The music video for Frankie goes to Hollywood's Two Tribes was released in the summer of 1984 and is an anti-war song released during the height of the 2nd era of the Cold War. The video was first played on MTV in June of that year and was described as 'the most confrontational piece of Cold War media since Dr. Strangelove'.
The music video starts off with a narrator talking over a loud speaker warning of an air attack and what the attack noise sounds like. This is a simple foreshadowing of the violence that ensues very soon in the video. The camera then pans down and once it does, it is now clear to us where we are; in an arena with an audience looking directly at the loud speakers. where a fight is about to happen. As soon as we realise that we're in an arena, the music goes from 'creepy-sounding' to loud and intense. This helps us feel ready and prepared for the inevitable onslaught. The arena that we finally get a full glimpse at, isn't something like a boxing arena (or anything that we'd expect). Instead it looks more like a gladiator arena than boxing arena which tells us that this match is going to be gritty and tough for those who fight in it. Then the music changes from intense to the start of the actual song , and once this happens the audience start looking around at each other, placing bets on who is going to win, and cheering on both fighters. The people in the audience all come from different backgrounds and cultures, the reason for this is explained later but this tells us at that moment that everyone is watching this clash. Finally with the first hit of the Gong (in the song) we finally know who the first fighter is; that being Konstantin Chernenko, who at the time of the music video's release was the leader of the Soviet Union. After his introduction, another gong strikes and cuts to the next fighter who is non other than Ronald Reagan, who was president of the U.S at the time of the music videos release. It is now clear to us that this music video is about the Cold War and the ideological battle being fought between both the U.S and the U.S.S.R in a literal fight. The lead singer of Frankie Goes To Hollywood (Holly Johnson) appears as the commentator in the music video and its very clear because he sings the the first two words of the song which are "lets go". It is obvious that Holly is telling both Reagan and Chernenko to get on with it and spar.
The Spar starts off with P.O.V. shots of both Chernenko and Reagan which are similar camera shots used in Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull released a few years before the music video's release. The film puts the audience in the ring with the protagonist (Jake La Motta) which is exactly what Two Tribes does. In the music video, the fight is very even between the 2 fighters, but there are moments where one of the leaders gets the upper hand. This is reflective of the Cold War, and how some moments in time, one of the nations has had the upper hand over the other. An example of this was after the Cuban Missile Crisis and how the U.S. were seen a strong, contrast to the U.S.S.R looking weak. The U.S have also been seen on the weaker side, like during the Vietnam war. This is reflective in the video were both leaders throw successful punches, crab each others crotches, and biting each others ears. The camera throughout most of the rest of the video is focused on the centre of the 'ring' because that is what the media focused on during this time. The only time the camera pans to the audience/other nations is to get a reaction, which is also reflective of the media and how the media revolves around the world. The commentator (the lead singer) also constantly appears every once and again to give his take on the fight, and most of the time after he gives his opinion, it cuts back to the crowd to give us an incite of how the commentators opinion fuelled their reaction.
Near the end of the fight when other audience members/other nations run into the ring, Reagan and Chernenko stop fighting each other and start looking around at what they caused this is because they're the leading superpowers of the world and the tiniest thing they do could lead to the end of the world. Then, accompanying the final five rapid-fire notes of Two Tribes, Reagan’s face cuts to a long shot of the whole fight scene, then cuts to the United Nations building, then a map of the U.S., then the globe, and then, on the song’s final note, the world explodes. The ending can be seen as both hilarious and terrifying depending on what you think. To me this ending is horrifying because it just shows that one selfless action by just one of these nations could lead to the destruction of our planet as we know it.
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