Estranged (1993)

Released on September 17, 1991, Guns & Roses albums "Use Your Illusion I & II," were follow-ups to their highly acclaimed debut, "Appetite For Destruction." Between these two musical masterpieces, three tracks ("Don't Cry," "November Rain," and "Estranged") were selected as a part of a trilogy of videos to be directed by Andy Morahan. Though the first two songs were commercial successes, "Estranged," though still mildly successful, failed to attain prominent status among critics and fans. However, in the realm of video and short film efforts, "Estranged" is a tour de force of melancholy, allegory, and allusion. The video is cut into 3 basic parts (Axl's home, the streets of L.A., & in the middle of the ocean), all culminating in an intense Slash guitar solo. I will attempt to sort out these parts and hopefully bring about a better understanding of the whole.
The video begins on an empty children's playground, a reflection of a past carefree and beautiful. The scene then cuts to a SWAT team infiltrating the home of Axl Rose in an attempt to bring him out of hiding. Ironically, Axl is hiding in an overhead compartment of a child's room--a possible allusion to the "Diary of Anne Frank," a biography about a child forced too quickly into adulthood by uncontrollable circumstances. The scene then cuts to a less abstract Guns & Roses performance, where Axl and his band mates are voyerized and idolized by millions. During the performance, there is a cut sequence where we see Axl lie down on a couch to rest and have what appears to be an out-of-body/dream sequence, which involves him going into the shower with his clothes on. This scene parallels the wedding scene in "November Rain" (the second installment of the trilogy) in which the event is rained out, a harkening back to his now dissolved marriage. We next see Axl being led out of the house quietly by what appears to be a large authoritative figure. The clothes of all of the police officers, participants in Axl's removal, and even Axl, are all white and the decor of his home casts a stark, clean paleness early in the video. The scene is dreamlike, but we are to assume that his ejection is a reality and that his marriage has bitterly ended.
In the second third of the video, the mood drastically changes and we see that Axl has returned to the streets of L.A.--a place where he once struggled to survive (the theme of much of G&R's "Appetite for Destruction"), but now finds comfort. At this point, the almost surreal dolphin imagery begins to appear in the backdrop of televisions, storefronts, cargo planes, and in the streets. The dolphins appear to symbolize a memory of his past life, possibly childhood, in which Axl lived worry free and happy. These "memories" will later rescue him and keep him from drowning in a sea of heartache and self-estrangement. During the sequence on the streets of L.A. we get a Slash guitar solo in which he floats along the crowded sidewalk in and out of people, but is not even noticed. This scene speaks to the band's past as "no names" that left their homes and sought to make their way as musicians. Axl's return to the streets marks his frustration with the new idolization of the band and his longing for a life more ordinary.
The third installment of the video begins on a large cargo ship in the middle of the ocean. Frustrated with his broken marriage, the band's idolization and his inability to return to the life he once knew, Axl attempts to take his life by jumping off the barge and into the ocean. He refuses help from drowning/support from his band mates (life buoy, row boat) and ultimately sinks toward the bottom of the abyss. On the verge of drowning, Axl is saved by the one thing he holds onto that makes him happy, his memories ("dolphinified"). As the dolphins lead him toward the surface, the background illuminates with the color of sunrise, symbolic of Axl's new beginning. In a very Arthurian Excalibur moment, Slash rises out of the ocean for a final guitar solo to play his friend home. A helicopter of Axl's band mates descends on the ocean for his rescue; they have never stopped looking for him or offering their support. However, despite his band mate’s efforts, the notion is that to find tranquility, Axl had to reach into himself and discover it on his own. One of the final images in the video is of one of Axl's sneakers drifting to the bottom of the ocean floor. This Cinderella-esque moment suggests that a part of him has actually fallen to the bottom of the ocean and will remain there and also implies that he may return there again someday. We are left with a postscript of Axl sitting on the couch where the dream sequence began, he is wrapped in a robe alongside of the memory (dolphin) that saved him.
"Estranged" has a running time of 9:40 seconds and is truly a masterpiece, which documents the struggle and self-resurrection of one of pop culture's most well-known vocalists. In today's world of pop music reduced to 2-3 minutes for the sole purpose of air play, "Estranged" is beacon of stability and high art.

4 out of 4