by 
This is not your mother’s Nine Inch Nails.
After circulating amongst hushed whispers and 18th-generation VHS copies for 20 years, Trent Reznor‘s artistically nightmarish masterpiece, the short film based on his Nine Inch Nail’s EP “Broken,” has once again hit the net.
A 20-minute excursion into the depths of sadistic torture, 1993’s Broken incorporates the videos for each of the songs from the EP into a larger storyline. In short, a killer forces his victim to watch NIN videos while torturing, sodomizing, and mutilating the victim. The choppy and amateurish “snuff film” quality enhances the shock value and authenticity of the killer storyline, while revisiting the videos reinforces Reznor’s genius and artistic vision during his most prolific period. The very definition of true art is to elicit a visceral reaction from the audience, and Reznor was a pioneer when it came to proving that art does not have to be limited to canvas or architecture.
He took the video medium that brought us atrocities such as “We Built This City” and delivered authenticity…disturbing authenticity, but authenticity nonetheless.
Here is a link to the film. You must enter your birth date to watch; if the date does not work, try a similar date.
Be warned: this film is graphic, violent, grotesque, and features both gore and nudity. Do NOT click the link if you are easily offended; there is a reason why it is one of the most infamous mainstream videos ever created.
It is also art.
So many did not understand Broken, the halo itself or this particular video. Though this was a dark time for him as an artist, it IS art, as were the halos that preceded and followed – Fixed was largely ignored after Broken, heck, much was misunderstood or ignored after The Downward Spiral. All it took for mainstream America was the video for Closer to dub TRez as deeply disturbed, when in fact, I personally believe that album, Broken, and The Fragile are brilliant and not comparable to anything in that genre.
Motzart was called dark and disturbing, was his music not brilliant? Was he not told he ‘used too many notes, created too much noise’? There was method in his musical madness there as well. I think Reznor is comparable in many ways to some of the great composers, and as time goes on, perhaps more open minded study will be done on Reznors influence, his artistic gift, and the directions he chose to go in. Reznor is a great artist – whether or not people can see past the visceral nature of this video and the extreme noise of that halo, it cannot be doubted that this is art.
I’ve seen Nails live since it’s earliest inception and I’ve witnessed his evolution as an artist, an addict, a person, a musician, and I am hugely greatful for his talent and for the music that has added so much to my life. This is my NIN, but not my children’s..so I laughed when I read, “this is not your mothers Nine Inch Nails'”.