Browsing around IMDb on a chilly Saturday afternoon I found some hip-hop tracks listed as short films and decided to check out what they actually were. In some cases they were just that and nothing more – music videos but in some cases they were more towards being short films. The Fire is probably the furthest from being a music video and if you dropped the music it would still stand up on its own, albeit without the context of the music which would be a loss as they are connected. The song is from The Roots (a great group who go beyond the hip-hop label that some may assume is a limit to them) and it is essentially about having something within you that makes you carry on while others don't make it. The chorus contains a line about not saying "good luck" but rather saying "don't give up" as it is mostly the latter which is the key factor in making it.
This simple sentiment is applied to a group of prisoners being transported by soldiers across a jungle in what appears to be the 1960s or 70s. We aren't given much context for this but the group go through extreme violence and treatment in a way that is engaging and works well with the song itself – since this is a downbeat track, although the message is about making it, it is more about "surviving" rather than really excelling. The short is really well filmed and has an atmosphere and brutal tone that is consistently delivered with very little in the way of dialogue under the music. Some of the themes or metaphors were a little lost on me, but generally I enjoyed it and felt it worked very well with what is a very strong track.
