Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are 1994 makes me want a 2 hour long Michael Bay musical
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by Blender Dumbass
Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".
In 1994, just before Bad Boys Michael Bay directed a music video for a song "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are" by Meat Loaf ( Michael Lee Aday ), which shows striking resemblance to his 2001 film Pearl Harbor and has some interesting choices that echo throughout his career. Choices that beg for a psycho-sexual analysis. ↩ Reply
As you probably guessed by the title of the song, the music video in question is about our hero, played by Meat Loaf, remembering his past, mostly his childhood, and the core emotional moments of said childhood. We have a highly traumatic event. We have what appears to be first love. And we have this old man Meat Loaf singing, almost crying, about it all. ↩ Reply
The traumatic event involves two kids that want to become pilots starting an engine of a real plane. And one of them flies said plane until eventually losing control and crashing down. There is an explosion. It is Michael Bay after all. But unlike what you may think about when thinking about Michael Bay. This moment in the music video is actually quite sad. It is very properly done. As in, yes, there is a lot of Bayhem! aesthetic on the screen, but due to the short time-span and the amazing music by Meat Loaf, this moment is freaking oscar-worthy. c:0 ↩ Reply
You know I love Michael Bay. I am defending his Bayhem!ed ass already for a long time. And since I reviewed already all of this films ( apart from that one documentary he did about Storror that I am dying to watch ) I'm kind of scrambling for more Bayhem! where-ever it might be. And so I suppose I gonna review every single Michael Bay music-video / commercial he ever did. Because I need more Bayhem!... I'm addicted to Bayhem!... BAYHEM!!!! ↩ Reply
But damn he's good at this sort of stuff. He has the kind of perfectly fast brain in combination with a kick-ass sense of flow, that makes stuff like this music video a literal cinematic ( or video-matic ) masterpiece. ↩ Reply
I would literally die to see Michael Bay directing something like this that goes for 2 hours. Imagine a Michael Bay musical. People singing rock songs, while Bayhem! happens all around them. This should be just a perfect specimen of cinematic perfection. ↩ Reply
And yet there is this one part in this video that begs for more analysis. We know that Michael Bay likes his super-models. He basically demands from the entire cast of his films to be unrealistically-super-hot all the god damned time. It is not a secret. This music video has a super-model. In that one section about the "first love". ↩ Reply
Now here is a very interesting thing. We have 3 actors playing the main character. Meat Loaf himself and 2 kids. One about 8 or 9 and one about 13 or 14 played by Will Estes. ( There is some lore about this guy that makes the whole thing kind of even more insane ). There is no actor in between Will and Meat Loaf. When he falls in love with the super-model, they have a sex-scene. And the guy in this sex-scene is the 14 year old Will Estes guy. While the super-model is in her 20s. This is not an explicit sex-scene. But it is a sexually filmed sexy sex-scene. This is probably the closest thing Michael Bay ever did to actual child-porn. ↩ Reply
Taking this into consideration while thinking about what he did, say in Transfromers 4 with the Romeo and Juliet stuff. Or the criticism he got by showing Megan Fox the way he did on multiple occasions. Or even the stuff I observed him do in my review of The Island. I mean... it begs for an analysis. But I don't know how to analyze it. With Luc Besson it was way simpler. He had stuff documented about him. ↩ Reply
So let me pull a theory out of my ass real quick. What do we know about Michael Bay? We know that he started making movies as a teen, by working part time under Steven Spielberg on Raiders of the Lost Ark. He was filing storyboards. He often tells a story that he looked at those storyboards one day and thought that they were crap, until he saw the movie. And realized what a stupid asshole he was thinking of Steven's storyboards as crap. ↩ Reply
Thinking about the rumors that go around about Spielberg. Not even rumors... Internet Conspiracy Theories. I wrote about one of them in my review of The BFG. You could theorize ( in a kind of very stupid, probably false, conspiracy theory, kind of way ) that perhaps Steven found Michael attractive when Michael worked with Steven's storyboards. I mean I have a photo of Michael Bay as my wallpaper. I certainly find Michael attractive. But I suppose you can read between the lines and understand what I am actually referring to here. c:1 ↩ Reply
That could explain a lot of things that later happened. That would even explain The Lovely Bones. That would even color the Bad Boys reference in Minority Report in an interesting coat of double-meaning: Steven is saying to Michael: Bad boys, Bad boys... What you gonna do? ↩ Reply
To be frank, I don't believe those theories about Spielberg. And Bay seems to be very tuned into what sells. And there are a number of theories you can point to that say that stuff like that is inherently audience attracting, if you don't go too far with it. People love a bit of spice. And there is even a theory suggesting that all humans are pedophiles to one degree or another. In a way, the human race would not have survived if people didn't have an automatic admiration response to human babies. But in the same time, if you cross a certain conceptual line you can find yourself in too much of a hot water. c:2 ↩ Reply
A good example would be the box office numbers between the 1962 Stanley Kubrick Lolita and the 1997 remake by Adrian Lyne. The 1962 version is just spicy enough and just kosher enough that it made its budget back and is considered a great success of a movie. Meanwhile the more provocative and dark ( and as some people would say "realistic" ) 1997 version ( of the same story ) was a complete box-office failure. ↩ Reply
Adding a little of it, kind of like Kubrick did, or like what Michael Bay does all the time, makes people want to lean forward and watch more. That makes people come into the cinema. The most successful ( financially ) Transformers film is the one with the fucking Romeo & Juliet law part. This almost looks like a very well calculated understanding of human psychology. c:4 ↩ Reply
Think about it. There are stories about how Scarlett Johansson wanted to get Nude for The Island and Michael Bay said no. He thought it would be too much. Too much what? Well... the character she plays looks adult, but story-wise is like a 4 year old clone of an adult person, with a 15 year old mind. There is a sex scene between her and another clone. But it is specifically not explicit. Bay knows exactly how much spice to add and how much is too much. And her going nude would be too much. ↩ Reply
Fuck! ↩ Reply
So the lore about Will Estes. This guy became a police officer. lol ↩ Reply
Happy Hacking!!! ↩ Reply
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Troler
c:0 January 20, 2026 but due to the short time-span and the amazing music by Meat Loaf, this moment is freaking oscar-worthy.
⤴ ViewTraumatic events are best remembered for their extremes. When laying in bed, I remember some kind of embarrassing moment and internally scream to myself. The events that unfolded before and after the said event are blank on my memory.
Troler
c:1 January 20, 2026 perhaps Steven found Michael attractive when Michael worked with Steven's storyboards. I mean I have a photo of Michael Bay as my wallpaper. I certainly find Michael attractive
⤴ ViewIt would make more sense for Spielberg's if he lived in ancient Greece or Medieval Islamic country. In your case, I suspect, it has more to do with Michael Bay doing what he expects for his crew - being super-hot. In addition, your love for his films, naturally, came to be a love for him as a person.
... replies ( 1 )
Blender Dumbass
c:3 January 20, 2026 In addition, your love for his films, naturally, came to be a love for him as a person.
@Troler Imagine finding a person attractive because you like this person's work? This is a discovery of a new type of fetish.
Troler
c:2 January 20, 2026 And there is even a theory suggesting that all humans are pedophiles to one degree or another. In a way, the human race would not have survived if people didn't have an automatic admiration response to human babies
⤴ ViewIs there a problem with that?
... replies ( 1 )
Blender Dumbass
c:5 January 20, 2026@Troler I did not claim a problem with automatic admiration of human babies. I'm just trying to make an observation.
Blender Dumbass
c:3 January 20, 2026... c:1
Troler c:1 January 20, 2026 perhaps Steven found Michael attractive when Michael worked with Steven's storyboards. I mean I have a photo of Michael Bay as my wallpaper. I certainly find Michael attractive
⤴ ViewIt would make more sense for Spielberg's if he lived in ancient Greece or Medieval Islamic country. In your case, I suspect, it has more to do with Michael Bay doing what he expects for his crew - being super-hot. In addition, your love for his films, naturally, came to be a love for him as a person.
In addition, your love for his films, naturally, came to be a love for him as a person.
@Troler Imagine finding a person attractive because you like this person's work? This is a discovery of a new type of fetish.
Troler
c:4 January 20, 2026 The most successful ( financially ) Transformers film is the one with the fucking Romeo & Juliet law part
⤴ ViewReminds me of pornographic literature which has a notice at the start of the book: "All characters depicted are over the age of 18".
It doesn't stop the reader from imagining otherwise :)
... replies ( 1 )
Blender Dumbass
c:5 January 20, 2026... c:2
@Troler I did not claim a problem with automatic admiration of human babies. I'm just trying to make an observation.
Blender Dumbass
c:6 January 20, 2026... c:4
Troler c:4 January 20, 2026 The most successful ( financially ) Transformers film is the one with the fucking Romeo & Juliet law part
⤴ ViewReminds me of pornographic literature which has a notice at the start of the book: "All characters depicted are over the age of 18".
It doesn't stop the reader from imagining otherwise :)
@Troler Maybe that is how manga ( and anime ) works.
... replies ( 1 )
Troler
c:8 January 20, 2026@blenderdumbass You mean having characters that look they are 5 years old while actually being 1000? Yeah, it's a trope at this point.
Troler
c:7 January 20, 2026... c:3
Blender Dumbass c:3 January 20, 2026c:1
In addition, your love for his films, naturally, came to be a love for him as a person.
@Troler Imagine finding a person attractive because you like this person's work? This is a discovery of a new type of fetish.
@blenderdumbass I find you attractive. No homo.
... replies ( 1 )
Troler
c:8 January 20, 2026... c:6
@blenderdumbass You mean having characters that look they are 5 years old while actually being 1000? Yeah, it's a trope at this point.
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Troler@兎狼留
c:10@blenderdumbass It's intriguing to see parallel between the development of an artist and that of an individual. Usually it is one and the same path. Dependent on the adults as a child, dependent on grown-ups as an artist.
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