The overwhelming atribulations of a work filled with pressures, deadlines and commitments can turn a man into a nature creature who releases its wildest side and outside of the realm of a working space. Well, not really. What genius Peter Gabriel makes in "Shock the Monkey" is a metaphorical state of mind that sometimes crosses our deepest thoughts when we're having our bad stressful moments at work. It's like we wanna throw everything away, get some air and go nuts for a while...almost like Michael Douglas in "Falling Down". But we always come back to reality because it hits us hard but it's what we need to survive in the concrete jungle.
The director and Gabriel devised an artistic and intense piece of work, very unusual if consider what MTV was presenting to us in terms of 80's clips. There's a great ammount of speed, color fighting with black-and-white just as Gabriel fights himself as a common office worker and the masked creature who joins the apes in the forest. Excellent technique aligned with a hard-hitting music.
I don't see much sollution for the "story", I just think much of what happen in this duality of man and places it goes all over in his head, it's all a metaphor against what the monetary system pressures us to do in terms of reaching quality and goals in a hurried matter, giving us no time to think or have a social life. This is "Shock the Monkey", an experience that tests our limits and see if we can make or break. Not much critical or spectacular as "Big Time" but still a catchy song, dangerous, and reflects life as it is and the possibility of what could be - reverse us to our nature state as apes (after all, they manage to be smarter than us and can do the same things we do too). 9/10.