Background For the music video of the song, Björk collaborated again with French film director
Michel Gondry, who had previously directed the video for "
Human Behaviour" in 1993. In the video, Björk is the driver of a tanker truck. The singer "said that she wanted to capture that 'tanker-truck' feeling, the sense of a big machine grinding unstoppably through town" and further stated: "I thought I should be driving a very, very big truck to try to wake this person who's asleep, so I get the biggest truck in the world, and I'm so mad I've got metallic teeth, because when you're really angry, you grind your teeth. So I have to go to the dentist, who tries to steal away from me a diamond I don't know I have."
Synopsis The first seconds of the music video show a young man in cryonic slumber. It then cuts to Björk, wearing a black
karate gi, driving a large vehicle through a city. The passers-by seem to ignore the mass of the vehicle. The vehicle begins to sputter and slow, prompting Björk to check the motor. Before floating off the vehicle, she turns to the camera and shows metallic teeth. The vehicle's engine assembly consists of a mouth in which all of the teeth appear rotten, comically exaggerated by a shaggy-looking man engulfed in a stench-cloud crawling out of the mouth and offending passers-by. Björk touches her cheek, appearing to have a toothache, and proceeds to a nearby dentist's office. While she is going to the room of the dentist, her image appears reflected in a series of mirrors that make it impossible to distinguish her real self. She is examined by the dentist, an
anthropomorphic gorilla, who discovers a diamond in her mouth. The dentist attempts to steal the diamond for himself, but Björk leaps onto his back and pummels him, and, retrieving the diamond, escapes the office. She takes the diamond back to her vehicle, all the while it multiplies in size until she is barely able to carry it. Björk tosses the diamond into the vehicle's mouth, apparently correcting its earlier affliction. She then drives to a museum and proceeds inside, carrying a satchel containing a bomb. Sneaking past the museum's guards, she places the bomb on one of the exhibits – the young man seen in the beginning of the video lying on an altar in a deep sleep. She then bolts toward the museum's exit, concerning the guards and other patrons. She makes it out of the building just moments before the bomb explodes. After the explosion, she re-enters the building to find the man from the altar, who appears to have been just wakened by the blast. Björk hugs him, crying teardrops of jewels.
Reception The video was well received by critics. Quoted by Tim Walker of
The Independent, The New Yorker’s music critic, Sasha Frere-Jones describes “Army of Me”: "catchy, commercial song that was utterly original, and she's easily beautiful enough to have taken advantage of her sexuality in the video, but instead she got Michel Gondry to make a brilliant promo about her going to a gorilla dentist to get a huge diamond pulled out of her mouth". Gondry's visual imagery was heavily praised: "Gondry is a treat with visual details in defining his realities, and he provides in 'Army of Me'. The museum sequence furnishes an example: Before Björk bombs it, there are many artworks on the walls, each piece reflecting the apparent banality of the museum. One area shows a person observing a work which is a painting of a person in an art museum observing a work. After the explosion, everything is torn apart, bathed in smoke. Björk comes and retrieves her loved one, crying small diamonds onto his shoulder." The ending of "Army of Me" music video depicted Björk bombing an art museum, and due to a recent
terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City,
MTV removed it from its playlist before it even aired.{{cite book| last = Pytlik| first= Mark| title= Björk: Wow and Flutter In 1995, the video was nominated for two
MTV Video Music Awards, one for
Best Special Effects in a Video and one for International Viewer's Choice Awards – MTV Europe, losing the former to "
Love Is Strong" by
The Rolling Stones and the latter to "
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" by
U2. ==Live performances ==