The style of the song and video is Rock mixed with a western style or ‘cattle punk film’. The cinematic western video type is reflected in the style of the music, such as the horse neighs that are already in the song, which fits with the style of the video. It is made out to be like a film with the characters, titles and strong, story-telling narrative. There is obvious but slightly ironic clichéd cinematic western iconography, as the narrative of the video is a slight parody with the shots and the images and mix of technology and old western.
Pastiche - The video references many films
throughout and it parodies most of them. There is reference to Star Wars as
there is a sci-fi bar, robots in the desert, lasers, the hero becoming more
powerful through mystical things. As well as reference to general cheesy 1970’s
western films such as ‘Westworld’, which includes the same blend of future
technology in a western setting. The costume the hero wears at the end is
almost identical to that seen in the film ‘The Lone Ranger’. It references any
Kung-Fu movie with the opening of the video very clichéd and ironic with
serious yet purposely bad Martial arts and text telling the audience classic Kung-Fu
names.
The video features a the old west setting,
kung-fu, laser guns, laser blades, dirt-bikes, execution by hanging, androids
& robots, birds of prey, seduction, a holographic rock band, Communist
imagery, and a heroine in a Chainmail Bikini on a unicorn. It ends with the
hero using a CD to kill the corrupt sheriff, then riding into the sunset on a
motorcycle. It supports a lot of clichéd ironic iconography as well as
generally being very random yet entertaining, such as the wide shot zooming
into the Russian dolls and the man and woman are in bed and in the mirror you
can purposely see the film crew filming which is quite humorous.
The video supports many of the conventions of
a music video as suggested by Andrew Goodwin. The repeated motif throughout
Muse’s video would probably be their live performance and how it is separate
yet interweaved into the plot of the video. There is also the idea that a music
video is sticking to the conventions of the genre as rock music will commonly
have live performance from the band. The video also has intertextual references
to western films as the whole video is basically a short film. There is also
use of voyeurism as the only female in the video is used as the damsel in
distress and is seen as purposely sexual such as the clothing that she wears
and when she is in a Bikini ridding on the unicorn, however this part could also
resemble female empowerment as the woman is helping the man as though she is
his ‘knight in shining armour’ which defies the hegemonic norms that a man has
to save a woman. The low camera angle looking up at her also suggests that she
is more powerful that him, despite this being an illusion and the fact that the
woman is actually about to be hanged and the man then has to save her, which
conforms to the hegemonic norms. The video also has a clear relationship with
the music and visual which is very common such as the horse neighs with the
western narrative and the lyrics ‘you and I must fight for our rights’ are mouthed
by the female at the end and the male throughout as well as the lyrics ‘no
one’s gonna take me alive’ which is mouthed by the hero when he is at his
‘defeated’ stage when in the stocks before her later rises up to save the day.
In terms of consumerism, the whole video is
centred around Muse’s CD, which the hero finds, and uses to defeat the villain
at the end. It is very much promoting the Song/album in a deliberately obvious
and sarcastic way. It subtextually implies that it is a good idea to buy the
CD, however it is aware that it is sending this message so it is done in a very
ironic way especially as the woman gives the man the Cd when she is on the
unicorn so that he can save the day. Furthermore, the blatant product placement
shows self-awareness in the video, it is not harmful to the message of the
video as there is not particularly a message apart from the hero defeats the
villain because the whole narrative and style is so sarcastic it dilutes the
concept of having a strong message.
Lura Mulvey’s male gaze is defiantly present
and represented in this video as the woman is seen as sexual and the man is
seen as heroic. It both challenges and conforms for societies hegemonic norm
with regards to the oppression of women. It supports Claude Levi-Straus’ theory
of every narrative having good vs evil or some sort of binary opposition which
is clear in this video as there is villain and hero and at the end the villain wear
black to connotate evil and the hero wears white to connotate good. The video
also supports Vladamir Propp’s theory that there is a universal 8 roles in a narrative
such as hero, villain, princess, helper etc of which are virtually all
represented within this video.
