Green Day has released the video for 21st Century Breakdown’s “21 Guns,†a mid-tempo near ballad with piano (the obvious choice for a second single). Coming courtesy of Marc Webb (a music-video vet making his feature directorial debut with 500 Days of Summer), it’s an expertly executed, dull clip that we analyzed nonetheless because we remember hearing that Breakdown had some sort of narrative structure. So what crucial details of Green Day’s grand tale were revealed to us? None! Spliced with shots of a particularly somber, particularly eye-shadowy performance from the band is footage of two soap-commercial models walking toward each while shots ring out; the payoff, we guess, is that they end up re-creating the image from Breakdown’s crappy cover art. There, we just saved you five minutes.
