It’s July 4th once again, but I don’t think anyone is really feeling Patriotic this year — well, I am seeing the original “Top Gun” at Cinespia tonight with fireworks afterwards, and I’ll certainly be hootin’ and hollerin’ the entire time, but those cheers are mainly for the fighter jets and hot men playing volleyball. There has been one iconic moment of American culture I’ve been thinking about a lot, though: The chopped-up Mini Cooper in the banned music video for Madonna’s 2003 single “American Life” from the album of the same name.
“American Life” was heavily influenced by 9/11 and how the world changed afterward, and it was Madonna’s most political, divisive, and strange album yet. The title track was chosen as the lead single, releasing on March 22, 2003, and Madonna really wanted to make an anti-war statement with the music video. Directed by Jonas Åkerlund, it depicts a military-themed fashion show that Madonna literally crashes with the Mad Max–style Mini, and chaos ensues as she sprays the crowd with a fire hose that emerges from the Mini’s roof. Then bloody, maimed, on-fire soldiers appear on the runway, with a raptured audience blissfully cheering as explosions go off. It’s all interspersed with pretty intense war footage, including clips of gravely injured children. The video ends with Madonna driving off in the Mini and tossing a grenade. I will caution you, it’s definitely NSFW.
I drive my Mini Cooper and I’m feeling super-duper
After much back-and-forth with networks and multiple versions and cuts being made, it was planned to be released in early April, but Madonna ultimately decided against releasing the video at the last minute, both in fear of the potential backlash and her family’s safety, and because of how rapidly things had changed with the war. Still, the original version had already been shown on TV in Europe and subsequently leaked online. A much more boring alternate version was officially released a few weeks later, showing Madonna singing in front of different countries’ flags. Luckily, two years ago Madonna released a remastered 4K version of the director’s cut on her YouTube channel, so now we don’t have to rely on low-quality illegal downloads anymore. This director’s cut doesn’t even have what was perhaps the most controversial bit of the original video, though. In one version, a George Bush lookalike caught the grenade and used it to light a cigar, while in another he shares the cigar with a Saddam Hussein lookalike.
And the Mini itself really is rad. It’s just a basic first-gen Cooper, but its doors and windows have been removed, and the fenders have been cut to fit chunky off-road tires sticking far out from the car. It’s got tubular bumpers with a bull bar, side steps, lots of extra lights, and camouflage paint. Oh, and there’s an American flag on the back, and the license plate says “Hell on Wheels.” At around the time of the album’s release Madonna owned a first-gen Mini in London and was frequently seen driving it around, and she calls out the Mini in the song, too. In the highly-memed rap verse of “American Life,” Madonna says:
I’m drinking a soy latte, I get a double shoté
It goes right through my body, and you know I’m satisfied
I drive my Mini Cooper and I’m feeling super-duper
Yo, they tell I’m a trooper, and you know I’m satisfied
I hope you have a super-duper July 4th.
