The Sheriff of Johnny Rottenham

Pop quiz, hot shot: what do “God Save the Queen”, “Stray Cat Strut” and Alan Jackson’s “Don’t Rock the Jukebox” have in common? 

All three have music videos directed by a man named Julien Temple. Temple kicked off his career directing the seminal Sex Pistols faux doc, “The Great Rock n Roll Swindle” before moving on to a swath of huge music videos. From my second favorite Judas Priest video “Breaking the Law” (nothing will ever compare to the post-apocalyptic robot motorcycle epic: “Turbo Lover”), to time-traveling Boy George in “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?” and even Sade’s “Smooth Operator”, Temple helmed some of the biggest videos in the era when they were killing the proverbial Radio Star.

When he wasn’t cranking out the hits for the fledgling MTV, Temple found time to direct a movie that starred Jeff Goldblum, Damon Wayans and Jim Carey as horny aliens, a neo-noir that featured a tracksuit-clad Mickey Rourke, Tupac Shakur sporting an eyepatch and a young, enthusiastically cussing Peter Dinklage, and a truly fine documentary about the late Joe Strummer that I can’t recommend highly enough.

Amid such an illustrious career, however, Mr. Temple found time to craft the crown jewel of his oeuvre. A music video that combined blue-eyed sensitivity with pulse-pounding action, pianos in the middle of a forest with flaming arrows and explosions and, perhaps most importantly: Bryan Adams in a leather trenchcoat with Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman flying over a wall on a catapult. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the closing theme from the second highest-grossing film of 1991: “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You”

Don’t say I never did nothin’ for ya.