Analysis of a Music Video - Hurt by Johnny Cash

The video to this song was Grammy award winning and filmed in February 2003. He died seven months after it was filmed. The director  - Mark Romanek - had previously worked with Nine Inch Nails,who originally wrote the song.

The entire video keeps in beat throughout the song, with one of the first images being of Jesus and fruit. The lighting on Johnny is the sunset - the end of the day is to symbolism the end of his career and life. The first shot we see of Johnny is his guitar, also to symbolize his career because that is what helped him to build it. When the camera cuts to johnny he isn't looking at the camera, he is looking out towards the sunset, as if he is facing his death, or reflecting on his life. His suit is also another relation to his career - it is the southern or 'country' version of a suit.

One of the next scenes is an american flag flying, portraying patriotism or just representing the fact that he is in america and is american. It then shows where the flag is attached to - the johnny cash museum. The next scene of the museum shows that it is closed to the public.

When Johnny sings 'I remember everything' it cuts to archive footage of when he was younger or 'in his prime'. They also use this when he sings 'Everyone I know goes away' and shows a photograph of his mother - this is called anchorage because it shows a image that could mean anything but will mean something to everyone.

Going back to the museum, it shows the inside of it. On the floor it shows a broken gold record, which was one of johnny's biggest achievements but it is broken and on the floor to show that the money and fame means nothing to him. They then show the archive footage of him the prison which was one of his most famous achievements.

They then show footage of him visiting an old house, and as he turns round showing his younger face is then cuts to johnny in the present while he sings the 'beneath the stains of time'.

In the video you see him at a table, as in like a last supper, with a big roast and fruit and crystal goblets and champagne,but its all rotten,showing again that he doesn't care for his wealth.

The next 'sweetest friend' cuts to a photo of him and his wife,and then shows a scene of her on the stairs behind him,but he doesn't look at her, almost as if he knows he is going to die alone. This links with next scene which shows him pouring red wine all over the feast goes back to Jesus on the crucifix right at the start - and the line 'I wear this crown of thorns' as the wine is the symbol of the blood of Christ and again relates to his immanent death.

In the last four lines they begin to show a montage of his life using archived footage with the words 'if i could start again a million miles away' perhaps saying that if he had the chance to start again he wouldn't have gone down the celebrity path.

The closing over the piano is another reference to the ending of something. He closes the piano and there is no music and it is there to represent the end of his music career and the end of his life.

Binary Oppositions

If there is no conflict there is no drama - meaning most films have opposites. For example, in westerns they often show the conflict between the cowboys and the Native Americans. Another example is through horror films – the conflict is between demons and human in the house usually. The person behind this theory is called Levi Strauss - he lived in the early 1900's. I used the example of sci-fi because it is a good example of oppositions - I used district 9 as an example. They challenge the opposition through the fact the main character then becomes a alien,but the main opposition is through the aliens and the humans. There is also opposition within the aliens camp as some of them don't get on with the other and constantly scrap over silly things. There is also conflict within the goverment - they won't let them have children, but some of the humans believe this is wrong.