Music Video Analysis
This music video very much symbolises the end of Johnny Cash's music career and is everything a viewer would have thought it to be. The video includes photographs of his career, archive footage and Johnny Cash in his older age.
The video includes many symbolic scenes and props to add a greater depth of emotion to the video, making Mise en Scene very important to prompting viewers emotions. In the opening scene of the video we see Cash dressed in all black, this is important as he is known as 'the man in black' and therefore in the closing of his career, he has to say goodbye to who he was. After we see a shot of him in the opening scene, we then see a low angle shot of the american flag and a sign for the closing of his museum. The fact in which he had a museum shows his fame and the closing of this museum then shows the fading of his career and the falling of his empire? The american flag represents freedom and what it means to be American. Johnny Cash made part of american history with his music and represented what it was to be American making a stamp on the music industry and how it improves itself.
In johnny second appearance in the video we see him open the piano. This is a very symbolic movement, almost as if he is opening the piano for one last song. This all adds to the emotion and reality of the video, all scenes in the video sum up his career in a very short space of time. His appearance in the video shows him in his old age and this in itself sums up the long life he has led and everything he has done to build up an empire for himself and his family. It definitely causes emotion for the viewer, especially those who know cash or are fans of him as it shows his pain and sadness towards aspects of his life rather than celebrating all of the achievements he had made for himself. For anybody at an old age, they should look back at the good times in their life and the fact that he still feels sadness and dwells on the bad causes viewers to feel sympathetic and almost helpless towards his state of mind.
We see a scene of an empty museum when Cash emphasizes 'Empire of dirt'. This makes me think although he has built an empire for himself out of money and possession, that will not been anything to him or anybody else when he dies so what is the point? the empty museum symbolises how all of his possesions are now dirty, broken and worthless showing that they may have once been worth money but now his career has ended they do not mean anything. This then allows me to see his viewpoint and why he may feel so negative towards his life and memories. Perhaps he hurt the people that mean something to him to build himself a worthless empire that now means nothing and he has nobody. The famous broken golden record was emphasized in the scene of the museum. A golden record is a very important prize possession in an artists life showing them that they have made it and achieved every upcoming artists dream. The fact this record is broken symbolises his broken career.
The cut we see to Cash in prison shows the dark moments in his life and everything that helped to build up the character he became. After his time in prison he enjoyed to visit prisons everywhere and perform to the prisoners as he didn't agree with the justice system. Many people will have different opinions on this however i think as a whole this puts Cash in a good light and whilst showing the wrong he's done in his life he's also looking back on the people he has done right by. Another part of the video that sheds some light on his story is the light being turned on in a room in which he keeps all of his merchandise. This shows there is still light and life in his career and possessions despite all of the bad that's happened, there have been many good aspects to his life.
The way in which Cash is sat before a wide table of food has a very symbolic message. The large quantity of food symbolises his wealth and greed and how he has nobody to share it with. I believe this has a very religious link and message perhaps linking with the last song, the last supper? The way in which he pours the wine onto the table signifys the blood of Christ and how he is giving Christ all of his possesions, belongings and wealth as he know longer wants it.
The lighting throughout the video remains dark. This is most likely due to the strong emotion throughout the video and represents the dark place that Johnny Cash is in. A lot of synthetic lighting is used also to dramatise scenes such as the scene where Cash is playing the piano and there is a bright orange light in the background to represent a sunset.
In terms of camera angles, we see a varied range of that support the mood of the video. Many close ups are used throughout the video in order to show Cash's emotions as this emphasises the lyrics and depth of meaning. We see an extreme close up of Cash and silhouettes showing his old age and therefore his long life. The wrinkles on his face show tiredness emphasising his struggle to fight against all he has done wrong and his tiredness of feeling the way he does. Many pans are used throughout the video. The pans show the scene thoroughly and make the audience feel a part of the scene as they are seeing more than one area of a location. For example, Cash's empty museum is panned to show in depth how empty the room has become with his career now becoming non existent.
Half way through the video there is a cut to Cash in prison, this shows his struggles in life giving the song lyrics meaning. Johnny Cash spent a lot of time performing in Prisons as he didn't agree with the justice system and knew first hand what it was like. The abrupt cuts create a build up of dark moments and memories telling only part of Cash's story, towards the end of the video the cuts become very fast paced and we see a build up of moments in his life and then a sudden stop to show his life has past in fast motion and now he is where he is today.
The video doesn't involve much editing.
The video includes many symbolic scenes and props to add a greater depth of emotion to the video, making Mise en Scene very important to prompting viewers emotions. In the opening scene of the video we see Cash dressed in all black, this is important as he is known as 'the man in black' and therefore in the closing of his career, he has to say goodbye to who he was. After we see a shot of him in the opening scene, we then see a low angle shot of the american flag and a sign for the closing of his museum. The fact in which he had a museum shows his fame and the closing of this museum then shows the fading of his career and the falling of his empire? The american flag represents freedom and what it means to be American. Johnny Cash made part of american history with his music and represented what it was to be American making a stamp on the music industry and how it improves itself.
In johnny second appearance in the video we see him open the piano. This is a very symbolic movement, almost as if he is opening the piano for one last song. This all adds to the emotion and reality of the video, all scenes in the video sum up his career in a very short space of time. His appearance in the video shows him in his old age and this in itself sums up the long life he has led and everything he has done to build up an empire for himself and his family. It definitely causes emotion for the viewer, especially those who know cash or are fans of him as it shows his pain and sadness towards aspects of his life rather than celebrating all of the achievements he had made for himself. For anybody at an old age, they should look back at the good times in their life and the fact that he still feels sadness and dwells on the bad causes viewers to feel sympathetic and almost helpless towards his state of mind.
We see a scene of an empty museum when Cash emphasizes 'Empire of dirt'. This makes me think although he has built an empire for himself out of money and possession, that will not been anything to him or anybody else when he dies so what is the point? the empty museum symbolises how all of his possesions are now dirty, broken and worthless showing that they may have once been worth money but now his career has ended they do not mean anything. This then allows me to see his viewpoint and why he may feel so negative towards his life and memories. Perhaps he hurt the people that mean something to him to build himself a worthless empire that now means nothing and he has nobody. The famous broken golden record was emphasized in the scene of the museum. A golden record is a very important prize possession in an artists life showing them that they have made it and achieved every upcoming artists dream. The fact this record is broken symbolises his broken career.
The cut we see to Cash in prison shows the dark moments in his life and everything that helped to build up the character he became. After his time in prison he enjoyed to visit prisons everywhere and perform to the prisoners as he didn't agree with the justice system. Many people will have different opinions on this however i think as a whole this puts Cash in a good light and whilst showing the wrong he's done in his life he's also looking back on the people he has done right by. Another part of the video that sheds some light on his story is the light being turned on in a room in which he keeps all of his merchandise. This shows there is still light and life in his career and possessions despite all of the bad that's happened, there have been many good aspects to his life.
The way in which Cash is sat before a wide table of food has a very symbolic message. The large quantity of food symbolises his wealth and greed and how he has nobody to share it with. I believe this has a very religious link and message perhaps linking with the last song, the last supper? The way in which he pours the wine onto the table signifys the blood of Christ and how he is giving Christ all of his possesions, belongings and wealth as he know longer wants it.
The lighting throughout the video remains dark. This is most likely due to the strong emotion throughout the video and represents the dark place that Johnny Cash is in. A lot of synthetic lighting is used also to dramatise scenes such as the scene where Cash is playing the piano and there is a bright orange light in the background to represent a sunset.
In terms of camera angles, we see a varied range of that support the mood of the video. Many close ups are used throughout the video in order to show Cash's emotions as this emphasises the lyrics and depth of meaning. We see an extreme close up of Cash and silhouettes showing his old age and therefore his long life. The wrinkles on his face show tiredness emphasising his struggle to fight against all he has done wrong and his tiredness of feeling the way he does. Many pans are used throughout the video. The pans show the scene thoroughly and make the audience feel a part of the scene as they are seeing more than one area of a location. For example, Cash's empty museum is panned to show in depth how empty the room has become with his career now becoming non existent.
Half way through the video there is a cut to Cash in prison, this shows his struggles in life giving the song lyrics meaning. Johnny Cash spent a lot of time performing in Prisons as he didn't agree with the justice system and knew first hand what it was like. The abrupt cuts create a build up of dark moments and memories telling only part of Cash's story, towards the end of the video the cuts become very fast paced and we see a build up of moments in his life and then a sudden stop to show his life has past in fast motion and now he is where he is today.
The video doesn't involve much editing.
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