celebrated \u201cRio<\/a>\u201d video; \u201cRio,\u201d of course, became a breakout smash hit and kicked the Duran Duran international phenomenon into the highest possible gear, whereas \u201cNight Boat\u201d slipped through the cracks. I won\u2019t say a word against \u201cRio\u201d\u2014it\u2019s a bright, splashy, joyous video, and it boosts my spirits every time I see it\u2014but really, folks, which would you rather see: Duran Duran cavorting on a yacht while competing for the attention of a leggy brunette, or Duran Duran getting\u00a0ambushed by zombies<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exactly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, \u201cNight Boat\u201d: The boys are vacationing together on a near-deserted Caribbean island. In the dialogue-heavy introductory scenes, Roger and John stroll down toward the water, passing various ramshackle structures. They\u2019re chattering to themselves and thus fail to pay attention to a dangling radio, which is transmitting an urgent mayday about a strange ship in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Night<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Simon loiters by the water and watches as a boatman ferries Andy up to the dock. You probably can\u2019t really tell that\u2019s Andy in the photo below, any more than you could tell it was Roger in the previous one. Clean copies of this video are hard to find, so my screenshots all kind of suck. Factor in how the boys are dressed in similar beach-appropriate outfits and sport relatively similar hairstyles, and how they seem to spend a lot of time lurking in shadows or standing with their backs to the camera, and I had a terrible time sorting out who was who. I watched this an embarrassing number of times before I felt confident identifying this person as Andy.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Night<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Of course, some Durans are easier to peg than others. I see you, Nick! I\u2019d recognize that eyeliner anywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Night<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

And John was kind enough to wear a cute hat for the first half of the video (before\u00a0he\u2014spoiler alert!\u2014loses it in a zombie attack), which makes it easy to pick him out of the bunch. He\u2019s also about a foot taller than Nick, Andy, and Roger, so,\u00a0y\u2019know, that helps too.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Night<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Nick chats with Simon. Nick is being his usual magical-pixie self, i.e. slinky and fetching and faintly terrifying all at once. Simon, on the other hand, is acting a little\u2026 off<\/em>. He mutters, \u201cShe should be here soon,\u201d while scanning the coastline, then, as though in a trance, starts reciting Mercutio\u2019s Queen Mab speech from Romeo and Juliet<\/em> (\u201cShe is the fairies\u2019 midwife\u2026\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Night<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As Simon babbles on, a shadowy figure scurries in front of a full-length mirror, which is showing Nick\u2019s reflection. Mirror-Nick covers his face as the mirror shatters, though in reality, back on the dock, Nick hasn\u2019t moved.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

So that\u2019s weird.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon snaps out of his trance and looks up in concern when the mirror breaks. John strolls by and asks him what\u2019s wrong. Visibly unsettled, Simon assures him it\u2019s nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

(The creepy atmospheric details in this video\u2014scuttling crabs, creaking boards, crackling radios \u2014are first-rate. It\u2019s blindingly clear something<\/em> terrible is about to happen\/is already happening to our boys.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John wanders off to stroll on the beach, and suddenly night has fallen. He clutches his face as he\u2019s plagued by visions of zombies. By the way, when I say \u201czombies,\u201d I\u2019m talking about the Afro-Caribbean voodoo-related type that were all the rage in the late seventies and early eighties the kind that factored into\u00a0The Serpent and the Rainbow<\/em>\u00a0and appeared in\u00a0Miami Vice<\/em>\u00a0episodes, not the diseased and\/or radioactive flesh-devouring sort that are in vogue these days. Nobody\u2019s going to rip open John\u2019s pretty head to feast on his brains. Rest easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John lets out a long, anguished wail and drops to his knees, then crawls around on all fours, babbling at some unseen foe to leave him alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026And all this happens before<\/em> the zombie horde set upon him and start ripping off his clothes.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Night<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
\"Night<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Simon, meanwhile, took the time for a quick wardrobe change and is now striding through the darkness in a cool ankle-length black leather coat. Singing all the while, he pays no attention to the zombies lurking behind the shrubbery and in the trees above his head.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Night<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Suddenly, we\u2019re back to daylight again, and Simon is once again on the dock, still reciting Shakespeare. Did we just back up in time? Was the zombie attack all a dream? Who knows? It\u2019s not the most straightforward and linear video ever, but it sure is chock full of awesomeness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andy and Nick, who seem freaked out of their adorable heads<\/em> (I can\u2019t tell if they\u2019ve been legitimately spooked by something we haven\u2019t seen, or if they\u2019re just being hammy), scamper up to a zoned-out Simon and ask him what\u2019s wrong. When he doesn\u2019t answer, they scurry off in a panic.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Night<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Just as suddenly, it\u2019s night again. Zombies slither around under the dock. Simon, unsurprisingly, has somehow found himself a leggy brunette (wherever Simon may be, leggy brunettes tend to magically appear), who\u2019s probably the bad-news faerie queen he was awaiting.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Night<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

When next we see him, he\u2019s standing on the bow of a boat, his long coat flapping in the breeze. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Making chipper, personable, garrulous Simon seem at all sinister and malevolent is sort of an uphill battle, but this video takes a decent stab at it.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Andy update: He\u2019s now lying in a motionless heap on the floor of a cabin while zombies swarm about.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Night<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

He sits up and looks around in confusion as Nick, whom we last saw scurrying for his life, slinks up behind him and touches his shoulder. Well, this is deucedly odd: Nick is now dressed in spectral white instead of head-to-toe black as before. And his hair is styled differently. And it\u2019s a different color. And I think it might be longer<\/em>, or maybe just teased out to its full glory. He\u2019s also now in his full-speed-ahead, no-pore-left-uncovered makeup, instead of the toned-down no-muss beach-appropriate version (eyeliner, mascara, lipstick) he\u2019d been sporting earlier. Assuming this is not an especially gnarly continuity error, this probably means the zombies have already gotten to Nick.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Night<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On the other hand, I also find it eminently plausible that, in the event of a zombie attack, Nick would take a break from the action to change into his own personal version of warpaint and battle armor, just so he could meet his doom with style and aplomb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Key Nick Rhodes quote about this era: \u201cI felt very grown up when I was wearing makeup, thank you very much.\u201d I\u2019m looking at a July 1984 issue of Teen Set magazine right now\u2014oh, don\u2019t ask\u2014which lists Nick\u2019s favorite foods as \u201cprawns, steak, strawberries and champagne,\u201d and I think this is the moment where I officially embrace Nick as my new role model\/personal spiritual guru. He\u2019s fun<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roger hightails it across the island, one step ahead of the zombie horde. He reaches his cabin and locks himself inside, then collapses in exhaustion, just out of reach of the zombies, who keep trying to grab him through the slats in his front door.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Night<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Simon\u2019s still on the boat, singing up a storm and partying with zombies, who swarm around him and cavort about the deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the zombie horde disperses, Roger emerges from his cabin, looking bedraggled and sad. He stares out over the water and sees Simon\u2019s boat sailing into the distance.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Night<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Through the blurry, grainy video, it\u2019s hard to tell anything for sure (grumble, mutter, complain), but it looks like Nick is on board as well. It\u2019s probably a logical assumption the rest of the boys are there, too.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Night<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Wow. Even without the gigantic budget and full production resources of Duran Duran\u2019s later works, that\u2019s pretty much a perfect music video, start to finish: cool, creepy, stylish, awesome. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the great Duran Duran-versus-zombies showdown! As with so many of Duran Duran\u2019s best videos, \u201cNight Boat\u201d was directed by Russell Mulcahy. The video, inspired at least in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-duran-duran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1651,"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions\/1651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}