The Killers‘ video for their new single “Land of the Free” is a Spike Lee joint. Lee takes a documentarian approach to the song’s protest themes, collaging verite footage of a migrant caravan, a tent city for asylum seekers, and the violent incident at the San Ysidro border crossing in November where U.S. officials fired tear gas and rubber bullets at civilians. There’s also a man flying a symbolic kite above the metal fence at the beachfront Border Field State Park in Tijuana-adjacent Imperial Beach, Calif.
Frontman Brandon Flowers told Zane Lowe on Beats 1 today that he asked Lee to direct the video after watching BlacKkKlansman and Do the Right Thing. “We’re talking about hitting people in the heart, and we have to, and he’s so positive,” Flowers said. The singer added in an Instagram note that “Land of the Free” was inspired by the Sandy Hook shooting, Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th, news reports on border confrontations, and “my friend Jimmy Kimmel’s powerful opening monologues.”
The video comes one week after Benny Blanco, Calvin Harris, and Miguel’s “I Found You / Nilda’s Story” visual, which documents a Honduran woman’s attempt to seek United States asylum with her son. Watch the “Land of the Free” video below.
