Lady Gaga never fall short of surprising us. The pop phenomenon surprises us all this time with a controversial free music video, while we were expecting otherwise, especially taking into account the video’s religious-driven concept.
Gaga opt to tame her usual blasphemous ways for the Judas music video and rather pays an homage and celebrate her catholic upbringing with the religious imagery rife music video. In fact in an recent interview with E!, the 25-year-old jokes about her directorial debut saying “In my opinion, the only controversial thing about this video is that I’m wearing Christian Lacroix and Chanel in the same frame”.
The almost 6-minute long picture kicks off with Jesus (Rick Gonzalez), who sports cornrows and dons a thorn crown, riding a motorcycle through modern-day Jerusalem with his revolutionized Apostles, who are all wearing biker leather jackets. Mary Magdalene (Lady Gaga) is seen riding on the same bike as Jesus and clinging on his back, with her blonde locks sweeping in the air. At some point Gaga even try to warn Jesus of Judas’ (Norman Reedus) impending betrayal.
What follows is what Gaga does best, a catchy dance number, high-fashion garments, thought rousing pop culture symbolism, just with no product placement all over the place this time. The Judas dance choreography is one of the strongest we have seen from Gaga thus far.
Gaga sports a lot of interesting hairdos in the video, from her blonde locks shaped in a crown, to being wrapped in a bandanna, to even a huge Marie Antoinette-esque mop as well as blonde and black straps at one stage. Praise Val Garland for perfectly executing Gaga’s flawless make-up, especially that cat-like eyeliner and bold red lips seen in the close-up shot, where Gaga caress her face with dagger-shaped nails.
There are a lot of religious iconography in the video, as it would be expected. For starters Jesus is seen wearing a thorn crown throughout the video. Though she gives it her own twist, Gaga also wears a blue Virgin Mary cloak. Peter too is spotted in the video. Gaga is seen washing Jesus’ feet in a bathtub and the Judas betrayal kiss also gets homaged.
Three scenes stand out in the video. The first comes during the song’s bridge, where Gaga confront Judas with a gun and when she pulls the trigger, a red lipstick emerge from the gun instead of a bullet, which she smears Judas’ face with. Right after follows the most visually thrilling scene of the video, during which the video takes an extended play and Gaga is swept by a wave of water while wearing a Sally LaPointe custom gold metallic dress. The last scene of the video is without a doubt one for the fashion lovers and deserves a moment of silence. Gaga is filmed walking in a gorgeous Christian Lacroix couture bridal gown, where she is gracefully stoned to death.
