A split screen presents two different realities yet despite many contrasts there is something in common between the two lead characters from this music video:
it revolves around children of similar age and one pair of shoes. On the left corner we have a kid from a developed country, he lives in a place where he can study,
have fun with his friends, spends his time in between duties and pleasure while living a colorful comfortable life. On the right corner there's a Chinese kid who
throughout most of the video is seen working and working, minor break then back to work again, living/working under extremely poor conditions just to get a nickel at
the end of the day. What connects both kids? As said before, a pair of shoes. The more developed kid uses the shoes made by the Chinese kid...I guess you can get a picture from
here.
"Radiohead: All I Need" video is a gripping, relevant and masterful work that serves to create a debate, to open minds who are either too ignorant to see the
reality before their eyes - because seeing that kind of thing on the news isn't enough and to have a feature film with a similar topic is something most audiences
tend to avoid. And this isn't much of a case of a band making us analyze our lucky and privileged we are for not having to endure hardships and feel ashamed because
others have it worse (some may feel this way, we're human and some of us have conscience, or we think about how our lives could be different than what we know and live);
no, here's a video that raises awareness on children's exploitation through hard labour. Here, the sneakers/shoes are the most suitable example because it's something
a majority of people benefit from - objects coming from the other side of the world, specially China where they sell it for almost nothing while exploiting workers paying
less than a dollar an hour and working for long hours (it does happen in other nations too, just using the example because it's what the video gives us). When you get that
scope you can image other dimension such as sexual/traffic exploitation of children; or the kids who are taken by drug lords to become their bodyguards and take over
control of full neighborhoods in the favelas of Brazil - someone is always profiting and taking advantage of innocent beings that should have the opportuity to live, play,
learn things, go to school and find themselves a future just like that kid from the left corner. Do you think he ever thought about that kid who made his shoes? Does he ever
know about his existence? Does he feel guilty about his privileges or feel sorry about that hard working exploited kid or it'll come with time when he grow up and live
a promising life? We wonder..."Will those feet in modern times walk on soles that are made in China?" And as for the other kid, work is all that there is. To support himself and his family, nothing more, no time to play and be a normal child.
The main concern for Thom Yorke and troupe is not even sell the song or make it an appealing song to play on the radio (back in the day, it played a lot as I
vividly remember), but above all is to create a powerful campaign about the issue revolving working children. That's important. I've seen the video several times
through the years, from MTV Brazil "dying days" then at high school when there's a nice debate about it to current days. With a page on the site I'm kinda late in
writing it but the timing couldn't been more appropriate. I always like to write about the things I see in arts, films or music videos when there's some form of
relevance or a mirror to life when we can analyze and present a perspective on things because after all life reflects art and vice-versa. This review takes the risk of
being dated but I don't care. Our current government has a president that, despite changing countless working laws to the point where basically no one will be able to retire, he said that children will be allowed to work under the new law. School's not important but work is, that's level of mentality. And I come to look back at this
video and think we're one step away of having a generation of working kids that won't know the value of education, they'll only be created for work through their whole
lives seeing the world going around them, other people evolving while they'll stay at the same dead-end job, living in poverty, underpaid and whose work is used for
others to profit either inside their country or elsewhere. This isn't what they need but it might be all they have. Gotta fight this at all costs. 10/10
