music video analysis of 'the kill'

The music video of which i have decided to analyse would be 'The Kill' by 30 Seconds To Mars. the song was released as the second single from their second album 'A Beautiful Lie.' when the song was released the song was entitled 'The Kill (Bury Me).' The video is said to be completely based around the popular film 'The Shining', with many of the scenes from the video being the bands own version of the scenes from the film. The genre of which the type of music would seem to belong to would be the 'rock/punk rock' genre, being a mixture of both i feel. The video was claimed by the lead singer Jared Leto to have been directed by an Albino Danish man named Bartholomew Cubbins, this was intended as a joke as Cubbins was a fictional character in the book 'The 500 Hats Of Bartholomew Cubbins' however when the music video is aired on music channels Cubbins is still given credit for directing the video, which according to Kerrang is the greatest ever rock video, after being voted as the number 1 rock video by download festival attendees. To prove that this was not just a one off stroke of luck the band also claimed second place in the same chart with their video for the song 'From Yesterday'

The lyrics from the song basically describe what is happening at that point within the video. the lyrics also help the band to get the main theme of the song accross to their audience, and that theme is that of 'confronting your fear and confronting the truth about who you really are' according to Jared Leto. Although be it at some points the lyrics contradict the video, for example at the start of the video Jared Leto says to the rest of the band 'we will be here for three days' but yet after the first chorus has finished there is a cut to a black background with words in a white colour saying accross the screen 'one week later'. the lyrics really go well with the second verse as is in the video Shannon Leto (drummer) enters 'room 2277' of which as the band arrive at the front desk of the hotel there is a note saying not to enter that room, and the lyrics sung as this scene is taking place are as follows 'you say you wanted more, what are you waiting for, i'm not running from you' after these lines are sung the band member enters the room. each of the band members has there own little evernt in which they run into a clone of themselves wearing a tuxedo. at the 2:05 mark within the video there is a reference to the lyrics and also another reference to The Shining as on the paper that Jared Leto has been typewriting on there are the words written over and over again 'this is who i really am' which is a line uttered repeatedly through out the song. The music alos relates to the video rather well, as the video starts off with the band exploring the hotel and with this the music seems quite relaxed and also quite intriguing as if they were exploring something. and when each band member has their own apparition, the music picks up as it hits the chorus, although the beat changes when Jared Leto has his apparition and also when Tomo Milicevic (guitarist) has his apparition the music completely stops and it goes quiet, this maybe as this part of the video is a bit shocking. Each band member has a close up of themselves just before their apparition seems to take place, just so the viewers can know which one of the two clones is meant to be the real one who started off the week when visiting the hotel. There are also many close ups of the and each playing their diffrent instrumnets within each chorus, be it a mysterious look that each of them give, but this adds to the mysterious feel of the video and makes it, what i feel to be one of the best videos in recent years.
I get the feeling that there isnt really much time within the video that either of the band members are on sexual display, although i do feel that due to the fact that each of the band members are pictured wearing a tuxedo, that there is atleast some bit of the band on sexual display, there arent really any reference to looking within this video.

As i have mentioned beforehand there is an intertextual reference to the film 'The Shining' this was even claimed by the band, there are many ways in which the video has an intertextual reference with the film as i have mentioned before.one of which would be the words written on the paper which has been written on the typewriter 'this is who i really am' when in the film The Shining the words that Jack Nicholson types on his typewriter are 'all work and no play makes jack a dull boy' over and over in the same sense. another reference to the The Shining would be when Shannon Leto enters room 2277 and encounters the woman in the bathroom, both the film and this video culminate in an elegant bathrooom.

unfortunately i cannot get a copy of this video uploaded so i will do the same for two more songs, this time with the video uploaded