Duran Duran's clip for their massive classic "Hungry Like the Wolf" presents the band traveling to Sri Lanka in some curious and strange adventures, with Simon Le Bon meeting an exotic girl and having a wild time with her while the other four band mates go through many different places trying to find him...
This lush and cinematic video filmed in Sri Lanka was filled with shots of jungles, rivers, elephants, cafes and marketplaces evoking the exotic atmosphere of swashbuckler adventure films like Gunga Din and Raiders of the Lost Ark. The story-line reflected the lyrics "I'm on the hunt, I'm after you," with Le Bon pursuing a tiger-like woman from parties in the city through obstacles in the jungle, culminating in a final chase and struggle in a jungle clearing. In the meantime, other band members hunted for Le Bon. One shot of Le Bon's head rising out of the water in portentous slow motion (it was actually filmed backwards) is an homage to an identical shot in Apocalypse Now.
And in that moment we were all hungry like wolves...This cinematic clip directed by Russell Mulcahy (a few years before "Highlander") is the one that put Duran Duran on the map, a heavily aired clip on MTV back in the day presenting what the band was all about: edgy, sexy and with sounds and melody that captured your attention very easily. A perfect mix of rock and pop, the great sound of the 1980's.

So, "Hungrly like the Wolf" presents Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and three Taylors (Nick, John and Roger) in strange adventures in Sri Lanka, evoking "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and even "Apocalypse Now" - strangers in a strange land in search of adventures, running all around in an exotic place filled with poverty, crowded spaces and one particular exotic and gorgeous woman, object of attraction of Le Bon of whom he searches and has a final and wild moment filled with eroticism, and we expect, they don't show but they were about to devour each other like wild animals. Instant classic clip with Le Bon throwing a table at a bar; their band mates running to rescue him - John Taylor, man, and that opened shirt, woof - the fight/sex scene with Simon and the girl...pure gold.

Compared to many artists from the period, the sound always were what made them what they are; the clips were top notch back in the 1980's, I must say. It's not like many other Brit or American videos that came in the 1980's, the style and visual was good and effective, translating much of the song's message but today it's a little strange to watch them. Still a lot better than the junk that came in the years to come. They were hot without overreacting in the sexiness.

Along with "Rio" clip (same album) it has to be one of their greatest video triumphs, very memorable. My personal picks, though, go with "A View to a Kill" and "Sunrise" and let's not forget the monumental, accidental and crazed "Wild Boys", a halva of clip

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