My 1st Blog: Beastie Boys' 'Fight For Your Right Revisited': Five Things You Might Have Missed

Friday, April 22, 2011

Beastie Boys' 'Fight For Your Right Revisited': Five Things You Might Have Missed

Star-studded film is packed with nods to the Beasties' past and present.
By James Montgomery

John C. Reilly, Will Ferrell and Jack Black in the "Fight For Your Right Revisited" video
Photo: Capitol Records

By now, you've probably watched — and subsequently re-watched — the Beastie Boys' new "Fight For Your Right Revisited" film, which premiered at midnight Thursday morning (April 21) on MTV2, mtvU, VH1 Classic and Palladia.

In theory, it's a tongue-in-cheek retrospective on the Beasties' early License To Ill days, picking up where their sublimely stoopid "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)" video left off, following Mike D, Ad-Rock and MCA — as played by Seth Rogen, Elijah Wood and Danny McBride, respectively — on a drunken spree that culminates in an epic dance battle against their future selves (John C. Reilly, Will Ferrell and Jack Black, just in case you're keeping score at home). But really, it works just as well as a rather-involved exercise in cameo spotting, as seemingly everyone in the universe pops up for a frame or three.

Thankfully, the Beasties were nice enough to include a list of co-stars in the closing credits. Our favorites include Susan Sarandon and Stanley Tucci as the bewildered parents who interrogate the Beasties post-party, Will Arnett as a businessman who gives a shout-out to "Arrested Development" ("COME ON!") and Orlando Bloom's inexplicable three-second cameo as a window washer in a Def Jam windbreaker. But there seems to be a batch of uncredited cameos too — we're pretty sure we saw Danny Masterson and Zach Galifianakis in there. In fact, outside of some of Michael Jackson's biggest videos ("Liberian Girl" and "Remember the Time" come to mind), "Fight For Your Right Revisited" might very well be the most celeb-heavy video of all time.

But, as we said, "Fight For Your Right" is also so much more. And while you were busy trying to keep track of all the cameos, you probably failed to notice some of the film's subtler moments — nods to the Beasties' past and present, the majority of which pass by with blink-and-you'll-miss-it speed. Here are five we've noticed. And while we've watched the thing no less than a dozen times, we're sure there are some we missed. Let us know in the comments below!

Chateau Ted el Michel Dée:
This is the name of the French restaurant the Beasties stumble into (and subsequently tumble out of). The maitre d? None other than Ted Danson (Steve Buscemi is a waiter, and the clientele includes everyone from Roman Coppola to Laura Dern). Roughly translated, the phrase means "The castle of Ted and Mike D," which is not only a nod to a lyric from "Make Some Noise" (as D spits, "Opened up a restaurant with Ted Danson") but, whether the Beasties knew it or not, is also an eerily prescient preview of season three of HBO's "Bored To Death," in which Danson's droll, endlessly toking George Christopher opens up a restaurant.

Nathanial Hornblower:
Swiss-born director/alias of Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, Hornblower has helmed many Beastie videos over the years and famously stormed the stage at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards after the "Sabotage" video lost out to R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts," calling the show "a farce" and claiming he had come up with the original idea for "Star Wars." In "Fight For Your Right Revisited," it's comedian David Cross who dons Hornblower's famed lederhosen, reprising a role he first took on in the short "A Day in the Life of Nathanial Hornblower."

"Shake Your Rump":
Song from the Beasties' epochal Paul's Boutique album, released as a single with accompanying multi-cam, ultra-low-budget video (seriously, it's little more than each of the B-Boys rapping into a camera, which is cut together in rhythm with the song). It might be a stretch, but we don't think we were the only ones who noticed that, in "Fight For Your Right Revisited," when Will Ferrell's mariachi plays a cowbell atop a limousine, the performance is shot and edited in much the same fashion.

Stuyvesant High School:
Manhattan public school forever immortalized by Ad-Rock, who wore a Stuyvesant Physical Education T-shirt in the original "Fight For Your Right" video. This lead to rumors that Ad-Rock had attended the school, when, in fact, it was original Beasties drummer Kate Schellenbach (as Mike D would reveal to Time magazine years later). The shirt is, of course, replicated in "Revisited."

Vincent van Gogh:
Dutch post-Impressionist painter most famous for works like "Starry Night," and, of course, cutting off his own ear and giving it to a prostitute for safe keeping. In "Revisited," Jason Schwartzman can be seen with bandages wrapped around his head, much like van Gogh's 1889 self-portrait (painted post ear-chopping). This is probably a nod to the Paul's Boutique track "Hey Ladies," which features a shout-out to van Gogh "mailing that ear."

What else did you spot in "Fight For Your Right Revisited"? Tell us below!

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